The ISEKI_Food Network Approach to the Innovation of the Food Sector by Bridging Education/Research/Industry Interfaces

ISEKI-Food was designed as a network of University and Research Institutions, Professional and Students Associations, and Industrial partners to foster collaboration. Several European and global academic networks projects received funding between 1998 and 2011 from the European Commission and currently the ISEKI_Food 4 (2011-2014, www.iseki-food4.eu) and Track_Fast (2009-2013, www.track-fast.eu projects are ongoing. To ensure the sustainability of the network activities the ISEKI-Food Association (www.iseki-food.net) was founded in 2005. The main objectives of the network are to contribute to the Higher Education Area by internationalization, enhancement of food studies quality and fostering of innovative developments of the entire food sector by bridging education, research and industry. Important outcomes of this network (www.iseki-food.eu) are e.g. the EQAS_Food award for accredited Food Study Programmes, innovative teaching materials and methods including the ISEKI-Food book series published by Springer, a training platform including tailor made e-learning courses, web seminars and workshops facilitating Lifelong Learning, a platform to support international cooperation and mobility (PICAM_Food), several web databases for curricula, teaching materials and stakeholders aimed to maintain a worldwide network of all stakeholders in the food supply chain and to promote synergies between research, education/teaching and industry. The ongoing ISEKI_Food 4 project will contribute to the modernization of the food studies by tools to promote the development of the personal skills in the future generation of food technologists, to implement the educational abilities of the university teaching staff and to implement the entrepreneurship and professional qualification of doctoral students in a lifelong learning perspective. The International Journal of Food Studies (http://www.iseki-food-ejournal.com) is an international peerreviewed open-access journal featuring scientific articles for education, research and industry. Within the Track_Fast project, a virtual tool for Continual Professional development (www.foodcareers.eu) of food professionals and a website (www.foodgalaxy.org) to attract talented students to undertake a career in the food sector have been developed. Today the ISEKI-Food Network is a successful Network that is managing to achieve a great impact through its internationalization and communication to a large audience of stakeholders from all over the world.