Entrepreneurship and Innovation Center – Sustainability Group

Department

Department of Management and Production Engineering (DIGEP), Politecnico of Turin

Main research activities/topics/projects

 The Food Purchase Program (Programa de Aquisição de Alimentos, PAA), managed by the Brazilian social development ministry, is one of the largest institutional markets in the world. PAA has created ways to stimulate the practice of family farming through public procurement (i.e. hospitals, care homes, homeless shelters) and to promote access to food for populations at risk of food insecurity. 

 The program aimed at supporting the transistion of family farmers from substisence agriculture to commercial agriculture is currently falling short in achieveing its intended social outcome, largely due to the challenges faced by farmers to navigate the complex bureaucratic bidding process, unique to PAA, which involves five different supply options at the government-farmers interface. 

 The research, following a preliminary process mapping of the PAA program farmers-side and government-side, aims to support the development of the program in three main directions:

• Identify existing barriers to the participation of smallholder farmers to the program and provide suggestions to policy makers to update the PAA governance mechanism. 
• Explore the digitilasition opportunities to streamline the PAA process, primarily through a mobile phone App, and provide insights on the charachteristics of the technology to be developed to maximise its accessibility by users. 
• Develop a decision-support system for farmers to identify profitable supply options among the bids published within the PAA program. 

 Field of research: industrial engineering, management engineering and similar disciplines are the primary fields of research. Candidates from Computer Science and similar disciplines may be considered for O2. 

Working language

The working language is English

Special entry requirements

Previous experience on institutional markets is desirable.  Operational research skills required for O3.

Duration in months (min-max)

Master Research: 5 -6

Phd Sanswhich: 6 -12

Post Doc: 6 -12