FoodLab Sydney

FoodLab Sydney is an ARC funded food business incubator that takes an evidence-based approach to measuring the social change of our participants and our food system. This makes the program quite different from incubators around the world who may not have the means to focus on data collection, analysis, and evaluation.

The program’s rigorous evaluation methods are carried out by academic researchers who measure a number of different impact areas through multiple data collection points. These impact areas include: food business education, startups, community leadership, empowerment, financial resilience and community networks.

Based on the experiences and learnings of the highly successful FoodLab Detroit, the project is supported by the University of Sydney’s Sydney Environment Institute (SEI) and UNSW Canberra, in partnership with the City of Sydney, and TAFE NSW. The program is a unique example of a local government-community-university partnership, and the first of its kind for the City aimed at tackling the complex causes of food insecurity.

Contributors: Professor Alana Mann, Professor David Schlosberg, Jamie Loveday, Dr Kate Johnston, Catriona Mcmillan, Omar Elkharouf