Foodvalley Shared Facility Finder

One of the important tools that Foodvalley NL uses is the Shared Facility Finder (SFF) on Foodleap. This platform allows organisations to find and share pilot and research facilities and equipment. These include kitchen facilities, production lines, demonstration areas and laboratories. The platform currently features more than 139 innovation facilities with equipment available for sharing.

Emmanuel Anom
Manager Shared Facilities

"The sharing economy is the future. By sharing facilities, businesses can reduce costs, shorten the time to market and enhance sustainable production. Although startups and SMEs have much innovative power, they often lack funding and technical resources. Such resources are often available at large corporations and knowledge institutions but are not always accessible to other parties. 

Collaborative innovation in the sharing economy can help accelerate new sectors, such as advances related to plant-based protein and fermentation. At Foodvalley, we support this collaborative innovation by connecting the dots across the network of parties and sharing facilities."

From startup to corporate

Foodvalley and Wageningen University & Research jointly created the Shared Facility Finder to encourage the sharing of facilities, knowledge, and technologies in a practical way. Anom is responsible for the platform at Food-valley, and he proactively attracts available facilities and makes them easily accessible for startups and SMEs. The emphasis is placed on organisations and innovation facilities that promote Foodvalley’s three main innovation fields in food and health, circular agrifood, and protein transition. 

"We continue to see increased use of the platform, with more than 50 organisations recorded to have used it in the past year. At Foodvalley, we believe in transforming ideas into tangible impact. Hence, our approach helps make connections with investment opportunities and organisations where innovations and facilities are lacking. We address all stages, from idea to practice, including research, development and deployment. SFF allows companies to experiment, produce and demonstrate their products and services to potential customers."

Cost sharing

Knowledge sharing is an important reason for organisations to join, whatever their scale and size. Cooperation on facilities and devices enhances knowledge transfer and promotes faster progression. Wherever a company is on its R&D journey, the right knowledge helps to reduce business risk and use investment capital appropriately. Companies can reduce costs by lending equipment or facilities or investing together, especially when it involves technology or equipment with a large, underutilized capacity. However, such efforts are not without their barriers, which include security and intellectual property. "At Foodvalley, we are involved in preparing agreements that address these barriers. This approach helps to reduce the risk of entry for smaller companies and creates an environment that fosters collaboration on a practical level," Anom explains. 

"We are currently specifically looking for parties with scale-up and demonstration facilities that want to join. And who knows, your neighbour may also have interesting facilities available for you. After all: what goes around, comes around."

Fermentation lab and Insect Experience Centre

In 2023, a shared innovation lab will open at the Smaakpark (‘Taste Park’) in Ede where companies can develop and learn about new fermented products with unique flavours and properties. 

The fermentation lab is partly made possible thanks to a subsidy provided by the Regio Deal Foodvalley. At the Smaakpark, the need arose for a place to develop fermented products. Anom: "This is why we brought together our stakeholders from the food sector and applied for a grant, so that we could actually realise this. We also used the grant to finance the Insect Experience Centre, which opened at the end of 2021. 

There, we now have an automated system for insect breeding to enable affordable insect proteins in animal feed."

Robolector

The Robolector is a new type of device that allows as many as 24 fungal fermentation processes to be run simultaneously using a special technique, making protein selection faster and more efficient. This results in a huge acceleration in research processes in product development.

The Robolector is a joint investment by WUR, Utrecht University and GINKGO Bioworks in Utrecht, where the device is located. The purchase fulfilled a big wish of GINKGO Bioworks, which did not have the means to buy the device itself.

The Robolector is included in the Shared Facility Finder and is also available to other companies, institutes and research organisations.

More information on foodvalley.nl