Submitted by Administrator on Fri, 08/06/2018 - 10:24
FoodFutures II was held at Clare College on 7 June, 2018.
FoodFutures II was held at Clare College on 7 June: a networking event with agri-tech and food industry representatives for University of Cambridge PhD students and Postdocs.
The day was an excellent opportunity for Cambridge’s early career researchers to interact with industry representatives from ADAS, Buhler, Corteva Agriscience, Koppert, PepsiCo and more, hear about what these companies do, and learn about funding Cambridge has available for industry placements and collaborations.
A keynote talk by Pierre Broun, Head of Nestle R&D Centre, Tours, outlined current challenges in agriculture and the food industry, from climate change to crop disease. He looked at the opportunities ahead such as plant breeding and empowerment of farmers, and how the food industry can help. He also told us about Nestle's plans to collaborate with the University of Cambridge, through the Cambridge Centre for Crop Sciences, in the future in order to access expertise and develop a value chain approach.
Pierre Broun outlines challenges with the current food system
Representatives from six food companies then gave short talks, providing fascinating insights into how they got into their current roles, and the work they currently do. There is a diverse range of career opportunities for researchers across many subjects from plant science, physics and chemistry to data science, education and communications.
Tim Kelf explains his work with on a machine for the optical sorting of grains at Buhler
The series of 16 flash presentations by early career researchers covered a huge range of subjects, highlighting the range of work applicable to research in the food industry, from lettuce harvesting robots, to all-natural microcapsules for food applications, to computational models to understand plant development.
Anyele Camargo, NIAB Putu Khorisantono, Dept. of PDN
Congratulations to Yuan He, at the Centre of Development Studies, who won the prize for the best presentation! Yuan, a social scientist, challenged the scientists in the room to consider not only food production, but distribution and access as important factors in addressing food security.
Yuan He gives her flash presentation on 'Food in China and India Compared'
We ended the day with networking in the beautiful Fellows' Garden at Clare College, where new connections were made and interesting conversations continued, and Professor Howard Griffiths kindly gave us a tour in the sunshine.
Funding to interact with industry partners
If anyone who attended the event would like more information about funding opportunities for working with industry either through internships, short visits, or longer collaborations, or help with following up connections made on the day, please contact the Cambridge Global Food Security Coordinator, or the following people:
For Cambridge early-career researcher industry placements
Contact the Translational Research Manager, Bioscience Impact Team
For BBSRC Impact Acceleration Account (pump priming funds to establish and strengthen connections with industry)
Contact the Impact Facilitator, Bioscience Impact Team
For EIT Food opportunities to participate in innovation, education or entrepreneurship activities
Contact the EIT Food Coordinator for Cambridge
The organising team - well done ladies!
FoodFutures II was co-organised by Cambridge Global Food Security, the Cambridge Bioscience Impact Team, CambPlants, the Vet School, and the Office for Postdoctoral Affairs, with support from BBSRC and the Isaac Newton Trust.
