The meal sector faces two central challenges: the sustainable transition and strengthened food preparedness. PLATE Research centre for resilient meals, addresses both through a systems perspective. Through interdisciplinary research and collaboration with key actors from the public sector, industry and civil society, PLATE explores the barriers, opportunities and solutions for a resilient meal sector.

PLATE is coordinated from the Stockholm Resilience Centre at Stockholm University, in collaboration with researchers from the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU), the KTH Royal Institute of Technology, the Beijer Institute of Ecological Economics at the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, Örebro University and the University of Gävle, together with a range of partners from the public, private and non-profit sectors in Sweden.

The foundation of the work is the PLATE Principles, which are being developed to increase knowledge and enable change in how we plan, prepare and eat our meals – with a focus on sustainability, health and preparedness.

PLATE's focus is on the meal sector within restaurants, hotels, meals in schools and elderly care, as well as larger events within music and sport.

The research is carried out within five work packages:

• Workpackage 1 Meals and ingredients
• Workpackage 2 People and food
• Workpackage 3 Supplier chains and distribution
• Workpackage 4 The system’s competitiveness
• Workpackage 5 The challenges of transformation

Stockholm University was awarded funding from Formas research council for the period 2024–2028 to establish PLATE, with the possibility of an extension.