Lineage Food Chain Innovation Challenge

Postharvest food waste poses a significant global challenge, affecting food security, quality, and market access. Particularly in developing and emerging regions, the absence of affordable and scalable solutions accelerates this issue, resulting in the loss of valuable food resources that could nourish millions.

During Lineage’s Food Chain Innovation Challenge, participants will present their innovative technologies or data solutions that address postharvest food waste, considering its multifaceted impact on communities and economies.

Themes

• Participants are encouraged to focus their solutions on one of the following themes:
  • Reducing food waste
    • Technologies and strategies to minimize postharvest food waste across the supply chain, from farm to market, considering factors such as storage, transportation, and distribution.
  • Innovative food preservation techniques
    • Novel methods or devices for preserving food freshness and quality, extending shelf life, and reducing spoilage, especially in resource-constrained environments.
  • Access to nutritious food
    • Design solutions to improve access to nutritious food in underserved areas by addressing challenges such as food distribution logistics, affordability, and availability of fresh produce.
  • Data-driven insights and analytics
    • Utilize data analytics, IoT devices, and other technologies to gather insights into food supply chains, identify areas of waste, and optimize resource allocation for maximum efficiency.

Why participate?

• Lineage’s Food Chain Innovation Challenge provides a unique opportunity for participating teams to:
  • Connect: Network with industry professionals, mentors and fellow participants from around the world.
  • Learn: Experts in the food and logistics fields will be on site to provide real-time feedback and guidance to teams to help them develop their proposals.
  • Get Funded: The team with the winning entry selected by the judges in each region will receive a cash prize. Each of the regional winners will then enter a final round of global judging, competing for additional prize money and exclusive access to an executive-led incubator program organized by Lineage.
  • Create Impact: Make a difference by addressing real-world issues and contributing to a sustainable future.

Eligibility Criteria

• Participants: Open to students and entrepreneurs of all ages, genders, backgrounds, geographies and industries. Individuals or teams can participate.
  • There are no country restrictions, but entrants must be eligible to receive prizes (if they win) and it is their responsibility to pay any taxes on the prize winnings.
• Business stage: The competition is open to startups and early-stage companies.
• Compliance: All entries must comply with local business regulations and laws.
• Each team will be given 5 minutes to set up and prepare their presentation materials on the day of the event.
• Each team will have 5 minutes to pitch their idea to the panel, followed by a 5-minute Q&A session with the judges.

Judging Criteria

• The judges will grade each presentation based on a rubric with the following criteria:
  • Explanation of problem and challenge
  • Clarity of the proposed solution
  • Creativity of the proposed solution
  • Scalability of the proposed solution
  • Response to jury questions
  • Presentation skills
  • WOW Factor

For more information, visit Lineage.