In order to coordinate research in Europe and to drive innovation, the European Commission focuses on European Technology Platforms (ETP). In the food industry sector, there is the ETP Food for Life, which recently celebrated its 5th anniversary.

Food for Life assemble the leading research institutions, companies and organisations in the food industry in Europe. Together, they create the Strategic Research Agenda and Implementation Plan, designed to combine the research and innovation potential and translate it into concrete research topics ".

On March 3, 2010 representatives of companies and sciences met for stakeholder-event of Food for Life in Brussels. For the network of FPI Dr. Mark Bücking, Chairman of the board of FPI, and Norbert Reichl, CEO of FPI, were there.

How to get innovations out of research

FPI counts to the networking-partners in the Task Force for SME of ETP Food for life. The main objective of SME Task Force is to foster the competitiveness of KMU by enhancing the performance of innovation, e.g. by transferring research results into business operations.

„The meeting confirmed the importance and need for European cooperation in the future issues the food industry and food science. Especially highly innovative medium-sized companies are required to contribute more. Only the view of the box can recognise and exploit innovation potentials,“ stated Norbert Reichl after the conference.

Website of ETP Food for Life: etp.ciaa.eu.

Contact:
Norbert Reichl
Food-Processing Initiative e.V.
Herforder Straße 26-28
D - 33602 Bielefeld
Tel.: +49(0)521 98640-0
E-Mail: Norbert.Reichl[at]foodprocessing.de