The proposal seeks funds to renew and refresh the Centre for Doctoral Training in Formulation Engineering based in Chemical Engineering at Birmingham. The Centre was first funded by EPSRC in 2001, and was renewed in 2008. In 2011, on its 10th anniversary, the Centre received one of the Diamond Jubilee Queen's Anniversary Prizes, for 'new technologies and leadership in formulation engineering in support of UK manufacturing'. The scheme is an Engineeering Doctoral Centre; students are embedded in their sponsoring company and carry out industry-focused research. Formulation Engineering is the study of the manufacture of products that are structured at the micro-scale, and whose properties depend on this structure. In this it differs from conventional chemical engineering. Examples include foods, home and personal care products, catalysts, ceramics and agrichemicals. In all of these material formulation and microstructure control the physical and chemical properties that are essential to its function. The structure determines how molecules are delivered or perceived - for example, in foods delivery is of flavour molecules to the mouth and nose, and of nutritional benefit to the GI tract, whilst in home and personal care delivery is to skin or to clothes to be cleaned, and in catalysis it is delivery of molecules to and from the active site. Different industry sectors are thus underpinned by the same engineering science. We have built partnerships with a series of companies each of whom is world-class in its own field, such as P&G, Kraft/Mondelez, Unilever, Johnson Matthey, Imerys, Pepsico and Rolls Royce, each of which has written letters of support that confirm the value of the programme and that they will continue to support the EngD. Research Engineers work within their sponsoring companies and return to the University for training courses that develop the concepts of formulation engineering as well as teaching personal and management skills; a three day conference is held every year at which staff from the different companies interact and hear presentations on all of the projects. Outputs from the Centre have been published in high-impact journals and conferences, IP agreements are in place with each sponsoring company to ensure both commercial confidentiality and that key aspects of the work are published. Currently there are 50 ongoing projects, and of the Centre's graduates, all are employed and more than 85% have found employment in formulation companies. EPSRC funds are requested to support 8 projects/year for 5 years, together with the salary of the Deputy Director who works to link the University, the sponsors and the researchers and is critical to ensure that the projects run efficiently and the cohorts interact well. Two projects/year will be funded by the University (which will also support a lecturer, total >£1 million over the life of the programme) and through other sources such as the 1851 Exhibition fund, which is currently funding 3 projects. EPSRC funding will leverage at least £3 million of direct industry contributions and £8 million of in-kind support, as noted in the supporting letters. EPSRC funding of £4,155,480 will enable a programme with total costs of more than £17 million to operate, an EPSRC contribution of 24% to the whole programme.

The overarching objective of FOODENGINE is to provide, for the first time, a research-based training programme to a new generation of young food scientists and technologists by introducing an enginomics approach in food quality design. It connects an omics approach to instrumentally quantify food quality with an advanced engineering approach using multi-response kinetics to model food quality changes during processing and storage. At the same time, FOODENGINE will develop models linking the enginomics-based instrumental food quality design with sensory properties, consumer acceptability and consumer preferences to create new products appealing to consumers. FOODENGINE provides unique interdisciplinary, international and intersectoral training opportunities to 13 ESRs, each for 36 months. This extensive international (5 countries), intersectoral (2 universities, 1 research institute and 6 food (ingredient) companies) and interdisciplinary (food engineering, food chemistry, food nutrition and sensory/consumer research) training should lead for all ESRs to a PhD degree. FOODENGINE will boost the career perspectives of the FOODENGINE fellows to the top level. In addition, it has the ambition to become a best-practise example for structuring PhD research training in food science and technology at the European level. Although FOODENGINE specifically focusses on sustainable commodities which are essential parts of a healthy lifestyle (fruit-, vegetable-, legume-based food ingredients and foods), the skills and new ways of thinking the fellows will acquire are generic and can be extrapolated beyond the specific application area (diverse range of food systems or food processes) in their future careers.

MACRO CASCADE will prove the concept of the cascading marine macroalgal biorefinery i.e. a production platform that covers the whole technological chain for processing sustainable cultivated macro-algae biomass – also known as seaweed - to highly processed value added products. The macro-algae biorefinery will be capable of processing multiple feedstocks, by deploying a range of mechanical, physicochemical and enzymatic pre-processing and fractionation techniques combined with chemical, enzymatic or microbial conversion refinery techniques for generation of a diversity of added-value products for industries within food, feed, cosmetics, pharmaceutical and fine chemicals. Algae based products for food, feed, cosmetics, pharmaceutical will be tested and documented for their bio-activities and health properties. The participation of two major industries and five SMEs demonstrate a significant commercial interest in the outcome MACRO CASCADE. The MACRO CASCADE approach contributes to the “zero waste society” as the left-over residuals from the biorefinery process can be used for fertilizers and bio-energy.

The use of renewable resources in the process industries is socially desirable and a market pull for products has started to develop in recent years, but renewable products have to compete with identical or similar-in-application products based on fossil raw materials in terms of quality and production cost. One of the main reasons for currently higher production costs of products based on renewable resources is that the production routes involve processing complex dilute aqueous solutions from which the desired products have to be separated during downstream processing. Consequently, a major challenge the process industry is facing, is the development of cost- and energy-efficient water removal and product-recovery techniques. Today downstream processes for products based on renewable resources are often developed using methods from the petrochemical area being insufficiently adapted to the new applications. A re-thinking of downstream process development and the development of suitable methodologies for a fast-track development of tailored downstream processes as well as the optimisation of separation technologies are urgently needed in order to unlock the potential of the renewable-based product market for the European process industry. PRODIAS addresses this challenge by developing and implementing: - a toolbox of highly innovative, cost-effective and renewable-tailored separation technologies; single technologies and/or hybrid systems - novel, optimized apparatus and machinery to enable for and host the developed technologies - in combination with an integrated design approach for the fast-track selection of appropriate technologies. The main advantages of the PRODIAS toolbox and integrated design approach for processes based on renewable resources are - significantly decreased production cost - increased productivity and efficiency - faster process development and commercialization - significantly lower energy consumption leading to less CO2 emmissions.