Institute For The Future

IFTF Joins Food Innovation Graduate Program in Italy: Apply Today!

New program centers on entrepreneurship, food culture, and technology

See our field report from the program launch in March 2015!

IFTF is partnering with the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia and the Future Food Institute to launch the Food Innovation Program, a full-time master’s course from March-December 2015 (thesis work included) taught by distinguished international professors, opinion leaders, and entrepreneurs at the forefront of food and innovation.

A first for IFTF, the program builds on our forecast map, Seeds of Disruption: How Technology is Remaking the Future of Food, to directly engage students with urgent futures and the critical technologies that will help transcend limits of our global food web. With a mixture of IFTF's foresight training, design thinking, and the Reggio Emilia Approach, the course is a unique opportunity to combine long-term strategic foresight with both theory and learning-by-doing in the Officucina, the first hybrid kitchen and makerspace. 

Combining foresight with theory and hands-on experimentation

The accredited program includes two phases:

Theoretical phase: Taught at the new Food Innovation Space designed specifically for the program in central Reggio Emilia, this component includes an introduction to IFTF’s research methodologies and design thinking. IFTF will join renowned instructors such as Caleb Harper (MIT Media Lab's CityFARM) and Claude Fischler (Interdisciplinary Institute for Contemporary Anthropology) to provide frameworks, social context, and principles for food innovation. The space will also host inspirational public presentations from entrepreneurs, chefs, and more, creating an epicenter of ideas and exchanges for anyone thinking about the future of food.

Hands-on phase: Based in the Officucina, a new hybrid kitchen and makerspace that combines culinary tools with 3D printers, laser cutters, sensors, Arduino, and more, the hands-on phase connects students with the technologies and skills to prototype new products and services. Students will take part in innovation challenges and hackathons that will provide opportunities to exchange and build out their ideas with FabLab Reggio Emilia and a broader global community during Expo Milano 2015: Feeding the Planet, Energy for Life.

Home of renowned foods such as Parmigiano Reggiano and balsamic vinegar, international education and cultural centers, and innovative companies like Ferrari, Reggio Emilia and the surrounding region are a unique location for exploring the critical intersection of food, technology, and society. Sponsors of IFTF's Food Futures Lab will have the opportunity to engage with the program, Food Innovation Space, Officucina, and the Expo Milano during a research immersion in the area in May/June 2015. Contact Dawn Alva ([email protected]) to join us.

Want to participate?

• Apply for the program by February 6, 2015. Limited scholarships are available.
• Contact [email protected] to collaborate, partner, sponsor a scholarship, or explore other possibilities to support the program.
• Visit the program website for the most updated schedule of programming and events (starting in 2015).
• Sponsor IFTF's Food Futures Lab to support our ongoing research and join a research immersion in Reggio Emilia in May/June 2015. Contact Dawn Alva ([email protected]) to join us.

For more information

• For more information about the Food Innovation Program, please visit the program website or email [email protected].
• For more information about IFTF's Food Futures Lab, please contact Rebecca Chesney ([email protected]).
• View the press release.

About the organizers

Institute for the Future is an independent, non-profit strategic research group with over 45 years of forecasting experience based in Palo Alto, California. Our mission is to help organizations, communities, and individuals think systematically about the future. Our Food Futures Lab catalyzes transformative change by bringing foresight about emerging technologies, social behaviors, and scientific breakthroughs that will transform the global food web. We elevate urgent futures to align the minds, innovations, and resources shaping the future of food under a shared understanding of how to take the long-term view—one that encompasses multiple scales, levels of uncertainty, and radically different possible futures.

The University of Modena and Reggio Emilia (UNIMORE) is ranked among the top 8 universities in Italy for its high level of research. With over 19,000 students and 300 international exchange agreements and cooperation programs, it is composed of 14 Departments, and offers a wide range of degree programs. UNIMORE is located in the heart of one of Europe’s most dynamic regions, world-renowned for its production of mechanical parts, engines, sports cars (e.g. Ferrari and Maserati) as well as for its agro-food sector, ceramic tiles, and manufacturing industries. The Department of Sciences and Methods of Engineering combines academic excellence with real world experiences in innovation challenges and opportunities to work side by side with very innovative companies through the Design Thinking method, ensuring students the ability to acquire the necessary skills to become global innovation leaders.

The Future Food Institute is a global community of actors responsible for feeding and improving the world, expressing its positive impact through empowering local economic and cultural growth, creating job opportunities and making the world a healthier place. A spin-off of You Can Group, it is a non-profit organization that seeks to study, research and analyze new trends around the world while implementing and testing new solutions to help food system organizations plan and create a sustainable future for the betterment of people and the planet.