Queen’s University of Belfast

Profile
Queen’s University Belfast is one of the leading universities in the UK and Ireland with a distinguished heritage and history. Today, Queen’s is ranked in the top 173 universities in the world (QS World Rankings 2020), with the second highest ranking in Ireland. The Institute for Global Food Security (IGFS) specialising in the key areas of the integrity of global food supply, farms of the future and nutritional challenges for the 21st Century.
Competences & Capabilities
IGFS is multi-disciplinary; researchers collaborate across schools and faculties (Chemistry, Pharmacy, Geography, Medicine, Biological Sciences) and specialisms including sustainability, nutrition, agriculture & food safety. They study soil, crops, water and marine life, animal feed and animal welfare to promote higher standards. They trace chemicals (both natural and man made) and investigate the nutritional value of foods and the psychology of consumer choices.

Northern Ireland Technology Centre, Queen’s University of Belfast, Cloreen Park, Belfast BT9 5HN, United Kingdom
Contact
Stephane Durand, Head of Innovation
s.durand@qub.ac.uk
+44 7799 47 12 54
Partner in the following EIT Food projects

Food System Master of Science Programme
Develop in-depth knowledge about food systems through studying consecutively at three distinct European academic institutions and use your knowledge to drive the future transformation of the food system.

Citizen Science to build consumer trust in the food system
Increasing consumer trust in the food system inspiring citizens to become change agents as amateur scientists.

Understanding Food Supply Chains in a Time of Crisis
Learn how agri-food supply chains deal with crises and get practical advice on how you can minimise disruption during COVID-19.

WeValueFood 2020
WeValueFood (2-year project) has educated, engaged and advanced the young Europeans’ knowledge of and appreciation of food, thereby empowering the next generations to make the best choices about the food that they eat.

Farm to Fork: Sustainable Food Production in a Changing Environment
Global food supply chains are increasingly encountering considerable problems impacting on safety and sustainability affecting the food industry and reducing consumer trust.

REIMS-based analysis platform for improved traceability and consumer purchase intention of high-end food products
As a result of the globalization of the food supply chain, ensuring the safety, quality and integrity of the food we eat has become increasingly difficult.

Seedbed Incubator
A 6-month pre-accelerator programme that aims to transform innovative ideas into market-validated business propositions.

Revolutionising the Food Chain with Technology
Discover how innovative technologies could revolutionise the food sector

An Introduction to Food Science
Discover the fascinating world of food science and feel empowered to make safe, healthy, and sustainable food choices.

How the corona crisis affects consumer behaviour and consumer demand for food products and services
The project will provide information on how the corona crisis will lead to changes in consumer behaviour.

Animal Feed Production: Feed Quality & Safety
Explore animal feed manufacturing, and learn the best processes and systems for optimising animal feed quality and safety.

Inspire
High quality, experiential learning summer schools of EIT Food in food system innovation & entrepreneurship for future food leaders across Europe.

Optimising rice processing & cooking to remove arsenic & starch from its life-cycle
Rice is a primary carbohydrate staple but is high in carcinogen inorganic arsenic (Asi) & soluble starch

Safelivery
Safelivery will develop innovative food delivery services and protocols to reduce the risk of surface and packaging contamination of “Ready To Eat Foods” with the COVID-19 virus and other agents.

Food tech transitions: reconnecting agrifood, technology, and society
The Food Tech Transition Summer School 2019 is the outcome of an academic partnership between Universität Hohenheim as main partner, and Queen's University Belfast and University of Cambridge, together with industrial partner Energy Pulse.

CHAMPP: Contemporary challenges and issues of the poultry production sector
The aim of the SME workshops is to identify contemporary challenges and solutions in the poultry industry dedicated to feed manufacturers, advisors, farmers and employees in poultry factories, as well as managers responsible for the strategy and profitability of fodder and poultry production, all from RIS-eligible regions.

Lab on a chip - Early-warning platform for food safety
Every year, over 23 million people in Europe fall ill from unsafe food, leading to 5,000 death cases.

Separating MycOtoxin-contaminated Wheat grains using Precision Farming technologies
Mycotoxins can significantly reduce food quality, especially in wheat production.

From Leaf to Root – Holistic Use of Vegetables
Many vegetables including sweet corn, artichokes, potato and cabbage (e.g. Brussels sprouts) are not holistically used in food production although they are safe to consume (without or with further processing). In some cases, more than 50% of the nutritional valuable material is left in the fields or not further valorized.

From waste to worth: use of plant residues
Students can make use of scientific and educational toolbox to create solutions for the practice along the food chain and possibilities for sustainable waste management.

Consumer and Manufacturing Driven Alternative Packaging Solutions from Agrifood Waste Streams
We aim to design innovation led packaging for red meat, fish & poultry made from material derived from agrifood waste. The issue of waste plastic in the food industry has led to strong consumer demand for producers & retailers to remove single use & reduce hard-to-dispose plastic.

Focus on Farmers
Agricultural technologies and innovations offer significant opportunities to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of farm businesses, through optimised yields, reduced environmental impact and increased profitability.

The EIT Food School Network: Integrating solutions to improve eating habits and reduce food wastage 2020
The “EIT Food School Network” third year activities are focused on the organisation of four stakeholder workshops (school staff, key organisations involved in regulating schools, academics and policy makers). Due to the current circumstances, these may be virtual. The aim of these workshops is to communicate results of the past two years of research conducted as part of the EIT Food School Network project and involve stakeholders in co-creation of activities and ideas going forward.

SME Workshop: Supporting SMEs for new business opportunities-2019
The main objectives of the SME workshops are an innovation process around “sustainable food production” to identify challenges and solutions in an accelerated innovation process building on the experiences of a previous project.

Improving trust on fish chain: Rapid and portable monitoring tools for a better control of whitefish
Fish is a healthy nutritional food. The increasing global market demand coupled with fish-food scandals, has generated a high level of safety concerns around fish consumption.

Curating citizen engagement: Food solutions for future generations
The Curating Citizen Engagement project will revolutionise our way of solving grand societal challenges by creating a platform for massive public involvement and knowledge generation, specifically targeting food-related issues.

EIT Food Summer School 2018 on Digital Food Supply Chains
Are you ready to bring your ideas for a sustainable food supply chain to life? Following the success of last year’s Winter School, Queen’s University Belfast, Technical University of Munich and University of Cambridge will come together to host an EIT Food Entrepreneurship Summer School this September in Belfast.

MAKEit
To create smarter and simpler food value chains across Europe we need to develop both infrastructure and capacity which stimulate and supports
innovation and entrepreneurship.

The development of organic supply chains that drive fair, transparent and healthy options for the consumer
The organic food supply system in Europe must rank among one of the most important in terms of trust. Our citizens make purchasing choices around organic food based on a wide range of issues which include sustainability, ethics, food safety and nutrition.

Global Food Venture Programme 2020
The flagship Global Food Venture programme is EIT Food's dedicated offering to Doctoral Students working on food system challenges across Europe.

Increasing consumer trust and support for the food supply chain and for food companies
This consumer-focused project will work with consumers, food companies and other stakeholders (industry bodies, non-governmental organisations, regulatory authorities and policy makers, media).

MAKE-IT! An infrastructure to hack simpler and smarter food value chains 2020
Creating smarter and simpler food value chains across Europe requires an infrastructure and capacity to stimulate and support innovation and entrepreneurship.