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SWISS FOOD RESARCH

Swiss Food Research is a non profit association with the goal of supporting Swiss food companies and their suppliers in adopting research-based innovations and thereby contributing to a sustainable and robust agrofood industry.

AVINA supports Swiss Food Research in building up a Swiss agrofood network and fostering innovation, collaboration and knowledge and technology transfer within that network.

Lucas Grob

In an exclusive interview, Peter Braun (Finance & Innovation) and Lucas Grob (CEO) talk about their biggest learnings, potential construction sites and the success of Swiss Food Research.

What exactly does Swiss Food Research stand for and what makes it unique?

Swiss Food Research stands for an independent, neutral and confidenial platform to support and effectively promote innovation along the entire value chain, from the field to the people and beyond. This requires the involvement of all players in the innovation ecosystem. Swiss Food Research acts as a bridge builder for researchers, entrepreneurs, farmers, industry and consumers. This bridge is built through various formats in order to answer a wide range of questions (see figure). One example of this format is our 12 innovation groups. They report twice a year on innovation projects from science and industry in order to highlight the gradual change.

How does Swiss Food Research work? Support with questions about innovation

What has been your greatest learning since your time at Swiss Food Research? Are there any construction sites?

Innovation means something new is created and something new means change. In our opinion, this requires the following 6 things:

The right people and partners
A problem that can be solved
Trust
Foresight & Time
The will to persevere
The right framework conditions: Product-market fit, political, regulatory, etc.

Of course, this list is not exhaustive, but based on it, we try to pass all of this on to our members and you can already derive the learnings from it.

People are at the centre. Swiss Food Research is nothing without its members. We are proud of our members, but even more important are the people behind them. From a 9-member board, to 52 researchers - who are active in various steering groups – to 3’500+ active innovators. Another learning is to articulate and describe problems correctly so that my counterpart (research partner, consumer, partner, etc.) also understands this is essential in order to find the way into the application. We have intensified this problem and language identification over the last few years, among other things through the problem three approach and other tools. Once the problem has been identified, we try to encourage trust and reduce inhibitions (“I can do something wrong”, “Someone will steal my idea”). However, we are still a long way from where we want to be. It requires a further cultural “shift” that we expose ourselves to the community at an early stage and work out problems and solutions together. If we then embark on the path of innovation, it takes time, foresight and continuity. This means that resources must be freed up internally to create space for the “artists” and to interact with other stakeholders.

One notorious construction site is day-to-day business: innovation is characterized by uncertainty and day-to-day business is our comfort zone. This is where we need to muster and support the energy and perseverance to avoid falling back into old patterns. We must continue to work on the environmental and general conditions in order to catalyse the transformation further.

In what way is the collaboration with AVINA of particular value to you?

Doing nothing is the option you always have. Then you surrender to the course of events and no longer actively participate in the change of process (innovation process). This is a question of personal attitude and values. AVINA is committed to change towards more sustainability. We are pleased to have found commonaliy of purpose here. Finally, personal dialogue at eye level is key. We greatly appreciate the trust that we experience. Coupled with AVINA’s foresight, it allows us as an organization to continuously improve and learn from each other.

What does innovation mean to you? How do you define it?

Innovation is everything that is different today than yesterday, i.e. new for the market or for the company or organisation. For us, it is the toolbox for the future.

Sustainability projects in particular often require a measurable impact. How would you personally define the success of Swiss Food Research?

The success of Swiss Food Research is primarily defined by and based on the work of our members. Working together to develop holistic solutions - i.e. sustainability, site suitability and resilience of the solutions - is a prerequisite for every project and idea and, ultimately, for joint success. Our measurable success is the number of activated ecosystem players who embark on the path of innovation. One of the indicators of this is the net growth in membership, which has been more than 10% per year over the last 15 years. On the path of innovation, every player has different needs. For me personally, this means that we also have to take different step lengths and take these into account. Systemic change or success therefore comes in a wide variety of forms: every project that is initiated or realised with our input, every project that is terminated early, every stakeholder that is encouraged to do more and give back to the community is a success.