On October 12, starting at 12:30, the Opening Symposium of the Amsterdam Centre for World Food Studies (ACWFS) will take place in Room 1E-24 at the Vrije Universiteit of Amsterdam. Participation is by invitation only. 

The symposium will bring together a broad audience from academics, policy making, civil society, ACWFS partner organizations, and other interested parties. This occasion will mark the start of the ACWFS, an interdisciplinary institute at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam with faculties working together on food and nutrition security issues.

The symposium is also an occasion to celebrate a long tradition of food and nutrition security research at the Vrije Universiteit, which started with the foundation of the Stichting Onderzoek Wereldvoedselvoorziening (SOW) in 1977 as an institutional embedding of the Club of Rome research group on “Food for a doubling world population”. The mission of the ACWFS is to conduct interdisciplinary research in collaboration with societal stakeholders and end-users in order to enhance food & nutrition security by identifying policies and strategies that are economically, socially and environmentally sustainable, and increase the quality of life. Please consult the Centre’s website https://acwfs.vu.nl/en/index.aspx  for additional information on research programs/projects, educational activities and current research associates.

For the occasion of the opening symposium,  two keynote speakers will focus on the topic ‘Policy and Research for Food and Nutrition Security in the 21th Century‘.

• Gerda Verburg, Coordinator of the Scaling Up Nutrition (SUN) Movement and Assistant Secretary-General of the United Nations, will give the first keynote address.
• Next, Professor Tim Lang, Professor of Food Policy, Centre for Food Policy, City University of London and the first ‘Food Professor’ of the UK, will give the second keynote address.

Subsequently, the ACWFS will be officially opened by Prof. dr. Vinod Subramaniam, the Rector Magnificus of the Vrije Universiteit, with Paul van de Logt, Head Food and Nutrition Security of Inclusive Green Growth Department, Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

After the official opening, Prof. dr. Huanguang Qiu of Renmin University will address the major 21^st century food and nutrition security challenges from a Chinese perspective, followed by a presentation of the ACWFS mission and research foci and a panel session. Drinks will be at 5.15 pm.

For the full program, click here.