"The project will deliver a coherent and innovative evaluation of competitiveness of European food chains by integrating various new approaches. Based on this, the research results allows to deduce a congruent, coherent and consistent set of policy recommendations aiming at improving competitiveness and promoting the Knowledge Based Bio-Economy in Europe.The analysis is conducted along two lines, (1) conception and indicators of competitiveness and (2) its determinants. In the first part a comprehensive definition of competitiveness will be developed by integrating the finding from selected theoretical micro and macro approaches. In this respect the conventional conception will be extended by moving from the industry to the value chain perspective and considering commodities as well as intermediary and final products. This framework constitutes the basis for the empirical analysis, where the EU position on world markets will be discussed in relation to that of major competitors.The second part deals with selected determinants of competitiveness. These include policy intervention and business environment, productivity in agriculture and food processing, the functioning of domestic and international markets, the choice of governance structures as well as innovative activities in food processing. The investigation of each determinant will be innovative and extends the state of the art by deepening the theoretical backgrounds, extending the methodological approaches or applying empirical methods for the first time. The analysis of the determinants will contribute significantly to be better and deeper understanding of competitiveness and the deduction of policy recommendations.Research will be conducted by a team that was constituted according to the needs of the research project. Each partner is a designated expert in his/her area of research. Past co-operations among partners assure that all tasks will be arranged target-oriented in due time."