New Strategies for Food Emergency Preparedness
2.5 Million Euros in Project Financing from National Security Research Program of Federal Government
№ 249/2012 from Sep 06, 2012
As part of the security research program of the federal government, the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research has allocated 2.5 million euros for the project "New Strategies for Food Emergency Preparedness." The three-year project is part of the government’s "Securing Food and Food Supply Chains" program. Protection against the loss or impairment of so-called critical infrastructures is a major component of German national security policy. The research project is headed by the computer science professor Dr. Jochen Schiller at Freie Universität Berlin.
The aim of the project is to develop new strategies for nutrition emergency preparedness in cooperation with the relevant stakeholders, i.e., with companies in the food chain, policy makers, and the general public. The research focuses around the question: How can the food supply be maintained even in times of crisis? The goal is to develop action guides, training concepts, and an IT application for area maps and exchange of information.
The consortium partners of Freie Universität Berlin (Institute of Computer Science/Institute for Media and Communication Studies) are the German Federal Office of Civil Protection and Disaster Assistance, Technische Hochschule Wildau, Tengelmann Warenhandelsgesellschaft KG, Münster University of Applied Sciences, the German Red Cross, DOCXCELLENCE GmbH, and Nations Health Career School of Management. Other partners supporting the project as consultants are the German Federal Office of Agriculture and Food, the Berlin Senate Department for the Interior and Sports, the Ministry of the Interior of Brandenburg, La nouvelle Boulangerie Backwaren- und -technik Vertriebs GmbH, the Mittelelbe GmbH dairies, Schober Transport GmbH, and Krüger GmbH & Co. KG. Professor Dr. Christoph Gusy of Bielefeld University and Professor Dr. Wolf Dombrowsky of Steinbeis-Hochschule Berlin are also involved in the project. It was set up at the initiative of Tengelmann Warenhandelsgesellschaft KG in cooperation with the Research Forum on Public Safety and Security based at Freie Universität Berlin.