How might your project help to ensure food security, sustainability or competitiveness in agriculture, fisheries or food production?

Check out this list of questions to get you thinking about your project, inspire some research, and help you decide what question or problem you might want to investigate.

Brainstorming project ideas:

Crops & Livestock

• How can we grow food more sustainably (using less water, fertilizer, or pesticides)?
• How can we better protect agricultural soil from erosion, loss of nutrients, pollution, etc.?
• What natural solutions might protect plants from pests or diseases?
• How could we change the way livestock is raised to improve their health, living conditions, growth, environmental impact, etc.?

Fisheries & Oceans

• How can we make fishing safer for the environment and fish populations?
• What could help reduce plastic or pollution that harms fish and fresh or saltwater ecosystems?
• How could technology help monitor fish health or track fish populations more effectively?

Food Quality & Nutrition

• If you could improve one food that people eat every day, what would you change (e.g. taste, nutrition, shelf life)?
• How could packaging be redesigned to be safer, more sustainable, or more effective?
• How do different cooking or storage methods change the nutrients in food?
• What are some traditional ways of preparing food that might have been overlooked or forgotten? Are there benefits to these methods?

Sustainability & Waste

• What can be done with food scraps or leftovers to prevent waste?
• How can we keep food fresher for longer to reduce waste?
• How could composting or recycling food waste be made easier or more effective?
• Imagine you’re a farmer who wants to reduce their environmental footprint. What technology or system could you invent?
• How can we help communities with limited resources access healthy food?

Remember

Start by picking a topic or idea that sparks your curiosity. Then think about whether you could discover (test an idea through an experiment, research or survey) or innovate (design a new solution) around that problem. Learn more about the difference between Discovery and Innovation projects here.