Sponsor

Barrett Family Foundation

A gift from the Barrett Family Foundation is being used to support these sustainable food engineering projects.

Program

Applications and adjudication are managed by the Research Innovation Office in collaboration with external advisors for the food and packaging industry.

For More Information

See the attached Program Overview and Application. 

A town hall information session will take place November 5, 2020 at 3 pm via Microsoft Teams [1]. 

Description

Applications and adjudication are managed by the Research Innovation Office in collaboration with external advisors for the food and packaging industry.

Description:

The Barrett Family Foundation has donated $1.5M to create a research fund called “The Barrett Family Research Fund for Sustainable Food Engineering.” These funds will be used to support research projects in engineering at the University of Guelph which focus on:

1. Sustainable food packaging
2. Advanced food manufacturing; and
3. Green technology for the food industry.

Key Goals

• Create valuable capacity at University of Guelph in sustainable food packaging and sustainable food engineering processes and other themes
• Train and enable students to become the future leaders of a sustainable food industry
• Increase the University of Guelph’s role in helping food industry partners adopt innovative and sustainable technologies
• Improve the productivity, quality, and competitiveness of the food industry

Requirements:

Projects must support one or more of the following targeted themes:

1. Sustainable food packaging:The four basic functions of food packaging are protection, communication, convenience, and containment. Suitable projects will explore the application of new technologies, testing new materials and processes to increase the effectiveness of these functions in a sustainable way, while adding novel or enhanced features. This theme is a priority and most preferred.
2. Advanced food manufacturing technology: The incorporation of machine learning, robotics, systems optimization, and new technology development in advanced food manufacturing to establish “smarter” and more efficient processes for the food industry.
3. Green technology in the food industry: The use and development of technologies to enhance the efficiency, reduce energy usage or lower operating costs and the carbon footprint in food industry.

Funding Availability

Approximately $250,000 is available for allocation this cohort of projects.

Maximum Project Value

Fifty thousand dollars ($50,000) per project.  

Indirect Costs

None - no indirect costs are required. The entire budget may be used for research expenses.

Project Duration

The maximum duration is one (1) year. Projects may start spending grant funds no sooner than May 3, 2021. Project duration extensions may be accepted with suitable justification.

Special Notes

Please note that research activities carried out in the context of COVID-19 need to adhere to the University of Guelph COVID-19 research principles, policies, guidelines and processes as they may be updated from time to time and communicated on the Office of Research web-page [2].

Attachment(s)

Attachment	Size
Barrett Food Grants 2021 Overview [3]	77.05 KB
Barrett Food Grants 2021 Application [4]	63.36 KB