Organisation and governance
Plant2Food is an international platform governed by a Steering Group and administrated by a Secretariat based at the Open Innovation in Science office at Aarhus University.
Below the diagram, you can read more about the different bodies.
Steering Group
The Steering Groups sets the overall strategic direction of Plant2Food and decides which projects to fund.
Plant2Food's Steering Groups consists of high-level members from each of the 4 partner universities and the three core industry partners. Furthermore, the Steering Group also includes a representative from FBCD (see below) and a representative from an NGO.
Steering Group members
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Eskild Holm Nielsen - Dean Technical Sciences, Aarhus University (Chairman)
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Peter Ruhdal Jensen - Professor, Head of research group for Microbial Biotechnology and Biorefining, DTU Food, Technical University of Denmark
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Jesper Thagaard Wengel - Vice Dean, Innovation and External Relations, University of Copenhagen
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Richard Harrison - Managing Director, Plant Science Group, Wageningen University & Research
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Rune-Christoffer Dragsdahl - Secretary General, The Vegetarian Society of Denmark
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Marion Poetz - Scientific Director, LBG OIS, Copenhagen Business School
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Lars Visbech Sørensen - CEO, Food & Bio Cluster Denmark
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Lise Lykke Steffensen - CEO, NordGen
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Jesper Burgaard - CEO, KMC
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Jonas Astrup - Head of Development and Innovation, Meyers
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Sisse Marquina-Jongberg (non-voting observer), Senior Scientific Manager, Novo Nordisk Foundation
The Review Committee
The Review Committee consists of members from both academia and industry with relevant research expertise. The Commitees role is to assess the incoming applicatings and forward the top 50-75% of applications to the Specialist Review Pool. Following the Specialist reviews, the Committee nominates projects for funding to the Steering Group.
The Committee also assess deviations in project plans, when requested by the Plant2Food secretariat.
Review Committee members
Members of the Review Committee
- Nanna Viereck - Associate Professor, KU Food, University of Copenhagen (Chairman)
- Hanne Lakkenborg Kristensen - Associate Professor, Aarhus University
- Vibe Glitsø - Research Director, Novozymes
- Jihad Orabi - Head of molecular breeding, Nordic Seed
- Beinta Unni Marr - Senior Director Innovation, CP Kelco
- Mohammad Amin Mohammadifar - Associate Professor, Danish Technical University
- Karin Schroen - Professor, Wageningen University & Research
- Mette Skau Mikkelsen - Principal Scientist & Head of Plant-Based Foods, FOSS
Specialist Review Pool
The Specialist Review Pool consists of 30-40 international experts appointed by the Review Committe. Together they represent different scientific fields and industrial value chains.
Each of the top 50-75% of the applications are reviewed by members of the Specialist Review Pool.
Secretariat
The Plant2Food Secretariat consists of a Programme Manager and an Administrative Coordinator based at Aarhus University.
The secretariat is responsible for the day-to-day operations of the Plant2Food project.
Programme Manager - responsibilities:
- Facilitating ideation, matchmaking and knowledge-sharing events in Plant2Food
- Implementation of competitive funding calls for projects
- Collecting and assessing progress reports from funded P2F projects
- Stakeholder engagement and recruitment
- Coordination of open access and knowledge dissemination activities in P2F
Administrative Coordinator - responsibilities:
- Administrative coordination of the Plant2Food platform
- Organization of both online and physical events
- Communication and graphics
- Development of the Plant2Food platform
Ambassadors
To ensure fast and agile ideation andmatchmaking in Plant2Food, a number of ambassadors are engaged in both industry and academia.
Scientific ambassadors
The scientific ambassadors are active scientists at the partnering universities (AU, DTU, UCPH, and WUR) with an overview of research areas, colleagues and companies who may be relevant to connect for developing new research ideas that can emerge through the Plant2Food ideation process. By activating ambassador networks – and similar (unfunded) networks in industry – the Programme Manager can quickly help the author of an idea in Plant2Food source relevant partners and input across many organisations.
Industry ambassadors
Plant2Food will draw on a network of industry representatives from any interested, committed companies to assess incoming ideas on the Plant2Food ideation and matchmaking platform and accelerate the match between ideas and relevant partners within the often large companies. In this way, the ambassadors can quickly screen ideas from academia or other companies at meetings with the Secretariat, discuss their potential, and engage the right recipients within their organisation.
The Food & Bio Cluster Denmark (FBCD).
FBCD will support the secretariat on a consultancy level with a FTE.
Food & Bio Cluster Denmark (FBCD) is the national cluster organisation for food and bio resources. The organisation has 400+ members across the Danish food and bioindustry and drives activities for all types of companies, entrepreneurs, knowledge institutions and GTS’s.
FBCD promotes collaboration and networking between companies, researchers and other stakeholders within the sector and provides information and services to help companies drive and optimize their innovation capacity.
Food & Bio Cluster Denmark will, among other things, help the Secretariat:
- Recruit companies and the best projects
- Tailor Plant2Food’s value proposition to individual company types
- Communicate the results of Plant2Food to a wide range of companies
