FEI in English

Figures and Facts

The Research Association of the German Food Industry (FEI) is a non-profit, registered association supporting research projects in all fields of food science, food technology and nutritional science.

Up today the FEI is the sole research association spanning almost all branches and disciplines of the food and drink industry in Germany.
The FEI connects economy and science: It coordinates yearly about 100 cooperative research projects, organises scientific conferences and publishes different media for experts.
Via committees of company representatives – which accompany all projects and guarantee the industrial relevance of the projects – an average of more than 900 companies are regularly involved in the network of the FEI.

The financing is provided by private funding (enterprises and industrial associations) and public funding (Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action) within the programme "Industrielle Gemeinschaftsforschung (IGF)" (Industrial Collective Research for SMEs).

President: Dr. Götz Kröner
Managing Director: Dr. Georg Munz

Object

Promoting applied food research related to practice

Members

• over 45 associations and federations of the industrial food sector
• over 50 enterprises including the supply industry
• around 120 scientific institutions and personalities of various scientific disciplines

Core Activities

• Promotion and coordination of pre-competitive collective research projects
• Currently more than 100 projects (total project volume 2022: more than 50 millions Euro)

Fields

• Sponsorship of R&D activities
• Applied oriented food research
• Process chain: raw material – processing – consumer
• Technology of the food production chain
• Quality management
• Technology transfer

Further Activities

• R&D promotion and advisory service
• Contact point of industrial research for industry and science
• Organisation of conferences and workshops
• Edition of publications

Events

• Scientific Conferences
• Conferences of the Scientific Committee
• Meetings of the Project Monitoring Committees
• Panel Meetings

Publications

• FEI Vademecum
• FEI Proceedings of the Conferences
• FEI Online R&D Reports
• FEI Newsletter
• FEI Report

Cooperation Partners

• Institutes of Universities and Universities of Applied Sciences
• State and Federal Research Centres
• Industrial Institutes

Umbrella Organisation
The German Federation of Industrial Research Associations (AiF), Cologne. The AiF is an industry-based innovation network covering over 100 industrial research associations in Germany.

Collective Research
The German food industry is the fourth largest manufacturing sector. With a turnover of 185 billion Euros (2020) it is one of the backbones of the German economy. Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SME) with only low capacities in research and development (R&D) predominate traditionally this sector.

In 1953 foresight entrepreneurs had been proactive and established the "Research Association of the German Food Industry" (FEI). The crucial aim of the FEI was and still is the improvement of the competitiveness of the food industry by structuring and extending an efficient network for development and innovation. Key features for R&D activities in this network are:

• Choice of research topics by industry (bottom-up approach)
• Applied industrial research related to practice
• Topics with a pre-competitive character
• Basic solutions for innovations and in-house implementations

Structure of the FEI
The FEI exists of the Executive Board, the General Assembly which vote the executive, and the Scientific Committee. The Scientific Committee is nominated by the General Assembly and the Executive Board and includes about 90 scientists from the private and public food sector proportionally.

Evaluation of project proposals
The scientific excellence of a proposal is the fundamental evaluation criteria. Therefore state-of-the-art of science and technology must be well demonstrated. The approach and method to solve the problem have to be explained coherently. Furthermore the innovation potential and the use of the project results for industry are important evaluation criteria. The proposal should have a clear focus on the need and requirements of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises.

Each research proposal will be pre-evaluated by 5-8 members of the Scientific Committee following a critical discussion in the plenum of the committee. In a final vote the plenum decides whether a project will be recommended or rejected for the submission to the AiF and the Federal Ministry of Economic Affairs and Energy.

Research Topics
Research topics are generated in a bottom-up process and comprising primarily

• Development and optimisation of processes
• Improvement of methods of analysis and measuring
• Performance of food and food ingredients in processes
• Utilization of new technologies

All fields of application in the food industry are covered by the various FEI-projects.

Research Results
In terms of collective research, the results of the projects are available for all FEI-members and each enterprise can make use of it.

Innovation Network
The FEI has successfully promoted and co-ordinated many collective research activities: About 1000 research projects could have been realized since 1953. Research results has been beneficial for all branches and disciplines of the food industry and led to numerous research co-operations between various enterprises and more than 120 research institutions in Germany.

Model for Success
In fact, results of FEI-projects are used broadly by the food industry today without being conscious of that. Crucial cognitions have become standard in technology and knowledge in the meantime and are directly implemented in the operational practic.

Contact
Bonn
Georg Munz
Research Association of the German Food Industry
Godesberger Allee 125
53175 Bonn, Germany
Telephone +49 228 3079699-0
Fax +49 228 3079699-9
E-mail: munz@fei-bonn.de

Brussels
Jan Jacobi
EU-Office
47-51, Rue du Luxembourg
1050 Brussels, Belgium
Telephone: +49 172 2643357
E-mail: gfpi-fei@bdp-online.de