Transforming Food Systems for Resilience and Sustainability
Food systems sit at the heart of some of the most pressing challenges and opportunities facing people and the planet. By 2050, the world must nourish 10 billion people in ways that protect human health and restore the natural systems that make food possible.
Our current trajectory is not sustainable. Today’s food systems generate excessive waste, fail to provide equitable access to nutrition, and place unsustainable pressure on ecosystems. Addressing this requires innovation and a fundamental shift in how value chains operate, how organisations collaborate, and how leaders integrate nature into decision‑making.
The Transforming Food Systems for Resilience and Sustainability Lab convenes leaders who recognise that the food system requires fundamental reinvention, not merely incremental improvement. It brings together those working to redesign core business processes, reimagine value chains and move decisively beyond 'business as usual'.
- Format: 2-day residential programme
- Date: TBC
- Location: Cambridge
Across two days, we will adopt a whole-systems perspective to explore the most significant credible pathways, the shared barriers that are preventing these innovations from scaling. Leveraging perspectives from across the value chain, the cohort will then co-create practical, collaborative strategies for scaling innovations responsibly.
The Lab sits within CISL's wider word for the food system, which includes research on Renewable Food, work with corporate clients, and the Sustainable Food: Production and Processing online programme.
Who the programme is for
This programme is designed for professionals across the food value chain who want to take a systems‑based approach to transforming the relationship between food systems and nature. It is particularly relevant to those working in primary production, food and drink manufacturing, retail, procurement and sustainability, strategy, and innovation roles
Participants join a diverse cohort of peers who bring varied experiences and perspectives, helping build a shared understanding of the wider system and the role each actor plays within it. By completing this programme, participants will develop:
- A refreshed, systems‑based perspective on their role within the wider food system
- Guiding principles to inform decision‑making, prioritisation, and action across their organisation and value chain
- A deeper understanding of how food systems interact with nature, informed by perspectives across the value chain and innovations to improve this interaction
- The motivation, tools, and direction needed to catalyse transformative change in their sphere of influence
Topics explored in this Leadership Lab
Across the programme, participants explore current challenges and emerging solutions across food systems, such as:
- Regenerative practices and ecological restoration within food systems
- Emerging innovations to align food systems and nature
- How different actors can influence and accelerate systemic change at scale
- Biodiversity, soil health, water stewardship, and climate‑positive agriculture
- Integrating sustainability into product development, sourcing, and land stewardship strategies
The focus is on pinpointing and collectively dismantling the structural barriers - misaligned incentives, governance gaps, power imbalances - that no single organisation can remove acting alone.
Participants learn directly from CISL experts and guest contributors, taking part in facilitated discussions and practical activities across the programme.
Participants will leave with
- A shared understanding of the most significant credible pathways
- A map of structural barriers preventing these from scaling and collaborative strategies to overcome these
- Leadership skills to inspire systems transformation in their own organisations and value chain
Fees
Corporate/ Private sector
- Standard: £2,750
- CISL alumni or Platform member: £2,200
Not-for-profit
- NGOs, public sector or academia, developing countries: £1,925
Fees include accommodation and subsistence during the Lab, but excludes travel costs.
Visas
Candidates who do not hold a UK or Irish passport will need immigration permission in order to come to the UK and attend the Lab. Some candidates may already hold immigration permission for the UK, if not they can apply for/enter the UK on a visitor visa. Details of the relevant visitor visa can be found here. Once candidates accept an offer of a place on a Lab, and pay the course fee, CISL can provide a letter of confirmation to support a visa application, if required.
How to apply
Applications for this programme are now open. Submit your application or find out more about the selection criteria.
Contact us
To discuss whether this programme is right for you, please get in touch.