By: Luminita Ciolacu and Sofia Reis,
From: ISEKI-Food Association, Austria
Over the past years, the WASTELESS project has demonstrated how coordinated communication, stakeholder engagement, and knowledge sharing can accelerate progress toward reducing food loss and waste (FLW) across Europe’s food systems. By combining digital outreach, scientific dissemination, collaborative networking, and practical training initiatives, the project reached an estimated audience of more than 600,000 people in English and several national languages.
A Strong Communication Ecosystem
From the beginning, WASTELESS established a dynamic communication framework around its website, social media channels, publications, events, and stakeholder engagement activities to connect policymakers, researchers, civil society, private sector, and the general public. One of the project’s most important achievements was the WASTELESS Community of Practice (CoP), dedicated to FLW prevention and reduction across the entire food supply chain, with more than 200 registered members and 47 experts willing to contribute knowledge and experience.
Knowledge Sharing Through the Sustainable Food System Innovation Platform
To ensure sustainability of results, WASTELESS used the Sustainable Food Systems Innovation Platform as its main online knowledge-sharing environment and acted as a platform managing project. All project outputs were uploaded to the platform, including case studies, practice abstracts, innovations, and publications.
Investing in Capacity Building
WASTELESS established a dedicated training space on the IFA e-learning platform which hosts the WASTELESS training programme and remains openly accessible to registered users. It is tailored to different target groups: Schools (Teacher Resource Pack to support secondary school education on FLW prevention), FLW Researchers (training activities in a train-the-trainer format, focusing on the use and application of FLW measurement tools) and Working Adults (an e-learning course created on the Moodle platform using flexible microlearning sessions).
Dissemination Results that Matter
The project’s dissemination activities strengthened visibility and collaboration within Europe’s sustainable food systems community. Key achievements include dissemination activities of project partners and in collaboration with similar projects, participation in national and European events and organisation of project events, publications in scientific and technical magazine, practice abstracts, videos, newsletters, news for press, radio, and television.
Ensuring a Lasting Legacy
A defining strength of WASTELESS was its integrated, multichannel communication approach combined with strong collaboration among project partners, networks, and EU-funded initiatives. The project ensured that its impact would continue beyond its end. All results will remain active and accessible, supporting future dissemination, replication, and exploitation activities. By translating research into practical tools, stakeholder engagement, and accessible learning resources, WASTELESS has made a meaningful contribution to advancing FLW reduction across Europe. The project stands as a strong example of how collaboration, communication, and community-building can transform research results into lasting societal impact.