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A project promoted by CNTA (the Spanish National Centre for Food Technology and Safety) with the support of the Government of Navarra and collaboration of more than 10 R&D&I centers of the Navarre R&D&I System (SINAI)
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Among the activities that will be developed in the hub there is the detection of needs between the stakeholders of the sector and the generation of new opportunities; developing, validating, and demonstrating solutions and accompanying in the scaling and the implementation of these solutions.
Innovation in the agri-food sector is unstoppable. In 2021 the Spanish national Foodtech ecosystem tripled its investments compared to last year, according to accelerator Eatable Adventure’s data, achieving excellent traction from national and international investors, managing to position Spain as the fifth European power in this vertical. This boom in innovation and solidity in intellectual property has boosted the creation of new models of collaboration between the principal agents of this ecosystem to accelerate the technology transfer.
In this context, CNTA (National Center for Food Technology and Safety) has created the Eatex Food Innovation Hub, the new collaborative innovation hub for the transfer and technology implementation in the agri-food industry. An ecosystem of open and applied innovation that addresses and solves today’s and future problems in the agri-food sector through a holistic focus based on the implementation of agile and advanced dynamics and research models.
Eatex Food Innovation Hub was born as a gathering point, a space beyond a physical location, where science and businesses collaborate to make research and technology transfer successful. This project promoted by CNTA has the support of the Government of Navarre and the collaboration of more than 10 R&D&I centers of the Navarre R&D&I System (SINAI). The creation of this hub is part of the Complementary Plan AGROALNEXT, within the Recovery, Transformation, and Resilience plan financed by the European Union – NextGenerationEU.
Among its objectives is to improve and accelerate the technology transfer of valuable solutions from the R&D centers to the agri-food sector to increase the success rate of technology transfer and reduce the innovation risk. According to Silvia García de la Torre, Eatex Food Innovation Hub director, “the motivation to create this new hub comes from improving technology transfer, a very important tool with great potential for agri-food companies since it will allow them to open to new possibilities, ideas, and opportunities.”
This will be achieved through the implementation of agile and advanced research dynamics and models, based on collaboration and co-creation of solutions with a holistic vision of the entire value chain and with a focus on the final customer. In addition, providing funding for the development of solutions with agile management of projects oriented towards results and collaborating and creating synergies with other entities and initiatives.
Among the activities that will be developed in the hub, there will be the detection of needs in the sector and the generation of new opportunities; developing, validating, and demonstrating solutions while accompanying the scale and implementation of those solutions.
Eatex Food Innovation Hub will start its activity in mid-December with the ¨Program for the development of innovation and technology transfer” where it will address six research areas: promotion of agriculture and livestock of the future, search for new ingredients and production models, development of new food and beverage for healthy eating, implementation of the industry 4.0 and hyperconnected processes, innovation applied to food packaging and preservation systems and the application of circularity and appraisal of by-products and waste.
More info about Eatex Food Innovation Hub www.eatexfoodinnovationhub.com
