EPSRC Centre for Innovative Manufacturing in Food

中心愿景：EPSRC创新食品制造中心将通过开发世界领先的技术、工具和领导者来满足英国和全球食品安全的挑战，以适应食品的特定需求。食品和饮料行业的营业额为762亿英镑（占英国总营业额的20%），是英国最大的制造业，雇佣了大约40万人。随着“更好的价值”产品和为国家健康和保健设计的产品，特别是为老龄化人口设计的产品的预期快速增长，食品制造业需要在提高生产率方面进行创新——以更少的资源生产更多的产品——保护水和能源等自然资源，最大限度地减少废物产生，减少该部门的贸易逆差。至关重要的是，这将使英国食品部门处于下一代更自然、更健康的可持续生产的前沿。，并在竞争日益激烈的环境中发展更具弹性的供应链，从而实现最先进的制造能力。拟议的研究重点不仅在于确定新的原料来源，而且在于通过同时改进食品、制造方法和供应网络来减少对现有资源的需求。在此背景下，一些关键的研究问题是：我们如何充分利用生物质（包括废物再利用）作为粮食生产原材料的新来源？我们如何用更少的原材料设计和制造高营养价值的产品？我们如何提高食品生产过程的效率（例如通过智能监控技术、过程集约化/柔性制造），以减少整个供应链的资源消耗（材料、能源和水）？我们如何消除由低效率的供应和制造活动及/或关系造成的生产和生产后浪费？拟议的研究范围侧重于从“农场大门到超市货架”的制造活动，并将在两个具体的大挑战（GC）下进行考虑：1)创新材料，产品和工艺；2)可持续食品供应和制造。这些研究挑战与EPSRC对“创新制造中心”的呼吁密切相关，特别是制造业资源效率的三个领域：关键材料和部件完全再利用的工艺和技术；需要大幅减少能源需求，包括采用智能能源监测和管理技术；优化材料和产品再利用，再制造和再循环，创新生产工艺：制造的食品是复杂的配方系统，复杂的多功能产品：食品是使用从纳米（原材料）到宏观尺度（包装商品）操作的工艺组装的大批量产品。拟建的EPSRC中心汇集了生物材料科学、配方工程和可持续制造领域的世界领先专业知识。拉夫堡和诺丁汉都参与了目前的EPSRC中心，并将确保与其他EPSRC研究组合的互补性。该中心将提供可演示的工具、方法和具体技术，将培养学术和工业领袖，并将为支持未来的政策制定提供证据，从而确保英国和全球食品供应链的长期竞争力和安全。该提案受益于从成分生产商和制造商到零售商和政府组织的广泛利益相关者的兴趣和支持，并且具有开发机会，因为研究挑战符合新的TSB高价值制造战略2012-2015中的战略主题。

Centre vision: The EPSRC Centre for Innovative Food Manufacturing will meet the challenges of UK and global food security through developing world-leading technologies, tools and leaders, tailored to the specific needs of food products.With a turnover of £76.2bn (20% of the UK total), Food and drink is the largest manufacturing sector in the UK employing around 400,000 people. With an anticipated rapid growth in 'better value' products and in products designed for the nation's Health and Wellness, in particular for the ageing population, food manufacturing requires innovation in increased productivity - to produce more from less - to preserve natural resources such as water and energy, to minimise waste generation and to decrease the trade deficit in the sector. Crucially this will enable the UK food sector to be at the forefront of the next generation of sustainable production which are more natural and healthier., and to develop more resilient supply chains leading to state of the art manufacturing capability, in an increasingly competitive landscape.The proposed research focuses on identifying not only new sources of raw material but also on reducing the demand on existing resources through a simultaneous improvement of food products, manufacturing methods and supply networks. In this context, some of the key research questions are: How do we fully valorise biomass (including waste re-use) as new sources of raw material in food production?; How can we design and manufacture products with the high nutritional values using fewer raw materials?; How do we improve the efficiency of food production processes (e.g. through smart monitoring technologies; process intensification / flexible manufacturing) to consume fewer resources (materials, energy and water) across the supply chain?; How can we eliminate the production and post-production waste caused by inefficient supply and manufacturing activities and /or relationships?The scope of the proposed research focuses on the manufacturing activities from 'post-farm gate to supermarket shelf', and will be considered under two specific Grand Challenges (GC): 1) Innovative materials, products and processes and 2) Sustainable food supply and manufacture. These research challenges closely align with the EPSRC call for 'Centres for Innovative Manufacturing', in particular the three areas of Resource Efficiency in Manufacturing: processes and technologies towards complete reuse of key materials and components; the need to dramatically reduce energy demand, including the incorporation of smart energy monitoring and management technologies; optimisation of material and product re-use, re-manufacturing and recycling, Innovative Production Processes: manufactured foods being complex formulated systems, and Complex Multifunctional Products: food is a high volume product assembled using processes which operate from the nano- (raw material) to the macro-scales (packaged goods).The proposed EPSRC Centre brings together world leading expertise in the areas of biomaterial science, formulation engineering and sustainable manufacturing. Loughborough and Nottingham are involved in the current EPSRC Centres and will ensure complementarities with other EPSRC research portfolios. The Centre will deliver demonstrable tools, methods and specific technologies, will develop academic and industrial leaders, and will provide evidence to support future policy making, thus ensuring the long-term competitiveness and security of the UK and global food supply chain. The proposal benefits from the interest and support of a wide range of stakeholders from ingredient producers and manufacturers to retailers and governmental organisations and has exploitation opportunities as the research challenges fit with the strategic themes in the new TSB High Value Manufacturing Strategy 2012-2015.