Skip to main content

About the Project

The project „COwWEL“ aims to investigate food vulnerability, well-being, and sustainable food consumption. It focuses on socioeconomically disadvantaged groups, who have been underrepresented in research on healthy and sustainable nutrition. These groups are disproportionately affected by the consequences of unhealthy diets and food poverty and face difficulties accessing high-quality food, particularly due to the price increases of recent years.

Goals of the Project

The COwWEL project aims to develop strategies that promote healthy and sustainable consumption habits, especially in vulnerable groups. In collaboration with the base project „COwLEARNING for sustainable beef and dairy supply“, pathways to more inclusive food systems will be identified.

Citizen Researchers

People from vulnerable groups are actively involved as citizen scientists (CS, more information about the concept of Citizen Science and current Austria-wide projects can be found on the following website: https://www.citizen-science.at/).

The CS examine conditions that hinder or support healthy and sustainable nutrition in their groups. In addition to affordability and availability, a particular focus is placed on attitudes toward animals and concepts of animal well-being, as these can influence consumption behaviour. To date, little is known about these connections in people living in vulnerable circumstances.

Cooperation Partners and Target Groups

The project is carried out in collaboration between Vetmeduni Vienna and BOKU with Caritas Stadtteilarbeit (https://www.caritas-stadtteilarbeit.at/), ensuring regular contact with the citizen researchers. The focus is on individuals from three vulnerable groups: Austrians with low income, Ukrainians, and Syrians or persons from other Arab countries.

Workshops and Activities

First Workshop (Summer 2025):
Citizen scientists discuss their own experiences with sustainable nutrition, generate hypotheses together, and develop initial steps for creating a questionnaire as a survey tool.

Questionnaire Development (Summer – Autumn 2025):
Based on the first workshop and with feedback from the CS, a questionnaire is developed to identify factors that promote or hinder healthy and sustainable food consumption in vulnerable groups. The questionnaire is translated into the native languages of the CS.

Surveys (Winter 2025/26):
After training and with ongoing support from the COwWEL project team, the CS survey members of their respective groups. This is partly conducted during cooking events in the community kitchen of Caritas Community Cooking.

Second Workshop (Summer 2026):
The results of the questionnaires are discussed with the involvement of relevant actors in the Vienna food system, such as trade and government, and strategies are developed. Based on this, information material tailored to the target groups is created and distributed.

Project Leadership and Team

The project is led by Prof. Susanne Waiblinger of the Vetmeduni Vienna, with Anna Rademann also involved in the project. From BOKU, Prof. Marianne Penker contributes her expertise to the project, and Dr. Christina Gugerell acts as the interface to the CS at the cooperation partner “Caritas neighbourhood work”. The project is further supported by Martin Gerstl from the Vienna Food Council and founding member of the cooperative ‚Morgenrot,‘ as well as Dr. Christiane Grill from the Open Innovation in Science Centre of the Ludwig Boltzmann Society in Vienna and Dr. Elisabeth Unterfrauner from the Centre for Social Innovation.

Contact

For further information about the COwWEL project, please contact us using the details below:

Ao. Prof. Susanne Waiblinger, susanne.waiblinger@vetmeduni.ac.at
Tzt. Anna Rademann, anna.rademann@vetmeduni.ac.at

Center for Animal Nutrition and Animal Welfare Sciences
University of Veterinary Medicine Vienna
Veterinaerplatz 1
1210 Vienna

 

 

 

Kooperationspartner des Projektes COwLEARNING: