How to successfully engage industry in
advanced food research
Dr Oyvind Fylling-Jensen, MATFORSK, Norway
The European food and drink industry had a turnover of 810 billion Euros in 2004. It transformed over 70 percent of the agricultural raw materials and employed four million people. The industry is fragmented and consists to a large extent of SMEs.
Historically the food sector spends less than one percent of its revenues on R&D. In contrast the pharmaceutical industry spends 10-15 % of revenues on R&D.
In Norway there is a research levy on all products produced. The research activities and research programmes are then developed in close collaboration with the industry – both companies and trade organizations, representing the whole value chain from fjord and farm to fork. The process is very interactive and the outcome is a number of 4-5 year research programmes built around the challenges identified by the industry.
In addition, the Norwegian Research Council and Innovation Norway have several programmes directed towards the sector. These projects are strongly linked with the industries and the research entities ability to design and formulate relevant, realistic and achievable goals and work structures.
Matforsk has developed a model which has been designed to increase the ability of SMEs to engage and use R&D. This model has now successfully been applied to more than 800 SMEs throughout Norway. The model is a stepwise procedure where the lowest step is on-site visits to solve company specific challenges and to start knowledge transfer from the research institutions to the industry. The next step is company specific development projects of three months to one year duration. A number of companies need longer term solutions either as sole partner or as part of a research consortium.
