Industry Perspective and Roles

Abstract

Partnership between government agencies and academic institutions is of paramount significance in the early stages of technology development. Industry should play only an advisory role in the initial screening and selection process for research proposals competing for federal grants and support. Industry engagement is critical during the advanced development and pre-commercialization phase of an emerging food processing technology because manufacturers in industry are the end-users of the technology. They have the knowledge of consumer needs and food trends. They are eager to embrace a technology if it can deliver what consumers want. At the same time, industry needs to balance its involvement against the perceived market potential for a new technology — which can be very low until the technology is both proven and scaled to reasonable size. Partnerships and consortia provide an ideal means to accelerate advanced development and commercialization of an emerging technology, allowing the industrial partners to balance their investment with the technology's promise to fulfill a business or consumer need in the marketplace.