Wanted: a new strategic alliance

Prepared Foods, April, 1990 by Daniel Best, Scott Hegenbart

Like two converging rivers, demographics and economics are eroding barriers that traditionally separate food companies and universities.

Financial restructurings and compressed product development time frames are pushing food companies to eschew major internal R&D investments in favor of outside contract services. For universities, declining enrollments are forcing fundamental reevaluations of teaching and research objectives. Shortages of technically trained personnel loom on the horizon.

"We see companies hiring students nine months in advance of graduation," observes Dr. Francis Busta, head of the University of Minnesota's food science department. Some companies are even cultivating top undergraduate food science students with scholarship incentives, continues Busta.

"We have a real technical crunch coming down the road . . it's scary," observes Dr. Daryl Lund, Rutgers University's interim dean of Agriculture and Natural Resources. R&D centers join the mainstream

Food companies and universities win have to work hard to readjust to new realities. One notable sign of progress is that many university R&D centers are thriving with tightly focused, industry-oriented research programs.

When PF first covered the emergence of university R&D centers in 1987, the concept of university centers dedicated to conducting joint university-industry research programs was still new and unproven. Many R&D centers were launched on faith as the wellspring of public research funds dried up during the early and mid-1980s.

Today, many U.S. companies are working with universities because it makes good financial sense to do so. Most companies can afford neither the capital nor the labor investments necessary to conduct longer term research.

"Companies tell us that their focus is on quality, safety and cost issues, to the detriment of medium- and long-term research," says Lund.

"Many technologically based food companies are currently driven by marketing or financial goals," observes Prof. Art Seidler, of the University of Illinois. Yet, says Seidler, they know they cannot afford to lose their technological base.

It is this role that industry-supported, university-based R&D centers are filling. Today, over 25 such centers are dedicated to food industry research in the United States.

A prominent success story is Rutgers University's Center for Advanced Food Technology (CAFT), which was formed specifically to address long-term basic research challenges. Originally conceived and funded by the state of New Jersey as a magnet for food industry investments, CAFT's future is now assured by a supporting membership of 19 major corporations.

"Our industry coalition members are actively involved in managing CAFT's research priorities, which ensures that we keep our efforts properly directed," explains CAFT's director Dr. Myron Solberg.

Current research objectives include basic research into computer integrated manufacturing (CIM) opportunities for thermally processed foods, water-food ingredient relationships in food processing, and the development of online sensor technologies. Labor investments

Universities may come to play another very important role. Declining enrollments and the lack of financial and other incentives for students to enter technical fields is forcing some academicians to reexamine their teaching priorities.

"Right now, we really have to beat the bushes to find students interested in food science," says Lund.

The impending technical labor shortage may prod universities to focus more attention on continuing education efforts, suggests Lund.

Faced with a declining supply of technical graduates, many companies may opt for continuing education programs to retrain existing personnel resources-even to the point of sending their scientists and engineers on one month to one year sabbaticals. For universities, says Lund, continuing education offers an invaluable means to strengthen their industry networks. Adjusting to change

Some will, no doubt, resist this process of strategic alignment. Many food companies are not structured to conduct research in a decentralized fashion, while many universities still see their mission as divorced from economic objectives.

"Society's needs change, and universities must change with them," says Dr. Bill Haines, director of MSU's Food Industry Institute. "If they don't, they risk becoming anachronisms, and other institutions will take their place."

Michigan State University: Technology is our business "The 'B'-school link is our claim to fame," says Dr. Bill Haines, director of MSU's Food Industry Institute (FII). The FII was conceived as a hub that would link Michigan's growers and processors with the university's technical and business resources-and it has worked! Today, the FII links MSU's academic resources with an expanding ring of highly focused, free-standing "institutes" devoted to technology commercialization.

The strength of the business school link is apparent in MSU's efforts to developing deli-industry opportunities. Consider that "the deli section is the fastest growing section of the supermarket, and it offers some of the best opportunities for Michigan's growers, processors and marketers to add value to their products," explains Thomas Pierson, marketing professor.