Open Ideo Food Systems Game Changers Lab 2021

Application Deadline: May 14, 2021

Throughout late 2020 and early 2021, food systems experts and organizations in support of the UN Food Systems Summit called forward potential game-changing solutions from stakeholders around the world that could create systemic change to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030. The Global Open Call opens the doors for you to join this global community of food systems solvers and be part of a movement. For those who have already engaged in the Summit’s activities, it’s a way to build on your participation and access the Food Systems Game Changers Lab benefits. 

If selected for the Food Systems Game Changers Lab, you’ll gain access to the knowledge and experience of people like you, eager to advance solutions to food systems challenges. You’ll also gain access to customized curricula that will help you build partnerships, deepen your systems mindset, and monitor systems change efforts. Your involvement could result in new resources, feedback, collaborators, and partnerships to move your ideas further. 

Requirements

There are several qualities that will be crucial throughout the Food Systems Game Changers Lab. We’re looking for individuals, teams, and organizations who have ideas, innovations, or initiatives that could contribute to a better food future for everyone, everywhere. We’re looking for people who think systemically about feasible actions, which can be sustained over time and would shift the capacity of food systems to advance global goals for people, planet, and prosperity. We’re also looking for people who have the passion, grit, collaborative spirit, and determination required to take their solutions forward in partnership with others. 

No matter how you’re involved with food—whether you provide, distribute, study, invent, or consume it; advocate for, invest in, make policy around, write about, or design for it—you’re invited to be part of the action. And part of the solution.

Specifically, we hope to engage participants representing all of the following categories and more:

• Farmers, Ranchers, Herders, Fish and Seafood Producers 
• Food Distributors
• Food Preparers
• Food Consumers
• Food Worker Unions
• Food Start-ups & Food Entrepreneurs
• Chefs and Restaurant Workers
• Civil Society/Non-Profit Organizations
• Universities 
• Food Researchers
• Students
• Climate and Environmental Researchers and Advocates
• Food Justice & Food Sovereignty Advocates
• Food Banks
• Human Rights Specialists
• Grassroots Activists 
• Public Institutions 
• Data Scientists, AI Specialists, Software Engineers, Coders
• Designers, Storytellers, Artists, and Creatives 
• Scientists 
• Social Entrepreneurs
• Consumer Groups/Organizations
• Technology Companies 
• Investors
• Companies of all shapes and sizes, from production to consumption and back
• UN Member State Officials
• City Officials

The Opportunity:

The Food Systems Game Changers Lab: Global Open Call opens the doors for you to join a global community of food systems solvers, and be part of a movement. 

If selected for the Food Systems Game Changers Lab, you’ll gain access to the knowledge and experience of people like you, eager to advance solutions to food systems challenges—and have the opportunity to bring your solutions to the global stage. 

You’ll gain access to customized curricula that will help you build partnerships, deepen your systems mindset, and monitor systems change efforts. As part of a cohort of people, teams, and organizations with complementary solutions, your ideas will be featured in a flagship publication, and you’ll be able to put your solution forward for matching with potential implementation partners or investors at the time of the Summit. Your involvement could result in new resources, feedback, collaborators, and partnerships to move your ideas further. 

Being selected for Phase 2 of the Food Systems Game Changers Lab directly following this Global Open Call gives you access to:

• Tailored mentorship and expertise 
• Others with similar solution types (e.g., digital technology, financial innovation, behavior change)
• Others with similar impact goals (e.g., improved diets)
• Systems thinking curricula, tools, and experts
• Inclusion in a flagship publication 
• Prospective investors and implementing partners like national and city-based governments, etc.

For More Information:

Visit the Official Webpage of the Open Ideo Food Systems Game Changers Lab