About us
The Monash University Food and Dairy Graduate Research Industry Partnership (GRIP) collaborates with industry on the challenges and opportunities in sustainable manufacturing.
Aims and vision
Opportunity and challenge for the dairy and food industry
The demand for premium dairy and food products is growing in Asia, especially among the Chinese middle-class, fueled by a rising appetite for Western diet and higher food safety standards. This growing demand represents a significant global challenge and opportunity as the dairy and food industry seek to respond in a scalable and sustainable way.
The challenge and opportunity are especially acute for Australia as the fourth largest dairy exporter in the world, accounting for six per cent of global trade. Australia’s dairy quality and safety processes are among the best in the world, with the industry contributing close to $3 billion in annual export earnings to the national economy. The food and agribusiness sector in Australia is poised to be the largest export industry in the very near future. Sustainability and growth depends upon the ability of industry to innovate and to improve processing quality and capacity. These include the use of current ‘waste streams’ to recover valuable ingredients, innovations in packaging and distribution, and bringing new, high-value products and specialty goods to dynamic Asian markets to strengthen the future growth of the sector. The Graduate Research Industry Partnerships (GRIPs) program aims to produce a new generation of PhD qualified scientists and engineers for the dairy and food industry with specialised industry experience and interdisciplinary skills, to tackle new global market opportunities and to remain ahead of global innovation challenges.
The vision of the GRIP program for a Globally Competitive Dairy and Food Industry is
to assist the dairy and food industry in exploring the next frontiers in the manufacturing of new products, efficient distribution, and sustainable resource use.
Key Program Deliverables and Features
1) Support the whole value chain of the dairy and food industry by staying abreast of the latest research and technology in product manufacturing, novel materials, big data optimisation, and sustainable practices in water, energy, and waste management.
- Improve manufacturing processes and develop new functional products.
- Improve packaging, including barrier protection for longer shelf-life and disposable sensors for tracking and quality control.
- Sustainable wastewater management and potential re-use of waste streams to expand future product scope (e.g. permeate, acid whey, milk minerals, lactose derivatives, etc.).
- Optimisation and data management for efficient supply chain, process control, distribution, and marketing.
2) Train high-level graduates with relevant skills for the industry via tailored industry-focused PhD projects, mentoring, internships, and training programs. The GRIP will also contribute to professional development across the network for industry staff.
- Drive workforce skills to remain ahead of global innovation challenges and opportunities.
- Collaborate to attract, train, and retain skilled professionals in the dairy and food industry.
- Transfer knowledge and skills for innovation best practice (local to international perspectives).
- Support and enhance industry in-house R&D and foster long-term collaborative partnerships.
- Access to research infrastructure and capabilities at Monash University (including drying technology platform, advanced membrane and materials research, Computer Aided Virtual Environment, nutritional science and functional foods, Food Innovation Centre, etc).