EIT Food is a Knowledge and Innovation Community (KIC) supported by the European Institute for Innovation and Technology (EIT). EIT Food seeks to transform the way in which we produce, distribute and consume food throughout Europe to improve consumer confidence and health. It is a unique partnership of over 50 leading companies, universities, and scientific partners covering the entire food value chain.
The International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) is an international non-profit, non-political organisation which was founded in 1972. ICRISAT’s mission is ‘to reduce poverty, hunger, malnutrition and environmental degradation in the dryland tropics’. Its approach is to drive change through partnerships, enabling ICRISAT to help communities develop their own solutions. It is a CGIAR (formerly the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research) research centre and it leads on the CGIAR research programme on Grain Legumes and Dryland Cereals.
ICRISAT and Smart Food
Smart Food is a major initiative by ICRISAT, which contributes to addressing some of the largest global issues in unison: poor diets (malnutrition to obesity), environmental issues (climate change, water scarcity and environmental degradation), and rural poverty. It was selected in the top 10 Food Innovations in 2017 by LAUNCH Food (founded in 2009 by NASA, the U.S. Agency for International Development, the U.S. Department of State and NIKE, Inc.). The key objective of the Smart Food initiative is to diversify staple foods across Africa and Asia. The Smart Food family encompasses sorghum and millets but also some legumes including chickpea, pigeon pea, groundnut and green gram. By focusing on staples, often 70% of the diet and eaten three times a day, the Smart Food Initiative plans to have the biggest impact. To achieve this, the initiative focuses on a number of Smart Foods to not just popularise them but also to bring them into mainstream consumption
We are working with ICRISAT and the Smart Food initiative to help combat hunger and malnutrition through a diverse range of funding opportunities drawing on a wealth of diverse expertise across the university.
The Plant-Based Food Ecosystem
The Plant-Based Foods EcoSystem is a platform for food manufacturers, food ingredient suppliers, process technology companies, universities, associations, research organisations, breeders, and other agri-food value chain players active in plant-based food ingredients, raw materials, and processing. The Global Plant-Based Foods Ecosystem aims to accelerate the transition towards a more plant-based diet, with better foods produced sustainably, and increase food security with an abundant supply of proteins for food, feed and pet food markets. An important aim of the EcoSystem is to initiate a global budget for public-private partnerships of €1 Billion by 2025.
Plant-based foods require sustainable and nutritionally-sound ingredients, meal components and meal solutions which enable citizens to shift and stick to a plant-based diet, i.e.a diet based on products from plants, excluding animal-based products like meat, fish, dairy, eggs, and insects and including algae/ fungi/microorganisms-based products.
The University is a member of this global network and colleagues at the University have the opportunity to work with 100+ global EcoSystem members on key priority areas in product quality, nutritional value, product conformity, Life-Cycle Analysis, valorisation of waste stream and value chain connectivity.
The Ceres Agri-Tech Knowledge Exchange Partnership is funded by a Research England Connecting Capability Fund award. The initiative links the universities of Cambridge, East Anglia, Hertfordshire, Lincoln and Reading, along with the John Innes Centre, NIAB and Rothamsted Research, and it aims to drive the growth and productivity of the agri-tech sector in England.
Ceres works with university researchers and business partners to identify, partner, build, invest in and run the most commercially viable development projects focused on the innovation needs of the agri-tech sector so that technologies that can be exploited through licences, start-up companies and partnerships with SMEs and larger agri-tech corporations.
The development of novel plastic film cladding materials for poly-tunnels
This Ceres project is creating better poly tunnels by spectrally modifying greenhouse films to improve crop growth. Poly tunnels, growing areas enclosed by plastic film cladding, have transformed the production of many crops in the UK and around the world, by reducing losses from poor weather, pests, and diseases. Read more