NewTools: a novel collaboration across the Norwegian food system with the aim of developing tools for food system transformation.

Objective: The NewTools project aims to support the transformation of the food system by developing summary scores for the nutritional value and environmental and social sustainability of foods and exploring potential applications. In this conceptual paper, we present the governance, objectives, conceptualisation and expected outcomes of the NewTools project.

Design: A cross-sector research partnership involving actors across the Norwegian food system.

Setting: The need to transform food systems both globally, regionally and nationally.

Participants: A broad constellation of twenty-eight project partners includes research institutions, governmental agencies, food industry and Non-governmental organization (NGO).

Expected results: Outputs from the project will include the development and testing of a score for nutritional quality using the European Nutri-Score version 2023 as a starting point, identifying of indicators to measure social and environmental sustainability, proposing weighting of these into one or several summary scores, pilots testing potential applications of use for the scores and protocols for relevant spin-off projects.

Conclusion: The multitude of perspectives represented by this unique variety of partners is seen as valuable to better understand the opportunities and limitations of the proposed tools designed to foster transformations towards a more resilient and sustainable food system.