AgSphere and EIT Food link Canada and Europe to accelerate agri-food innovation

AgSphere, a Canadian agri-food innovation hub, has partnered with EIT Food to strengthen collaboration between Canada and Europe’s agri-food sectors, creating a new pathway for Canadian start-ups to access European markets, investment, and industry networks.

The cross-border partnership aims to accelerate food and agri-innovation through start-up exchanges, training programs, and cross-border collaboration.

As the food industry faces growing pressure to improve sustainability, food security, and supply chain resilience, the initiative is designed to help innovators bring new technologies and solutions to market faster in both regions.

From start-up to scale

Connecting early-stage food start-ups with established European industry players can speed up the path from innovation to adoption, giving Canadian companies access to large buyers, advanced production systems, and established regulatory and distribution networks. It also expands investment opportunities and helps technologies scale beyond domestic markets.

AgSphere says the partnership will begin with a Canadian delegation attending EIT Food’s Next Bite event in Warsaw, Poland, in October. The organization is currently inviting agri-food start-ups interested in expanding into European markets to apply to join the program.

Chris Paterson, AgSphere executive director, says the partnership with EIT Food “opens up a world of possibilities for Canadian agri-food innovators to access European resources,” while Canada brings strong agricultural expertise and capabilities that can be shared with European partners.

“EIT Food has a proven model for sector collaboration that we can learn from, to help strengthen our own ecosystem here at home.”

“We’re hitting the ground running on our partnership with EIT Food by assembling a cohort for our first start-up trip this fall. The EU is not only a major market for agri-food products, but it’s also home to sector innovators that we want to help start-ups build relationships with.”

Addressing structural and innovation gaps

Patricia Willems-Mawenu, senior manager, Strategic Collaborations, Global & Multi-stakeholder at EIT Food, explains how the global food system is facing a combination of structural and innovation gaps.

“The most critical ones are the fragmentation between regions and ecosystems, which limits the scaling of solutions internationally, and a gap between early-stage innovation and real-world deployment, particularly in agriculture and food production. Also, there is a slow adoption of sustainable practices, despite strong scientific and technological advances,” she tells Food Ingredients First.

“This Canada–Europe partnership directly addresses these gaps by connecting two highly complementary ecosystems. By linking Canada’s agricultural strengths with Europe’s innovation infrastructure, we are creating a pathway for solutions to move faster from idea to global impact.”

“We are particularly excited about innovations that can drive systemic change across the food value chain, rather than isolated improvements.”

Key areas include protein diversification, helping shift toward more sustainable diets, agri-tech, and precision farming, which improves productivity while reducing environmental impact, and food biotech and ingredient innovation, which unlocks new ways to produce food more efficiently.

“What excites us most is not just individual technologies, but how these innovations can be combined and scaled through collaboration across regions,” says Willems-Mawenu.

She stresses how the partnership is designed to bridge the “valley of death” in food innovation. In practical terms, it will provide training and skills development, helping start-ups refine business and scaling strategies, and enable cross-border pilots and demonstrations, which are critical for adoption in agriculture, processing, and retail.

“By embedding start-ups directly into real industry environments, we significantly increase their chances of achieving commercial adoption,” she says.

“The future lies in structured collaboration models where both sides co-develop, test, and scale innovations together. Partnerships like this one are a clear example of how we can move from siloed innovation to connected ecosystems that deliver real, system-wide change, making food more sustainable, accessible, secure, and transparent.”

Food system pressures

Recent EIT Food research highlights the key challenges facing future food. One study found broad industry support for a shift toward a more circular, diversified protein system, but warned that Europe is currently off track to deliver it.

Separate research conducted with ingredients supplier Puratos found that consumers increasingly expect food products to deliver both health and indulgence, rather than choosing between the two.

Taken together, the findings underscore the pressure on the food industry to accelerate innovation — a challenge partnerships like AgSphere and EIT Food aim to address through closer international collaboration.