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SCHOOL Faculty of Management University of Warsaw COLLABORATING TO FEED INNOVATION IN THE FOOD INDUSTRY
COUNTRY Poland
T he Faculty of Management at the University of Warsaw is one of six institutions offering a master’s in food systems (MFS) from EIT Food, an initiative of the European Institute of Innovation and Technology aimed at driving transformation in the food industry. Recently, the latest cohort came together in Barcelona for the programme’s annual entrepreneurship summer school. Participants worked on new product concepts and commercialisation models in a range of areas, including eco-friendly packaging, high-protein insect flour and sustainable, locally produced snacks. The MFS is a two-year programme focused on innovation and the commercialisation of solutions within the food sector. Its six partner schools offer various study paths based on their expertise. For example, the University of Warsaw’s Faculty of Management currently offers pathways around food innovation management, with foci that include circular food systems and public health and nutrition. Participants each have a home institution and undertake terms at two of the remaining five institutions. Four cohorts have already completed the MFS, with 37 graduating from the programme last year. Among its alumni are those working in research and development, quality control, product development and as entrepreneurs in the food start-up space. TBD
STUDY SHOWS HOW CITIZENS EVALUATE SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH PROPOSALS
science crowdfunding platform, experiment.com and then assess it based on three core criteria: scientific merit, social impact and the perceived ability of the research team to deliver on the project. The researchers found that when making their final funding decisions, participants weighed social impact and scientific merit almost equally, while team qualifications played a smaller but still important role. “Our findings challenge the simplistic idea that non-scientists only care about feel-good impacts,” noted ESMT’s Henry Sauermann, co-author of the study. “People care whether the science is solid and the researchers are credible, even if they also prioritise relevance to real‑world problems.” The choice of evaluation mechanism strongly influenced who participated. Crowdfunding, which required participants to contribute their own money, gave greater voice to more affluent and educated individuals. The recommendation mechanism, in contrast, enabled broader and more inclusive engagement. The study was published in Research Policy . CD
SCHOOL ESMT Berlin COUNTRY Germany
ew research by ESMT Berlin and Politecnico di Milano exploring how non‑experts
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assess scientific research proposals has revealed significant implications for public participation in science funding. The study shows that while citizens value both social impact and scientific merit, their judgments can be shaped by personal interests, income and education. In the study, more than 2,300 citizen evaluators assessed four real research proposals using both a recommendation mechanism (advising a funding agency) and a crowdfunding mechanism (donating their own money). The proposals covered diverse topics including Covid-19 drug discovery, Alzheimer’s and economic preferences across demographic groups. Each participant was asked to read a research proposal from the
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Business Impact • ISSUE 4 • 2025
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