New collaboration will improve quality and sustainability of food and agricultural production

Measurements and analysis are essential for producing sustainable, high-quality foods. A new cooperation agreement between FOSS and the University of Copenhagen will contribute to the development of new solutions that optimize the production and processing of raw materials in the food sector.

FOSS has chosen to collaborate with the University of Copenhagen because of UCPH’s strengths in the fields of spectroscopy, process analysis and data processing based on artificial intelligence (AI) and chemometrics.

"Agreements like the one that FOSS and UCPH have just concluded are important because they create value for companies like FOSS, as well as for UCPH research and educational programmes," says Erik Bisgaard Madsen, Associate Dean for Private and Public Sector Services at UCPH’s Faculty of Science.

"At the same time, the agreement demonstrates what a major university with a very wide range of research specialties has to offer innovative and active companies. The breadth and strength of these specialties provides companies access to an integrated approach for solving various challenges."

Mads Nielsen and Anna Haldrup, department managers at the Department of Computer Science and Department of Food Science, point out that the collaboration is particularly interesting for UCPH because it will bolster interdisciplinary collaboration between DIKU and FOOD in spectroscopy, artificial intelligence and structural analyses.

In addition to the substantive aspects of the agreement, this collaboration also entails employee development and the opportunity for qualified sparring.

"We are not exclusively focused on individual results. We are also tremendously hopeful about focusing on collaboration with universities on capacity-building and competency development, by involving senior level university researchers to address issues that are are of interest to us and them, in efforts to develop new solutions. And at the same time, FOSS' highly qualified specialists gain access to competent and equally footed sparring partners," says FOSS senior manager, Lars Nørgaard.

About FOSS
FOSS contributes to the sustainable use of agricultural resources worldwide, and thus to the nutrition and health of the people of the world.

FOSS' analytic instruments and end-to-end solutions secure and improve food production and quality, from raw material to finished product. By transforming measurements into information management, FOSS helps businesses run intelligent data-driven production with less waste and increased yields.

Nils Foss founded the family-owned company in 1956. Today, FOSS employs 1500 dedicated people worldwide, and in 2017, had a global turnover of DKK 2.2 billion. FOSS invests 10 percent of its annual turnover into research and innovation.

ABOUT KU SCIENCE, Foodstuffs and AI
The University of Copenhagen’s Faculty of Science – SCIENCE – is the country's largest scientific research and educational institution with 4,500 employees and 9,500 full-time undergraduate and graduate students in 12 departments. The faculty has an annual budget of just over DKK 3 billion.

The food sector is one of the major fields of research at the University of Copenhagen and involves research across all 11 SCIENCE departments, and in other faculties as well. SCIENCE alone has more than 600 scientists who perform food-related research.

There is an increasing focus on digitalisation and in this context, Machine Learning and AI (artificial Intelligence). Certain areas, particularly UCPH’s Department of Computer Science have built up world-class competencies in these fields, which are increasingly being deployed for research and development by other departments.