Wageningen, The Netherlands
September 2, 2011
The Minister of Economic Affairs, Agriculture and Innovation (EL&I) Mr Maxime Verhagen will officially open the Centre for Advanced Technology in the Agro and Food sector (CAT-AgroFood) on Monday 5 September. This centre, part of Wageningen UR (University & Research centre), will make high-quality advanced research equipment available to organisations – including those in the business world – for which the individual purchase of such equipment would not be profitable. CAT-AgroFood is an initiative of the Ministry of EL&I and the Province of Gelderland – each making a financial contribution – together with Wageningen UR, offering equipment as a contribution in kind.
The opening will take place at the Gelderse Vallei Hospital in Ede, where a 3T-MRI scanner is located – the centre’s first investment.
CAT-AgroFood invests in expensive, advanced equipment for agri-food research. The equipment is available to both research groups within Wageningen UR and other researchers at companies and organisations within the agri-food sector and at Food Valley. This facility sharing is more cost-effective. Moreover, it also enables users to keep up with the rapid developments in advanced analysis equipment.
In this way, CAT-AgroFood also aims to achieve a lively knowledge exchange between researchers at Wageningen UR, the business world and other collaborating institutions. This platform for open innovation thus forms an extra stimulus for the further economic development of Food Valley.
Minister
As part of the official opening, the minister will symbolically put a 3T-MRI scanner into use at the Gelderse Vallei Hospital in Ede in ceremonial style. This scanner, total costing around 2.5 million euros including peripheral equipment and related renovation, is the first major investment of CAT-AgroFood. Hospitals, universities and companies in the food industry, for example, will all be able to make use of this very accurate scanner to for instance map out the effects of food and nutrition on humans.
The scanner is located at the Gelderse Vallei Hospital, which has profiled itself as a hospital specialising in nutrition. Within Wageningen UR, the university’s Division of Human Nutrition will be the most intensive user.
CAT-AgroFood
The Centre for Advanced Technology in the Agro and Food sector (CAT-AgroFood) is a recent initiative of the Ministry of EL&I, the Province of Gelderland and Wageningen UR. CAT-AgroFood is a virtual organisation, part of Wageningen UR. In 2009, the Ministry of EL&I and the Province of Gelderland jointly reserved the sum of 18.8 million euros for this new, advanced research centre. Wageningen UR contributes in kind in the form of already available advanced research equipment worth approximately four million euros. This equipment for instance includes new electron-microscope facilities for applied research in the plant sciences and the food sector, and for research into nanotechnology.
One of the next large investments by CAT-AgroFood will be DNA sequencing facilities – so-called second and third generation DNA sequencers – with complementary ICT and bio-informatics facilities; this is a joint initiative of Wageningen UR and KeyGene. In addition, there are concrete plans for further investments, including investments in equipment for chemical and biological analysie of biomolecules for applications in the food and non-food sectors.
Topics
Species
