As a result of consultations carried out by BBSRC with the Food Industry and academics, diet and health has been identified as an area where increased investment in research activity would underpin the needs of the food industry to fulfil the increasing appetite of the public for healthier foods and help the UK to remain internationally competitive in this sector. Substantial opportunities for innovative research exist across the food supply chain. However, diet and health is now the primary driver for all businesses in the chain, from primary producers to retailers. The research required to address these research opportunities is interdisciplinary in nature and needs to bring together biosciences, physical sciences and engineering.

BBSRC has formed DRINC to unite the relevant academic expertise to work on innovative problems of industrial relevance, with mechanisms put in place to ensure that UK companies can derive competitive advantage. The Club will support high quality research into diet and health within UK Universities and Research Institutes and will aim to obtain underpinning knowledge that will provide valuable results in the long-term, enabling the UK food industry to develop and deliver new foods of benefit to the consumer.

The Club operates by establishing a funding pot to support academic research. 10% of the funding pot (approximately £1M) comes from a consortium of food companies (club members). BBSRC will make a significant funding contribution and EPSRC have agreed to support research proposals that fall within Council’s remit to give a total funding pot of £10 M over 5 years.

DRINC Call Promotional Workshop
A DRINC workshop will be held on 7 September at the Royal Society, Carlton House Terrace, London . The workshop will be targeted at researchers and will outline the first call for proposals to DRINC and the research challenges to be addressed. Further details of the call for proposals will be announced shortly.

The Workshop will start at 9.30 am and finish with lunch at 2pm. There will be presentations from Industry Club Members and opportunities for networking. The full workshop programme will be available shortly.