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About Food for ThoughtWritten for food industry decision makers, Food for Thought reports periodically on agro-food activities and advances within the Netherlands. Its articles, overviews and white papers provide an overall perspective on food technologies, innovations and R&D taking place here. Articles in this issueLipids prove important in the prevention of Alzheimer’s Achieving more together- FrieslandCampina’s approach to external collaboration Revolutionary technology for tasty food, every day Hydrated vegetable fibers improve health and sustainability in meat and fish products AVEBE – Grand Prize winner of Food Valley Award 2009 for innovation TI Food and Nutrition: a unique platform for industry and science Dutch Government continues its support of Food and Nutrition as a key economic sector Small bites: Editorial Advisory Board
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Funding the food sectorDutch Government continues its support for Food and Nutrition as a key economic sectorThe Food & Nutrition industry is one of the key economic sectors in the Netherlands. Turnover in the food industry is slightly above €50 billion (2007) and it provides employment for 140,000 people (118,000 FTE). The sector represents 21 percent of the country’s total
The goal of the Innovation Program Food & Nutrition is to make the Netherlands the leading and most innovative region in Europe in Food and Nutrition.
The Innovation Program Food & Nutrition covers the entire innovation chain. It consists of two components: the Top Institute Food and Nutrition with its demand-driven, strategic, fundamental research program (see the article in this newsletter entitled “TI Food and Nutrition: a unique platform for industry and science”), and the Food & Nutrition Delta, with application-oriented R&D, as well as activities designed to boost the innovative strengths of SMEs. The Ministry of Economic Affairs, Agriculture and Innovation supports TI Food and Nutrition and the Food & Nutrition Delta with €40 million and €60 million respectively, for the coming four years.
Top Institute Food and NutritionThis year, TI Food and Nutrition welcomed international participation in its program. TI Food and Nutrition is a public-private partnership in which science and industry are working hand-in-hand to bring visionary ideas to reality in new and innovative food products that meet consumer
needs and requirements. Top Institute Food and Nutrition
TI Food and Nutrition provides the industry with excellent knowledge for innovation in the fields of food and health, and food technology. As is evident from a bibliometric analysis, the impact of TI Food and Nutrition–published articles is quite high, roughly double the world average. Almost one-quarter of the 422 articles published in peer-reviewed journals during the period 2002–2006 have been ranked in the top 10% in their respective fields. Further, the knowledge generated has been used by the industry partners to develop new products with a total estimated turnover of €710 million annually.
Food & Nutrition DeltaThe other component of the Innovation Program is the Food & Nutrition Delta, which supports the integration of this new knowledge into new products, processes and services, and looks to boost the innovative strengths of SMEs in the food industry. Some 326 companies have benefited from participating in Food & Nutrition Delta projects since its launch in 2006. This program contains six innovation themes: food and health, sensory abilities (e.g., perception of taste) and structure, bio-ingredients and functionality, safety and preservation, consumer behavior, and technology for the food industry.
Apart from offering subsidies to stimulate innovation and R&D collaboration in the food industry, the Food & Nutrition Delta program encompasses six innovation brokers who function as innovation-oriented experts from the food sector. These innovation brokers facilitate contact between SME companies, large enterprises, TI Food and Nutrition, and knowledge institutes, in order to increase the effective transfer of knowledge and bring about new, innovative projects.
Food innovation hubThe Innovation Program Food & Nutrition has a strong international focus, striving to cooperate with international partners and make the program accessible to industry and research institutes located in other countries.
The program operates at the European level with other stakeholders in the European Technology Platform (ETP) Food for Life, in order to increase the competitiveness of the European food industry. The ETP Food for Life has brought companies and research organizations together throughout Europe to formulate and
This innovative effort creates opportunities for companies to benefit from existing international networks, facilities and knowledge from outside of the Netherlands. One of the existing programs is international innovation, through which the Dutch government supports collaborative R&D projects of Dutch companies with companies from industrialized countries such as the United States, Canada, Japan and Singapore.
Contact Details:
Top Institute Food and Nutrition: Website: www.tifn.nl Food & Nutrition Delta: Website: www.foodnutritiondelta.nl Companies interested in finding Dutch R&D partners, please contact foodforthought@nfia.com.
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