The overarching objective of FOODENGINE is to provide, for the first time, a research-based training programme to a new generation of young food scientists and technologists by introducing an enginomics approach in food quality design. It connects an omics approach to instrumentally quantify food quality with an advanced engineering approach using multi-response kinetics to model food quality changes during processing and storage. At the same time, FOODENGINE will develop models linking the enginomics-based instrumental food quality design with sensory properties, consumer acceptability and consumer preferences to create new products appealing to consumers. FOODENGINE provides unique interdisciplinary, international and intersectoral training opportunities to 13 ESRs, each for 36 months. This extensive international (5 countries), intersectoral (2 universities, 1 research institute and 6 food (ingredient) companies) and interdisciplinary (food engineering, food chemistry, food nutrition and sensory/consumer research) training should lead for all ESRs to a PhD degree. FOODENGINE will boost the career perspectives of the FOODENGINE fellows to the top level. In addition, it has the ambition to become a best-practise example for structuring PhD research training in food science and technology at the European level. Although FOODENGINE specifically focusses on sustainable commodities which are essential parts of a healthy lifestyle (fruit-, vegetable-, legume-based food ingredients and foods), the skills and new ways of thinking the fellows will acquire are generic and can be extrapolated beyond the specific application area (diverse range of food systems or food processes) in their future careers.

The use of renewable resources in the process industries is socially desirable and a market pull for products has started to develop in recent years, but renewable products have to compete with identical or similar-in-application products based on fossil raw materials in terms of quality and production cost. One of the main reasons for currently higher production costs of products based on renewable resources is that the production routes involve processing complex dilute aqueous solutions from which the desired products have to be separated during downstream processing. Consequently, a major challenge the process industry is facing, is the development of cost- and energy-efficient water removal and product-recovery techniques. Today downstream processes for products based on renewable resources are often developed using methods from the petrochemical area being insufficiently adapted to the new applications. A re-thinking of downstream process development and the development of suitable methodologies for a fast-track development of tailored downstream processes as well as the optimisation of separation technologies are urgently needed in order to unlock the potential of the renewable-based product market for the European process industry. PRODIAS addresses this challenge by developing and implementing: - a toolbox of highly innovative, cost-effective and renewable-tailored separation technologies; single technologies and/or hybrid systems - novel, optimized apparatus and machinery to enable for and host the developed technologies - in combination with an integrated design approach for the fast-track selection of appropriate technologies. The main advantages of the PRODIAS toolbox and integrated design approach for processes based on renewable resources are - significantly decreased production cost - increased productivity and efficiency - faster process development and commercialization - significantly lower energy consumption leading to less CO2 emmissions.

Food and environmental transitions are worldwide major challenges as illustrated by the Farm to Fork Strategy, at the heart of the EU Green Deal, and by the United Nations Development Goals. Sustainable and healthy food requires an urgent shift from a diet rich in animal-based ingredients towards a diet enriched in plant-based ingredients. This is the challenge behind the Edible Soft Matter (ESM) project. Soft matter science has been tremendously successful in tackling complex problems involving multicomponent materials with a wide range of length and time scales and is now recognised as providing unique perspectives to understand the complexity of foods and to design new foods. ESM objective is to train and develop the employability of a new generation of eighteen young researchers, regulators, consultants and project leaders by providing them with a unique expertise in the design, production and quality assessment of innovative plant-based food products. The ESM Doctoral Candidates (DCs) will benefit from an international, interdisciplinary, and cross-sectoral training through research in basic and applied soft matter and food sciences. Through their Individual Research Projects and the network-wide training activities, characterised by a strong involvement of the non-academic partners, they will develop the hard and soft skills needed to face the current challenges related to food and environmental transitions. The consortium includes eleven Beneficiaries (including three from the non-academic sector) from seven countries and eleven Associated Partners (including four from the non-academic sector), with worldwide recognised and complementary expertise in food and soft matter sciences. All DCs will be exposed to both academic and non-academic working environments. ESM objectives are timely and the ESM unique training programme holds a great promise for the advancement of the DCs careers as well as for scientifically, technologically and socially relevant outputs.

MACRO CASCADE will prove the concept of the cascading marine macroalgal biorefinery i.e. a production platform that covers the whole technological chain for processing sustainable cultivated macro-algae biomass – also known as seaweed - to highly processed value added products. The macro-algae biorefinery will be capable of processing multiple feedstocks, by deploying a range of mechanical, physicochemical and enzymatic pre-processing and fractionation techniques combined with chemical, enzymatic or microbial conversion refinery techniques for generation of a diversity of added-value products for industries within food, feed, cosmetics, pharmaceutical and fine chemicals. Algae based products for food, feed, cosmetics, pharmaceutical will be tested and documented for their bio-activities and health properties. The participation of two major industries and five SMEs demonstrate a significant commercial interest in the outcome MACRO CASCADE. The MACRO CASCADE approach contributes to the “zero waste society” as the left-over residuals from the biorefinery process can be used for fertilizers and bio-energy.