INL

International Iberian Nanotechnology Laboratory

At INL – International Iberian Nanotechnology Laboratory, located in Braga (North of Portugal), scientists and engineers from all over the world work in a highly interdisciplinary environment and strive to make INL become a worldwide hub for the deployment of Nanotechnology addressing society’s grand challenges.

The INL was founded by the governments of Portugal and Spain under an international legal framework to perform interdisciplinary research, deploy and articulate nanotechnology for the benefit of society.

The Research and Technology activities are focused on six clusters: Health, Food, Energy, Environment, ICT, and Future Emerging Technologies, which complement each other and provide a base for interdisciplinary interactions between our research.

The full-fledged nanotechnology laboratory enables leading research of the highest international standard.

The Food Quality and Safety Research groups works at the interface of nano and microfabrication technology, molecular biology and analytical chemistry to provide control laboratories with reliable analytical tools.

INL is the coordinator of the Innovative Consumer OrieNted Safe Solutions (ICONSS) project, INL is as well task leader of task 4 (Point of Care Device), in which a miniaturized device is being adapted an integrated with a simplified sampling and RNA extraction protocol to be implemented and used on site at retailer shops to test workers and surfaces for SARS-CoV-2. This will allow retailers and other final users to activate reinforced cleaning procedures and quarantine measures.

  • Marta Prado
  • Alejandro Garrido
  • Paula Galvao
  • Nuria Barros
ISPA

National Research Council
Institute of Sciences of Food Production

The Italian National Research Council (CNR) is a public organization; its duty is to carry out, promote, spread, transfer and improve research activities in the main sectors of knowledge and of its applications for the scientific, technological, economic and social development of the Country.

ISPA belongs to the Department of Bio-Agrifood (DISBA) within CNR and is an institute of excellence in the field of research, innovation and technology transfer whose main goals are a) the improvement of food safety and quality b) food production and innovation.

The institute is composed of 6 national territorial units with its headquarter in Bari and the other research units spread all over Italy: Lecce, Foggia, Milano, Torino, Sassari. The personnel counts approximately 200 units of permanent staff. The Institute policy targets continuous innovation and socio-economic growth of territories by building and implementing strategic cooperative partnerships with world leader Institutions in the area of agro-food (FAO, EFSA, FSA, USDA, etc.) has strong connection international bodies and organizations dealing with method harmonization (CEN, AOAC, MoniQA etc) and established cooperation with SMEs and large enterprises (Barilla, IBM Italy, Syngenta, Bayer, Thermo Fisher, Copaim, Perkin Elmer, etc.) within funding programs promoted by local, national and international bodies (POR, PON, FP7, Horizon 2020 etc.).

ISPA is active in the field of food and diet promoting novel foods or improving products endowed with high nutritional value.  In the area of food safety and quality the institute leads national projects in the field of food safety and European projects such as FOODSAFETY4EU (Horizon 2020), Mycokey project (FP7), is co-leader of the ThRAll project (EFSA grant) and partner of large collaborative EU projects GoJElly (H2020), Mycored, DREAM, Conffidence, FoodIntegrity (FP7) etc.  In food production, research is mainly aimed at improving food nutritional and organoleptic quality, adding value to typical local products (dairy, bakery and meat products, fruit and vegetables). Innovative lines of probiotic and functional foods using traditional products are being developed in cooperation with enterprises and regionally-based medical and health research groups to demonstrate health benefits.

  • Linda Monaci
  • Rosa Pilolli
  • Mariella Quarto
  • Elisabetta De Angelis
  • Laura Quintieri
  • Giancarlo Perrone
  • Federica Tenaglia
FOCOS

FOCOS | Food Consulting… Strategically

FOCOS – Food Consulting Strategically. With more than 50 years of combined experience in global food safety consulting (Las Americas, Europe, Asia), we have longstanding relationships with all stakeholders around the world. We serve on the advisory board of several global stakeholders, and, as a micro-SME are a valuable partner in EU projects. We also work with startup companies for the integration of their technology into the food safety testing space.

At FOCOS we take a holistic view and think out-of-the-box. With our experience and knowledge in different segments of the food supply chain, we can address challenges better, and provide valuable solutions on food safety. In addition to our technical expertise, we have expertise in capacity building, communication and dissemination, including eLearning and Webinar experience. We also are and have been partners in EU projects from FP3-H2020.

The partner FOCOS (Germany) will be responsible for task 2) – Communication and Dissemination of results to all stakeholders. This includes the branding strategy, the setup of the website, communication and dissemination through social media channels as well as through webinars.

  • Bert Popping
  • Carmen Diaz-Amigo
MILCOOP

MILCOOP

Milcoop is an Italian technological and innovative start – up founded in January 2020, a Benefit Company and certified pending B-Corp, which focuses its activity on filling the gap between local corporations and communities needs and demands, with a particular focus on food retail (DO-GDO). Moving from the application of international innovative processes in terms of mutuality and cooperation, Milcoop integrates technological systems, research surveys and Artificial Intelligence in order to serve companies in reaching strategic developmental goals, SaaS (Software as a Service) products, and other key strategies to improve performance, especially in the light of sustainability, and social and environmental innovation.

Milcoop collaborates with the ICCO (Italian Chamber of Commerce of Ontario – Canada), and with other Canadian innovative start-ups (i.e. Skyhive.io), as partners in International projects on sustainable corporations development.

Milcoop is responsible for task 6 (Consumer habits and analysis) of the Innovative Consumer OrieNted Safe Solutions (ICONSS) project. The task will investigate 1) the global food sector demands of present and future generations, and 2) consumers’ responsiveness to a ready-to-buy food box, and their availability to partecipate to a new social-economical process where consumers’ themselves are trusting a digital system of virtual guidance in their consuming behavior. The survey will be conducted in Italy, Germany and Portugal.

  • Luca Ottomanelli
  • Milena Marzano
SGS

SGS

SGS is the world’s leading inspection, verification, testing and certification company. We also offer a wide variety of services in the areas of consulting and training. We are recognized as the global benchmark for quality and integrity. With more than 89,000 employees, we operate a network of more than 2,600 offices and laboratories around the world.

SGS being the exploiting partner of this project, has the capability to explore the outcomes and products resulted from the project and add them to the roles of services provided by the 2 600 offices in 104 countries where SGS is represented. The exploitation strategy will be aligned with sales channels of SGS Group, using the commercial relations with these targets.

  • Pedro Miranda
  • Daniel Moreira
  • Antonio Ferreira