©Sandy Snoeck
A Creathon is a ‘creative marathon’ and is best described as an interactive workshop that brings together talented students and young professionals from France, Belgium and the Netherlands. Participants come from different personal, professional and educational backgrounds and work together with an entrepreneurial approach to deliver innovative and realistic solutions, projects or prototypes related to the pre-formulated topic.
On May 2 to 4 and May 24 to 26, 28 young Europeans with different academic and professional backgrounds gathered in Wageningen and in Lille to participate in the Cross-Creathon 2023. The theme of this event was “Sustainable food: between decarbonation and resilience”.
During the first step in Wageningen, hosted by Wageningen University & Research, 6 teams were asked to brainstorm, share their ideas and come up with a first draft of a project. The second part in Lille, hosted by Polytech Lille, focused on project completion and fine-tuning.
During both parts of the event, participants were given the opportunity to meet with several professionals in the sustainable food sector.
During the event in Wageningen, participants had the opportunity to meet with Kapser Hettinga, professor « Dairy processing & Functionality » in the chair group « Food Quality & Design » and Corjan Van den Berg, Growth Officer and co-founder of Revyve. Revyve is a company that specializes in creating ingredients from single-cell proteins using a groundbreaking process that unlocks exceptional functionalities, such as heat-set gelling, emulsification, and more.
During the event in Lille, participants had the opportunity to visit Fives Cail. The visit included a guided tour including various facilities within Chaud Bouillon, such as le Foodcourt, la Cuisine Commune, la Ferme Urbaine, and la Cuisine Professionnelle. Participants gained valuable insights into these spaces and their role in promoting sustainable food practices. In addition, where a visit wasn’t possible due to a tight agenda, the participants were presented with a series of other projects and initiatives taking place in Lille; this includes for example the Food Lad in Polytech, a space for culinary preparation and experimentation with professionnal equipement that values initiative spirits, and Barasoup’, Distribution of 100% plant-based solidarity soups on Lille’s university campuses.
COACHES
Throughout the event, the participants worked under the guidance of three experts:
JURY
This event was concluded by a presentation of the projects in the form of pitches to a jury of professionals on Friday May 26 in Lille. Thanks you to our jury for their participation and their professional view of the 6 projects :
©Gabriela Vargas Tellez – MEL/Light Motiv
Midnight Munchies
The winners of 2023 are the Midnight Munchies team. A project based on Vending machine offering inexpensive, saved, ready to eat meals from local businesses. This project was praised by the members of the jury, and each member of the winning team won a mobility grant of €400, as well as support and guidance to make this project come to life in Lille, in Belgium and the Netherlands. Congratulations to them and to all the teams !
©Université de Lille
The Networking event that took place at Sciences Po Lille, with the central theme of “sustainable food: from farm to fork”, brought the 2023 edition of the Créathon to a successful close. The evening welcomed professionals from France, Belgium and The Netherlands who shared their opinions and experiences.
The evening started with a roundtable, led by Arelis Ardiles and centered on ‘sustainable food : from fark to fork’, gathering together a diverse group of 4 individuals : Chiara Roticiani from Eurocities, Remi Verstraete from Euralimentaire, Sébastien Pérel from the European Council of Young Farmers and Jenneke Heising from Wageningen University and Research.
Following that, 8 projects leaders from Lille Metropolis took the stage to present their innovative sustainability food project : Tomogrow, Baloa, Super quinquin, Osiris, Bacao and Conserverie Ripaille.
To conclude the evening, a networking cocktail was organised allowing the guests and participants to bond.
©Gabriela Vargas Tellez – MEL/Light Motiv
Aso Contrat Claudia
Manuel Renee
Fraser Juliette
Abchir Liban
Addokwei Samuel
Coustenoble Eline
Ariola Apple
Derks Maarten
Pessers Ralph
Favoreel Mattias
Dodeman Louise
Nectoux Alexia
Ganta Anvesh
Jeucken Jaimy
Van Den Heuvel Tristan
We would like to express our sincere appreciation to Sjoukje Heimovaara, President of the Executive Board of Wageningen University & Research, for her opening speech at the Creathon 2023 in Wageningen and for taking the time to meet all the participants. We would also like to extend our thanks to Rio Pals, Manager of Student Challenges at Wageningen University & Research, for her invaluable assistance in organising the Creathon 2023 in Wageningen.
Our sincere appreciation also goes to Polytech Lille, especially to Alice Rochex, Senior Lecturer and manager of Agri-food platform of Polytech Lille, for facillitating the organisation and good working conditions in Lille.
We would also like to thank Pierre Mathiot, Director of the Institute of Political Studies of Lille, for his opening speech at the Networking evening. Our appreciation also goes to Patrick Mardellat, Director of International Relations, and his team for organising, facilitating and welcoming us in Sciences Po Lille.
To conclude, thank you to all involved partners as well as organisers for makinjg the event a success.
