About UP-RISE

Project Overview

UP-RISE is an international project providing groundbreaking knowledge to understand mycotoxin contamination and to deliver solutions in Africa, strengthening African Food Safety Systems.

Launched in January 2024, and awarded an European Horizon grant, it focuses on five target African Union (AU) Member States: -Benin, Côte d’Ivoire, Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa. These countries are responding to the challenge of reducing food contaminants, mycotoxins in particular, in order to strive for a greater food safety and fewer food-borne diseases.

UP-RISE will provide new knowledge for understanding mycotoxin contamination in the informal sector, prediction of mycotoxin contamination, improving risk assessment tools to strengthen regulatory frameworks, and developing innovative tools for reducing mycotoxin contamination in fermented food value chains, thereby aiming for safe food systems for all.

Our Objectives

UP-RISE foresees a large engagement with local stakeholders at every stage of the project by bringing together five building blocks for knowledge generation and implementation:

Roadmaps for quality culture and informal sector integration
Strengthening regulatory frameworks by empowering
both formal and informal sectors
Early Warning Systems
to prevent mycotoxin contamination and adapt to climate change
Innovative microbiome-based solutions
to reduce mycotoxins
Co-creation, training, and mentoring:
Training Hubs and Accelerator Platform

UP-RISE will showcase its co-created solutions through demonstrations of representative fermented food product value chains, for maize, millet, sorghum, and milk. These solutions will be implemented in ten business cases of SMEs in the target AU member states.

Work Packages

WP1. Co-design and implement best practices to improve food safety and develop a quality culture

To better understand the current organisation and food safety practices of the sector;
To establish a baseline for each case study;
To co-create and implement technical and organisational innovations to develop safe food products;
To evaluate and provide recommendations to maximise impact; and
To provide content for training and policy briefs in collaboration with WP5.

WP2. Regulatory and incentive systems for mycotoxin control in the informal and formal sectors

To generate evidence and develop models for regulatory enforcement of mycotoxins and market incentives;
To improve capacity for food safety health risk assessment including long-term risks of mycotoxins; and
To provide content for training and policy briefs in collaboration with WP5.
WP3. Adapting to climate change with monitoring and early warning systems for mycotoxins
To gather knowledge on the main focus mycotoxins and related producing fungi in maize, sorghum and millet crops and milk in Africa in food safety management systems;
To develop an early warning system for mycotoxin contamination in selected African food-crops in a perspective of climate change;
To contribute to a microbial collection of toxigenic fungi in Europe and in Africa for food safety; and
To provide content for training and policy briefs in collaboration with WP5.

WP3. Adapting to climate change with monitoring and early warning systems for mycotoxins

To gather knowledge on the main focus mycotoxins and related producing fungi in maize, sorghum and millet crops and milk in Africa in food safety management systems;
To develop an early warning system for mycotoxin contamination in selected African food-crops in a perspective of climate change;
To contribute to a microbial collection of toxigenic fungi in Europe and in Africa for food safety; and
To provide content for training and policy briefs in collaboration with WP5.

WP4. Innovative microbiome-based solutions for mycotoxin reduction and safer foods

To characterise fermentation processes of 5 widely consumed African fermented products based on cereals or milk in relation to mycotoxin occurrence and selection of at least 3 food models for process optimization;
To explore and characterise microbiomes from fermented foods to select strains/consortia suitable for fermentation and with potential effect on mycotoxin reduction;
To optimise a microbiome-based protocol (fermentation and complementary approaches) as an applicable solution to mitigate mycotoxin contamination of each traditional African fermented food model;
To characterise and assess safety and quality of the optimised food prototypes of the fermented food models; and
To provide content for training and policy briefs in collaboration with WP5.

WP5. Dissemination, exploitation and communication measures for a safe Africa Food Safety Strategy (AFSS)

To develop a PDEC, that sets out strategic communication and dissemination measures and activities as well as an exploitation strategy with a timeline, monitoring plan and evaluation criteria (indicators);
To develop and carry out dissemination activities including communication measures, related to UP-RISE visual identity, development of communication and dissemination materials/tools/channels for the target audiences;
To develop and carry out exploitation activities related to the development and management of IPR, the use of training modules, standardisation, further research, and the exploitation of project results;
To maximise the dissemination of results and outputs through training, networking, joint activities, and linkage to existing initiatives and networks; and
Support co-creation, mentoring and social innovation.

WP6. Coordination and Project Management

To ensure smooth and transparent implementation of UP-RISE; to monitor the progress according to the project objectives and work plan, and to guarantee that related deliverables are produced on time;
To ensure efficient liaison with the European Commission and with related projects and initiatives on HORIZON-CL6-2023- FARM2FORK-01 (New detection methods on products derived from new genomic techniques for traceability, transparency and innovation in the food system);
To enable adequate coordination and communication between the WPs and between the consortium and EAB;
To install mechanisms to identify, assess and manage administrative and technical risks and ethical issues; and
To safeguard appropriate data management and compliance of the project with the EC’s Open Access policy.

WP7. Ethics compliance

To ensure compliance with the ethics requirements needed to perform all tasks in UP-RISE.

Accelerator Platform

In fostering collaboration and knowledge sharing, UP-RISE will strive for bridging the gap between all the actors and stakeholders in the selected value chains in Africa by setting up a sustainable Accelerator Platform.

The Accelerator Platform is now operational and is composed of African multi-actors involved in co-creation and validation processes such as Food Safety Authorities, consumer organisations, farmer organisations, mentoring organisations, trade organisations, other projects and rapid test-kit providers.

All AU food systems actors are invited to join, promoting ongoing collaboration to strengthen African Food Safety Systems.

Get in touch with our project coordinators: [email protected] and [email protected] in order to join UP-RISE Accelerator Platform.