Research themes

Specialised food industry clusters

Realising the unique potential of agrifood regions through:

  • Collaborative planning tools and processes that link local growers, food manufacturers, government and service providers in building shared strategies for sustainable development and investment attraction
  • Data integration, mapping and analytics to reveal boundary conditions and opportunities
  • Design solutions for master-planned agrifood industrial precincts integrating renewable water, energy and waste technology
  • Innovation in freight and logistics to enable shorter, streamlined supply chains with higher security and quality control
  • Identifying optimal regional crops and value-adding opportunities
  • Alignment with education and training to build future-ready skills and high-value jobs
  • Distinctive regional brands and synergies with complementary industry, such as the tourism, health and manufacturing sectors.

High-tech controlled environment production

Increasing resilience and profitability through:

  • Teaming engineers and plant scientists to reimagine production systems
  • Application of advanced automation, control and sensing technologies to optimise the productivity of labour, energy, water and other inputs
  • Precinct-based solutions that enable 24/7 production of safe, nutritionally optimised fresh food close to urban demand centres and export hubs
  • Agile technology for farming within multipurpose buildings
  • New downstream manufacturing partnerships, including systems for growing highly specialised inputs for precision nutrition goods

Building scale in future food segments

Increasing the value-adding capability of the Australian food sector through:

  • Optimising quality and nutritional outcomes for plant and animal products through innovation in QA and production protocols
  • Provenance protection from producer to consumer
  • Building partnerships with growers to enable consistent supply of specialised inputs
  • Formulation and production protocols for customised goods in high-value segments
  • Innovation in the design and verification alternative protein goods, functional foods and precision nutrition products, including those derived from indigenous species.
  • Design solutions for future food factories, applying circular economy principles
  • Whole-of-supply chain approaches to customisation and demand-driven production including consideration of consumer preferences, trade, compliance and quarantine issues in target export markets.