AberInnovation looks ahead
In my last blog we shared some of the highlights from our milestone event here in May which we held to celebrate our first 100 projects milestone and to share our thanks to Welsh European Funding Office (WEFO) for their funding and support of AberInnovation during this time.
There are also lots of reasons to be excited about the future with new funding opportunities and research projects in the pipeline, serving the biotechnology, agri-tech, and food and drink sectors .
We’re also gleaning vital insights from business and enterprise operating in these industries on what research will be needed to support innovation and keep ahead of the latest trends. These include insights gained from two further European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) funded initiatives hosted here at AberInnovation; BEACON and The Future Foods Project.
The impact of the ERDF investment is that AberInnovation is a focal point for our local knowledge-based economy, which has a broader knock-on effect:
- Our community of tenants and members on site here at Gogerddan benefit through having access to exciting activities in the new buildings as well as the associated benefits of the University link
- University students will have access to the Inventerprise competition which provides a ‘first home’ to graduate start-up companies
- Staff entrepreneurship is being encouraged through coaching and mentoring programmes
Looking further afield, AberInnovation continues to be a magnet for high potential start-up companies both inside and from outside the region, facilitating engagement between our community of companies and potential investors.
Over the next six months and into 2024 we will also see project work led by industry on the commercial opportunity for seaweed, industrial hemp, cultured meat, heritage crops, sheep’s milk, microalgae, lamb, tea, palm oil substitutes, mycoproteins and other plant-based proteins to name but a few.
Many of these projects deal with more responsible re-use of by-products, both in advance of produce leaving the gate and during the processing stages through to retail and shelf-life beyond.
Our industry partners extract (quite literally!) value from waste and support our economy to hit carbon reduction goals as well as add valuable nutrition into our food supply chain.
Aberinnovation offers the world-class facilities and expertise for academic and industrial collaboration to flourish.
We really look forward to sharing findings from these developments in due course.
