We are The Zero-Waste Company, creators of OH, a potato!, the first AI-native food waste reduction app designed to support EU-wide household sustainability goals. Our app currently helps 30,000+ households reduce food waste through gamified meal planning, fridge scanning, and recipe suggestions powered by multimodal AI.
We are now seeking academic collaborators - ideally with expertise in behavioural science, HCI, sustainability, or AI - to co-design and execute a research study that validates the effectiveness and impact of our next-generation technology: LocalChoir, a privacy-preserving, on-device orchestration layer that dynamically adapts meal planning to reduce food waste.
The goal is to independently confirm that our technology has reached TRL6 through:
Controlled field trials or pilots
Validation of food waste reduction, behavioural change, and engagement
Standardised measurement protocols and reproducibility across contexts
Co-authored publications and potential Horizon Europe collaboration
This project is directly aligned with the EU’s food waste reduction mandate (30% reduction by 2030), the revised Waste Framework Directive, and SDG 12.3 (halving global food waste per capita). It’s a high-impact opportunity for researchers who want to contribute to measurable climate action at household scale.
Access to anonymised real-world user data and support for publication are provided. We welcome PhD candidates and postdoctoral researchers across relevant disciplines.
