The new Horizon Europe project NutriLOC – Designing Sustainable, Locally Sourced Supplementary and Therapeutic Foods for Emergency Nutrition launched on 1 September 2026. Coordinated by the University of Helsinki, the €4 million project brings together partners from Africa and Europe to develop locally driven, sustainable and evidence-based approaches to preventing and treating child malnutrition.
At the heart of NutriLOC is the ambition to develop and scale up a new generation of therapeutic and supplementary foods based on locally available ingredients. The project will investigate ingredients such as spirulina and mycoprotein alongside locally sourced fish, legumes and cereals. By strengthening local production and supply chains, NutriLOC aims to combine better nutrition with stronger local economies and greater long-term self-reliance in malnutrition management.
From research results to sustainable local value chains
For EURICE, NutriLOC is particularly exciting because achieving this ambition requires much more than developing new food formulations. Research, local businesses, supply chains, stakeholders and policymakers need to be brought together so that promising solutions can ultimately be taken up and scaled.
“What stands out for us in NutriLOC is the strong link between excellent research and practical implementation. We are not only supporting an international consortium in working effectively together, but also helping to build the structures that can turn research results into sustainable local impact. The competitive call is a great example: it enables us to bring our experience in managing cascade funding directly to local businesses in Ghana, Sierra Leone and Kenya. Combined with our work on stakeholder engagement, intellectual asset management and the coordination of communication, dissemination and exploitation, this gives EURICE the opportunity to contribute along the entire pathway from research and innovation to uptake and impact,” highlights Léna Prochnow, Senior Research & Impact Manager at EURICE.
Connecting project, innovation and communication management
EURICE's contribution extends across the project lifecycle. From establishing effective collaborative workflows across an international and multidisciplinary consortium, to ensuring that communication and exploitation are closely connected to the project's wider stakeholder engagement and innovation activities.
Together, these roles make NutriLOC a particularly fitting addition to EURICE's Food & Nature innovation ecosystem portfolio: one in which project, innovation and communication management come together to help turn scientific advances into solutions that can be implemented within local food systems.
Further updates will follow soon as the NutriLOC consortium will come together for its official kick-off meeting on 2–3 October 2026 in Accra, Ghana, establishing the roadmap for the four-year collaboration.