What DRG4FOOD does

DRG4FOOD is an EU-funded research project under the Horizon Europe programme that ran from December 2022 to November 2025. Its objective was to establish trust in a data-driven food system by implementing Digital Responsibility Goals (DRGs) — a set of seven guiding principles designed to make responsible behaviour in the digital world visible, specifically adapted for the food sector. The project was coordinated by Kai Hermsen and delivered a portfolio of artefacts including a Digital Responsibility Roadmap for policymakers, businesses, and civil society, a Playbook of actionable implementation guidelines, and a portfolio of eight funded pilot projects (ATTESTED, Cacao-Tech, NutriWell, SafeNutriKids, PINACLE, DISH, GENIE, NutriSight) covering food traceability, targeted nutrition, and consumer food choices.

The project operated as a grant-funded coordination and dissemination platform rather than a commercial entity. Its core "technology" is a normative framework — the 7 DRGs — together with the Roadmap and Playbook that operationalise values such as responsibility, privacy, openness, sovereignty, fairness, and trust in food data systems. Distribution of its €1.9 million budget was executed through two structured Open Calls directed at researchers, start-ups, and SMEs developing ethical digital food solutions; recipients also received mentorship and access to a technology stack. The project concluded with a joint Final Conference in Brussels in October 2025 alongside the sister project FOODITY, and is part of the broader Data4Food Cluster that also includes FoodDataQuest and SOSFood.

DRG4FOOD does not sell products or services, does not have a commercial revenue model, and was funded entirely by the European Union through Horizon Europe. Its target "customers" are better understood as ecosystem participants: researchers and academia building trustworthy data-driven food systems, start-ups and SMEs seeking funding and mentorship, policymakers seeking guidance on digital responsibility in food policy, and citizens engaged through awareness outputs such as a Digital Food Podcast, comic book, and newsletter. The operating jurisdiction is Belgium (Brussels), and the project formally concluded in late 2025 after a planned three-year term.

Name

DRG4FOOD

Legal name

DRG4FOOD

Website

https://drg4food.eu

Company type

Private

Founded year

2022

Operating status

Operating

Short description

DRG4FOOD is a concluded EU Horizon Europe research project (2022–2025) that built and disseminated Digital Responsibility Goals, a Roadmap, a Playbook, and eight funded pilot projects to advance ethical, data-driven food systems for researchers, SMEs, policymakers, and citizens.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Food Technology Research

NAICS

Scientific Research and Development Services (5417)

SIC

Services-Commercial Physical & Biological Research (8731)

akta.pro primary industry

Results-Based Financing (RBF) & Performance-Based Grants (BPADAOAF)

Keywords

• Digital responsibility frameworks
• Food traceability research
• Data-driven food systems
• Ethical food technology
• EU research funding

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Technology or R&D, Marketing or Sales, Operations, Others

Revenue model

1. EU Research Funding: This is an EU-funded research project (Horizon Europe) that does not generate commercial revenue. The project distributes cascade funding to third-party beneficiaries through open calls.

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels1 record

Marketing channels9 records

Core offering

DRG4FOOD is an EU-funded research project (Horizon Europe) that develops and promotes Digital Responsibility Goals (DRGs) for the food sector. It delivers a strategic Digital Responsibility Roadmap, a DRG Playbook, and a portfolio of 8 pilot projects covering food traceability, targeted nutrition, and consumer food choices, while distributing €1.9M in cascade funding through two open calls to support researchers, start-ups, and SMEs developing ethical digital food solutions.

Product overview

DRG4FOOD is an EU-funded project that serves as a coordination platform for digital food solutions. The project provides a comprehensive ecosystem consisting of: (1) a Digital Responsibility Roadmap that guides ethical data practices in food technology, (2) a Digital Responsibility Playbook with actionable guidelines for tech development, (3) a portfolio of 8 funded pilot projects covering food traceability, targeted nutrition, and consumer food choices, and (4) supporting resources including a podcast, comic book, and practice abstracts. The core offering is the framework of 7 Digital Responsibility Goals (DRGs) that promote and operationalize values such as responsibility, privacy, and user sovereignty in data-driven food systems.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• DRG4FOOD Pilot Project Portfolio
• Digital Responsibility Roadmap
• Digital Responsibility Playbook
• Digital Responsibility Goals (DRGs)

Quantifiable outcome

• 8 digital food innovations delivered focused on food traceability, targeted nutrition, and consumer food choices
• +1 more outcomes

Segments4 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature3 records

Partnerships

Four partnerships are on record, tiered core and minor.

• FOODITYcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerEU-funded sister project focused on building a vibrant European ecosystem of digital solutions for healthier, more sustainable food systems. Through a €2M pilot development programme, FOODITY supports 12 innovative data-driven projects. The two projects collaborated on a joint Final Conference in Brussels, October 2025.
• FoodDataQuestminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerPart of the Data4Food Cluster focused on revolutionizing the EU food system through a data-driven framework integrating novel public and private data sources, leveraging AI and machine learning.
• SOSFoodminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerPart of the Data4Food Cluster focused on accelerating the green transition of food systems using AI-based technologies with a multi-factorial, multi-actor and multi-scale approach.
• Data4Food ClustercoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerCollaborative ecosystem of four ambitious EU-funded projects (DRG4FOOD, FOODITY, FoodDataQuest, SOSFood) dedicated to revolutionizing the food system through digital solutions that respect individuals' rights to personal data sovereignty.

Scale indicators4 records

Recent moves5 records

Expansion highlights3 records

Emerging players

• FoodSHIFT2030: Horizon 2020 project developing citizen-driven food system innovations across European cities. Comparable EU project mobilization of SMEs, researchers, and citizens, though focused on food system transformation broadly rather than data ethics.
• EFFECTIVE: Another Horizon Europe food-sector project focused on consumer engagement and healthy diets through digital tools. Comparable EU project structure and food-data intersection, though with a nutrition/consumer angle rather than digital responsibility.

Direct peers

• FoodDataQuest: Data4Food Cluster partner with a similar Horizon Europe mandate to develop a data-driven framework integrating novel public/private data sources using AI/ML. Directly comparable in scope, funding source, and food-tech focus.
• SOSFood: Cluster partner under Data4Food focused on accelerating the green transition of food systems through multi-factorial, multi-actor AI-based approaches. Same funder, similar consortium model, and adjacent thematic focus.
• FOODITY: EU Horizon Europe sister project under the Data4Food Cluster with an overlapping €2M pilot programme (12 funded data-driven food projects). Directly comparable funding structure, target beneficiaries, and joint final conference, making it the closest peer to DRG4FOOD.

Broad incumbents

• European Digital Innovation Hubs Network (EDIH): EU-wide network under the Digital Europe Programme providing digital transformation services to SMEs and public sector. Comparable role as EU-funded intermediary distributing capacity-building support, but with much broader digital remit beyond food.
• SmartAgriHubs: Large Horizon 2020 EU project that built a network of Digital Innovation Hubs for agri-food digitalization. Comparable coordinator role, public funding, and stakeholder mobilization, though focused upstream on agri-tech rather than downstream food-data ethics.
• EIT Food: Largest EU-funded food innovation ecosystem with multi-year programmes, venture support, and consumer engagement. Comparable mandate to accelerate trusted, sustainable food systems through public funding, but at a much broader scale than DRG4FOOD.

Others

• German Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture (BMEL) Research Funding: National-level public funder of food-tech innovation programmes and research projects. Comparable as a public grantmaking/funding-distribution entity for the food-tech ecosystem, though at a national rather than pan-European scale.

Regional players

• Innovate UK Food Innovation: UK national funding body running food innovation competitions and grants analogous to DRG4FOOD's open calls. Comparable mechanism (cascade funding to food-tech start-ups) but operating in a UK regulatory context rather than EU Horizon Europe.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat3 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• Xtwitter.com/SciFoodHealth
• YouTubeyoutube.com/@SciFoodHealth
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/scifoodhealth

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles1 record

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

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M&A

Investments1 record

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about DRG4FOOD