How To Collaborate (FAQs)
What can you do with The Living Food Initiative?
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We welcome creative and interdisciplinary collaboration ideas, so even if you are still in the early stages of developing a project, please reach out! The Living Food Initiative supports research and collaborative projects at many stages, from early concept development and grant writing to project execution, data analysis, interpretation, and publication.
We also contribute to curriculum and educational program development surrounding fermentation, the microbiome, food systems, and multi-OMICs datasets. In addition, we collaborate with small businesses, chefs, food and beverage producers, farmers and growers, farmers markets, and agricultural or community-based organizations on workshops, event programming, science communication, and marketing initiatives.
What type or research do you support?
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We support both qualitative and quantitative research approaches, including interdisciplinary and community-based research models where participants may also serve as active collaborators in the research process. Current expertise includes focus groups, one-on-one interviews, participatory research approaches, and creative methodologies such as photovoice.
We also support statistical analysis of both parametric and non-parametric datasets, with data analysis and visualization conducted primarily in R. Microbiome datasets are analyzed using QIIME2 workflows, and transcriptomic and other multi-OMICs datasets are also supported depending on project scope and collaboration needs.
How are the collaborations funded?
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Funding structures vary depending on the scope and nature of the collaboration. Current collaborations may include hourly consulting, project-based consulting or subcontract work, grant-funded research support, or limited proposal development prior to funding.
The Living Food Initiative currently operates as an LLC and is actively exploring future nonprofit or hybrid organizational models as the initiative continues to grow. In addition to collaborative project work, workshops, public programming, and educational events help support the initiative, along with direct community donations and partnerships.
How can I find current events or workshops?
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All of our events and workshops open to the public will be listed on the Living Food Conversations page. If no events are listed, that means we are working on organizing events and will list them as soon as they are available.