Information for Research Participants

What is the research project called?

DECIDE – Digital Equitable Circular Food Systems

Who is carrying out the research?

Professor Anne Touboulic, Dr Lucy McCarthy, Dr Jenna Bowen, Dr Anshuman Chutani, Professor Ruzanna Chitchyan, Dr Ursula Davis, Dr Daniel Enriquez-Hidalgo, Dr Martin Flintham, Professor Murray Lark, Dr Baraa Alabdulwahab, Dr Zakary Diakité, Lara Deniz, Divya Sasi, Leifan Lei, Theresa Castle Green, Thanh Nhan Luong

Funded by EPSRC

What is the research about?

This project aims to co-create a digital hub solution to enable a UK circular food system in the context of the apple supply chain. An interdisciplinary academic team (computer, operations management, agricultural, environmental and social sciences) working with industry experts, SMEs and third-sector organisations from the food sector. The project partners are representative of the communities we have engaged with along the supply chain (i.e. farmers, cider makers, surplus redistributors, food banks, agricultural experts). Our overarching aim translates into the following objectives:

The Hub will be co-created and delivered with its community of users by increasing user engagement and decision-making. Digital inclusivity underpins the Hub, this means working with farmers to develop user-friendly digital solutions and give them agency to make data-driven decisions. The Hub and its digital platform will connect less powerful players in UK food supply chains, provide new routes to access fresh fruit and vegetables and create new economic opportunities. It will support a transition to the circular economy in several other ways. The project will produce scalable solutions that can be applied to other UK produce. It can be extended horizontally (e.g. raspberry seeds are already used in cosmetics production) and vertically (e.g. apple waste as input for future proteins i.e. insects) creating new industry in the UK. It will contribute to the UK’s net zero and biodiversity targets and help guide policy to increase the resilience of UK food supply chains.

What groups of people have been asked to take part, and why?

We are inviting people who are involved in UK apple and the wider agri-food supply chains to take part in the research. This includes but is not limited to farmers, artisan food and drink producers, retailers, social supermarkets, procurement teams, university catering and students. We are inviting people across these groups to ensure that our research is relevant across the UK agri-food supply chain. We are particularly interested in engaging famers, primary producers and other groups of people that are often marginalised in research conversations.

What will research participants be asked to do?

If you decide to participate in the study you will be asked to use The Orchard Plus digital platform.

Use of the platform may involve:

• Creating an account and a profile on the platform
• Participating in online discussions using the platform
• Sharing your knowledge and information with other users of the platform
• Performing transactions, supporting logistics, receiving and giving fund, receiving and distributing apples to UoB catered halls, staff and local charities. It may also involve using the platform to redistribute surplus apples

What will happen to the information I provide?

We will follow ethical and legal practice and all information about you will be handled in confidence.

Information that you add to your Orchard Plus profile will be visible to other users of the platform and to members of the research team. The Orchard Plus digital platform captures information about how it is used. If you join the study, the data collected for the study will be looked at by authorised persons from the University of Nottingham and the University of Bristol who are organising the research. They may also be looked at by authorised people to check that the study is being carried out correctly. All will have a duty of confidentiality to you as a research participant, and we will do our best to meet this duty.

All information which is collected about you during the course of the research, beyond what you share via The Orchard Plus, will be kept strictly confidential and secured within the University of Nottingham/University of Bristol. Any information about you which leaves the University will have your name and address removed (anonymised) and a unique code will be used so that you cannot be recognised from it. Anonymised data may also be stored in data archives for future researchers interested in this area.

Information that you share via The Orchard Plus, or that is captured by the platform that might identify you is protected using strict privacy-by-design standards: Data Encryption: All personal and business data is fully encrypted at the database level, with encryption keys securely isolated in environment variables. Data in Transit: All connections use HTTPS, ensuring data remains encrypted while traveling across the internet. Right to Be Forgotten: If a user requested to delete their account, their personal details are permanently wiped from the system, and their past activity is completely anonymised to leave no trace of their identity.

Any personal data that you share via The Orchard Plus (address, telephone number) or that is captured by the platform, will be kept for 7 years after the end of the study so that we are able to contact you about the findings of the study and possible follow-up studies (unless you advise us that you do not wish to be contacted). All identifiable research data will be kept securely for 7 years. After this time your data will be disposed of securely. During this time all precautions will be taken by all those involved to maintain your confidentiality, only members of the research team will have access to your personal data

Should your use of The Orchard Plus disclose anything to us which we feel puts you or anyone else at any risk, we may feel it necessary to report this to the appropriate persons.

What will be the outputs of the research?

The results of the research will be written into academic outputs including conference papers and presentations and journal articles which will be published under open access and made available through the University of Nottingham/University of Bristol repository. The results will also inform practitioner and industry reports, these will be shared directly to participants were relevant. Unless you have given specific permissions to be identified, you will not be identified in any report/publication.

Contact details

Withdrawal

You have the right to withdraw from the research at any time without explanation. You also have the right to request that your data be deleted if you do withdraw. Please note that once we begin amalgamating and writing up the study findings we may not be able to remove (all) your data so we cannot guarantee that we will be able to fulfil a request to withdraw. Please use the contact details above should you wish to withdraw.

Complaint procedure

If you wish to complain about the way in which the research is being conducted or have any concerns about the research then in the first instance please contact Dr Anne Touboulic or Dr Ursula Davis.

Or contact the School’s Research Ethics Officer/Governance Teams if you wish to make a complaint or raise any concerns with this research to an independent contact: