The Future Food Hub launches training programme to help researchers to improve the societal impact of their research

Searching for effective ways to translate your research findings into innovations & applications? Want to have more societal impact? Join the one-year training programme Building Acquisition & Networking Competences (BANC) of the Future Food Utrecht Hub. The programme is open for max 10 participants and starts end of May 2019.

FFU aims to bring together scientists and external stakeholders to contribute to the transition of the food chain for a sustainable and healthy world. With the BANC training programme we want to stimulate researchers to develop communication and networking skills needed to effectively engage with stakeholders.

What does this programme offer?

Participants will be trained in establishing contacts with societal partners and stakeholders, to jointly write project proposals and initiate collaborative research projects on food-related topics. At the end of the programme participants have established valuable contacts with partners, have learned how to establish and maintain relations, and have initiated joint research plans or collaborative projects.   

Set up of the programme:

  • The programme is open for a maximum of 10 participants (UU/UMC tenure track, Assistant/Associate professor or comparable); costs are covered by the Future Food Utrecht Hub.
  • Participants will join the programme for one year, spend approx. two days per month on the programme (one day of training and one day of individual tasks), and participate in two 2-day external training events.
  • Personal goals (e.g. submitting a collaborative grant proposal with a company, setting up a consortium) are defined at the start of the training, and will be actively pursued in recurring meetings in order to be realized within the training period.
  • Topics within the programme range from relation management and building business cases to improving communication and negotiation skills. Part of the programme will be with external trainers, other topics will be supervised by UU/UMC Utrecht coaches/colleagues, while peers provide feedback to each other in InterVision sessions.
  • The training is planned to start end of May 2019.

Applicants should send a CV and a motivation letter to FutureFood@uu.nl before May 3 to the attention of Maria Jose Rojo Martinez, Managing Director of Future Food.
A short interview can be part of the selection procedure.

Further information about content of the training programme:
Dr. Vincent Rijsman - Business Developer – Faculty of Veterinary Medicine

Prof.dr. Guido Van den Ackerveken - Professor of Translational Plant & Microbial Biology, Future Food Ambassadeur – Faculty of Science