The UK government and key stakeholders are planning to invest £12m in a new center aimed at supporting energy efficiency in food sector.
The Centre for Sustainable Energy use in Food Chains will be led by Brunel University, London, while the universities of Manchester and Birmingham will be the research partners.
The new interdisciplinary center, which will be headed by Professor Savvas Tassou, will develop new approaches, processes and technologies in order to lower energy demand at all stages of the food chain - production, distribution, retail and consumption.
In order to achieve this, researchers from the universities of Brunel, Manchester and Birmingham will collaborate closely with some of the UK's leading food manufacturers, retailers, equipment manufacturers, scientific and technical providers and knowledge transfer networks.
The Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), a British Research Council that funds research and training in engineering and the physical sciences, is providing £6m for the center and the rest of the grant will be provided by the three universities and industry.
The new center will be one of the five new End Use Energy Demand (EUED) research facilities that will evaluate energy use across society and the ways in which energy can be conserved and used more efficiently.
