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Food Innovation Student Collaborator

 

WHAT IS THIS?

The Food Innovation Student Collaborator is an opportunity for a select few Canadian food companies to collaborate with UofG students to explore and develop innovative food ideas.

Company sponsors benefit from student insights, and students benefit from working with food companies on real-world challenges.

The cost-free program is based on a two-semester Food Product Development course that examines the research and development process related to new food products.

Students earn academic credit for this work are expected to contribute 8-10 hours per week on this project over 24 weeks.

HOW DOES IT WORK?

Step 1. Participant companies donate an innovation challenge to be selected by the student teams.

Step 2. Students select the projects that they want to work on; forming multidisciplinary teams of food science and marketing students. Once a project has been accepted by a student team, it is their role to independently work towards solving the challenges based on market and consumer research.

Teams spend two semesters solving the company challenge through: Concept generation, Consumer exploration, Competitor analysis, Product development, Sensory evaluation and Product marketing.

Sponsors are encouraged to make themselves available to the student teams for the purpose of enhancing student learning as well as providing visibility to suppliers, processes and ingredients that may be important to the project. Sponsors will be invited to various touchpoints and the final showcase when projects will be presented in a public forum.

The course culminates in students sharing back their finished work in a public showcase.

WHO IS INVOLVED?

Students are guided by professors, industry mentors, suppliers, and invited speakers.

Our instructors are experienced product developers, food scientists and marketing professionals.

Our mentors and industry advisors come from disciplines including ingredient suppliers, retailers, distributors, packaging/labeling experts and more.

SUBMITTING A CHALLENGE:

If your organization is interested in sponsoring a student group with a challenge Please fill out a submission form by following the link at the bottom of the page.

Below are some suggestions for a successful submission:

1. Challenges should be focused on solving a real-world problem for a real-world consumer (or future consumer). Challenges that best match with current trends, consumer demand, novel ingredients and technologies tend to be selected first.

2. Must be challenging and interesting from a marketing and/or food science perspective while remaining with in the scope of being feasible from a cost and capability perspective without significant capital investment.

2. Should specify criteria that are essential to its success (Eg: consumer needs, product characteristics, annual volumes, etc.). At the same time the project cannot be so prescribed that the outcome is obvious.

A pretty good example:

A craft brewery is interested in developing a packaged retail snack food based on spent material from the brewing process.

  • The snack should be shelf stable and distinctive compared to chip/pretzel alternatives.

  • The product ideally will be clean label, have sensory elements of their flagship product; since they share a target consumer.

  • Their goal is to market a value-added product that can expand their brand message of being authentic and sustainable.

  • The cost and shelf life should be in-line with other premium snack foods.

APPLY TODAY …!!

If your company would like to donate a student challenge for Fall 2023 please fill out an application form below. Submission deadline is August 30, 2023.