FOODWISE Kreislauforientierte Ernährungsentscheidungen in den Alltag integrieren FOODWISE is a European innovation project designed to accelerate the transition to circular food systems by closing the gap between environmental awareness and actual consumption behaviour. Bringing together 13 partners from six European countries, the project combines behavioural science, social innovation, business transformation, policy expertise, and digital tools. Its ambition is to empower citizens, small and medium-sized enterprises, retailers, municipalities, and policymakers to adopt and scale circular practices that reduce food waste and create environmental, economic, and societal value. What’s the FOODWISE approach? The project follows a clear pathway from insight to impact. First, FOODWISE will map consumption patterns, emotional and cognitive drivers, and circularity gaps across diverse European contexts. This evidence base will feed into practical resources such as the Consumption Pattern Atlas, the Circular Retail Playbook, the SME Circularity Toolkit, the Citizen Engagement Toolkit, and a Circularity Impact Dashboard. These outputs are designed not only to describe the transition, but to help actors implement it in real-world settings. Die Rolle des CSCP The CSCP will play a central role in translating behavioural insight into practical action. As lead for the work package The Conscious Aisle: Retail & Service Innovation, the CSCP will guide the work on retail diagnostics, behaviour mapping, and on co-designing interventions to be implemented in retail and service environments. Drawing on its Think and Do approach, the CSCP will work with retail partners in Portugal and the Czech Republic to analyse current practices, operational flows, consumer uptake, food waste levels, markdowns, donations, and existing circularity initiatives. This diagnostic work will be combined with behavioural analysis, including the COM-B model, to identify where interventions can make the greatest difference. Drawing on expertise from 12 previous food waste projects These interventions will be guided by earlier work, e.g. the VALUMICS consumer choice framework und the 8-step intervention logic from CHORIZO; their monitoring and evaluation are integrated from the outset, tracking behavioural shifts and operational KPIs using the ECFWF framework. This matters because circular food systems cannot be built through information campaigns alone. Citizens may value sustainability, but behaviour is shaped by the environments in which choices are made: what is visible, affordable, trusted, convenient, socially accepted, and emotionally engaging. By using behavioural intelligence, storytelling and co-design, FOODWISE aims to help retailers move from broad sustainability ambitions to targeted interventions that can be tested, measured, and scaled. The Conscious Aisle The “Conscious Aisle” reimagines supermarkets as platforms for circular consumption. In practice, this could mean testing shelf labelling, product placement, loyalty incentives, digital prompts, pricing mechanisms, or storytelling campaigns that make circular choices more visible and appealing. These interventions will be tailored to different retail and cultural contexts and tested in live environments with partners including MC, MCH, and Tesco. Monitoring and evaluation will be embedded from the start, combining operational data such as waste reduction, uptake rates, and cost-benefit information with behavioural indicators such as consumer barriers, motivation, and value-action alignment. How the project aims to support wider uptake? By developing replication playbooks, policy recommendations, governance blueprints, and a digital impact dashboard, the project aims to support wider uptake across regions and sectors. In Germany, this outreach will include approaching the signatories of the Pact Against Food Waste, achieved in a Dialogforum moderated by the CSCP. Its approach is grounded in inclusion, open science, gender analysis, and stakeholder engagement, ensuring that circular food systems are not only more sustainable, but also fairer and more accessible. By connecting citizens, retailers, SMEs, municipalities, and policymakers, the project will create practical pathways for reducing food waste, strengthening circular consumption, and supporting EU policy objectives including the Circular Economy Action Plan, the Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation, and the European Green Deal.