Centres of Research Excellence Fund

2006 Expressions of Interest

The Riddet Centre - advancing knowledge in foods and biologicals

Director:   Prof. Paul J.Moughan / Prof.Harjinder Singh
Host:         Massey University

Partners:    AgResearch Limited
                  Crop & Food Research
                  The University of Auckland
                  University of Otago

Abstract:

The food industry is the cornerstone of the New Zealand economy, contributing half of New Zealand’s export earnings.  There is a growing need for the food industry to provide tailor made products and innovative solutions to meet increasingly sophisticated and wide-ranging consumer expectations.  An opportunity presents to transform the New Zealand food industry to become a knowledge-driven business, marketing high margin ‘knowledge embedded’ food products.  Such a transformation, however, will require an environment of innovation.

Our proposal to establish a CoRE builds off a collaborative research centre established in 2003, the Riddet Centre.  The Riddet Centre has made a major international impact.  The proposed CoRE will leverage off this success to create an expanded centre of excellence.  The Centre will be inclusive and will assist to unite key elements of New Zealand’s otherwise disparate scientific resources in food and related sciences.  Leading and emerging scientists from the University of Auckland, Massey University, the University of Otago, AgResearch and Crop and Food Research will come together to form the new Centre.

Real innovation in the food industry draws off a base of fundamental understanding in biomaterials science,  how food materials assemble and form structures, and how in turn these are affected by food processing, ingestion and digestion, ultimately influencing food characteristics such as flavour, taste, texture, digestibility, nutrient uptake kinetics, gene expression and satiety.  The research themes of the proposed Centre (food molecular structures, biomaterials science, the food-gut interface, bio-physical modelling, food systems) will encapsulate the required underpinning science.  The Centre will develop new intellectual property which will lead to the development by industry of specialised foods aimed at health, wellness, convenience and pleasure.  This multi-disciplinary Centre of Excellence, networking across organisations, will conduct world-class fundamental and strategic research, will develop human capital and will transfer new knowledge to its stakeholders.