UN academics attend international eco food supply chain workshop

Four academics from the University of Northampton recently visited Brazil, for the ‘Eco food supply chain: Exploring industrial ecosystems to minimize food waste and maximize social benefits’, workshop. The event was sponsored by the British Council and the National Council for State Funding Agencies.

The international workshop was organised and coordinated by Dr Luciano Batista from Northampton Business School, and mentored by Professor Margaret Bates at The Faculty of Science and Technology in the University of Northampton and Professor Michael Bourlakis, Head of Supply Chain Research Centre from Cranfield University. The workshop was also facilitated and led by Professor Ely Laureano Paiva, Dr Jose Carvalho and Dr Luciana Vieira from the Fundação Getulio Vargas (FGV), Sao Paulo, Brazil. The workshop was a part of British Council Researcher Links programme funded under the Newton Fund, and aimed at increasing the researcher mobility and promotion of new international collaborations, networks and projects.

In total, 20 researchers from the UK and 20 researchers from Brazil, from leading universities were chosen and invited to attend the workshop, including Dr Kurt and Payal Jain from the University of Northampton.

Payal Jain, PhD Researcher, from the University of Northampton’s Institute for Social Innovation and Impact (ISII) presented along with other leading researchers in a nationwide open call on the food supply chain – a research paper entitled: ‘Social Value Creation in the Food Industry: Perceptions of Stakeholders’ that focused on social value creation in the food supply chain. The UK Government’s Public Services (Social Value) Act (2012) was also discussed along with the potential impact and importance of the current study.

Speaking about the event, Payal commented:  “It was a great opportunity to visit and attend an international workshop on food supply chain on behalf of the University and the Institute for Social Innovation and Impact, and to meet so many committed leaders working towards making a lasting impact to improve food supply chains in the UK and Brazil, adding value to the society as a whole’. It is reassuring to see the engagement that the individuals had for value creation for the benefit of organisations and society.”

Dr Luciano Batista added: “The workshop was an excellent step towards the development of more concrete research collaboration initiatives with research active universities in the UK and Brazil. The research we are developing here in the area of eco supply chains is now known by leading universities in the UK and Brazil, placing ourselves into the mainstream of developments in the area. Further collaborations with researchers in the group are already being discussed.”

​Fellow researchers selected to attend the workshop from the UK included: Dr Aiduan Borrion (University College London), Dr Christopher Brewster (Aston University), Dr Donato Masi (University of Warwick), Dr Emel Aktas (Cranfield University), Mr Handson Pimenta (Cranfield University), Dr Jose Arturo Garza-Reyes (University of Derby), Mr Joshua Balmer (University of Central Lancashire), Dr Julia Tomei (University College London), Dr Kenisha Garnett (Cranfield University), Dr Kurt Liu (University of Northampton), Dr Liam Goucher (University of Sheffield), Dr Martine Barons (University of Warwick), Dr Mukesh Kumar (University of Cambridge), Dr Sonal Choudhary (University of Sheffield), Dr Vikas Kumar (University of the West of England) and Dr Ximena Rivera (University of Manchester).