All countries

Austria

Coordination Center for Sustainable Food Systems

Austria's Coordination Center for Sustainable Food Systems is an example of a dedicated unit focusing on food system policy coordination, placed within a technical agency. Its experience shows how such an institution can link sectors, pool expertise and build relationships beyond government, even without formal decision-making power.

Institutional set-up and structure

The Coordination Center for Sustainable Food Systems was established in 2023 within the Austrian Agency for Health and Food Safety (AGES) to coordinate food system governance across three ministries: agriculture, health and environment. Following the 2025 merger of the environment portfolio into the agriculture ministry, it now works with two: the Federal Ministry of Social Affairs, Health, Care and Consumer Protection and the Federal Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, Regions and Water Management. A three-person core team carries out the work. It is supported by a Strategic Steering Committee of heads of units and a smaller Operational Committee drawn from ministry contact points. The Centre's location shapes how it works. Because it sits outside the ministries, it is not tied to any one sector's interests, so it can broker across them. Being hosted by AGES also gives it direct access to the agency's scientific and technical expertise.

Mandate and decision-making power

The Centre's mandate is to provide technical and administrative support for sustainable food system transformation, to support coordination of system change, and to support policy development. It was originally also meant to have a compliance role under the forthcoming EU Sustainable Food Systems framework, but this did not happen. The Centre advises only. It prepares recommendations for the responsible minister and works to an annual programme agreed with the two ministries. This work programme is a key coordinating tool, because it sets shared priorities across the participating sectors rather than leaving each ministry to pursue its own agenda.

The Centre carries the following roles (building blocks):

  • Agenda setting: advocacy and dialogue

  • Policy formulation and decision making: providing technical advice; coordinating policy development

Who is involved

  • Government: the Federal Ministry of Social Affairs, Health, Care and Consumer Protection and the Federal Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, Regions and Water Management (and, until the 2025 ministerial merger, the Federal Ministry of Environment)

  • Host agency: the Austrian Agency for Health and Food Safety

  • Expert bodies: pre-existing multisectoral commissions that the Centre works alongside, including the National Nutrition Commission in the health ministry. The Commission's members include ministries, universities, chambers and non-governmental organisations, so it gives the Centre access to a wide pool of expertise beyond government.

  • Non-government actors: researchers and sectoral experts, convened through a standing food systems network of some 200–300 state and non-state stakeholders, built by the Centre

How it works in practice

  • The core team and the Operational Steering committee meet weekly with ministry contact points

  • The Strategic Steering Committee meets quarterly

  • The team meets heads of division once or twice a year

  • An annual conference on healthy and sustainable nutrition is held in September, with network events twice a year

  • An annual work programme and an annual report are submitted to the two ministries for approval

The Centre's convening role has also produced practical results. For example, it connected ministries and non-state actors to the Austrian Promotional Bank's food systems funding programme.

Evidence base: key informant interviews and policy documents, 2026. Last updated: September 2026.