Helping consumers make healthier lifestyle choices
CSIRO and Singapore's Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR) are collaborating on the Innovations in Food for Precision Health program to support consumers to make healthier food, diet and lifestyle choices. The program brings together multiple disciplines of science and technology to inform strategies to improve the health and safety outcomes of innovative foods.
The research areas of the project include:
- consumers' sensory responses to alternative proteins and how this differs across cultures
- pilot study to investigate the feasibility of developing a Singapore retail branded foods database using a new FoodTrack™ methodology
- understanding the risk of novel insect-based food products
- new plant-ingredients for healthier foods and sustainable planetary diets
- foods for gut health
- how consumers' understanding, expectations and experiences vary across cultures
- new delivery systems for creating nutrient dense, fortified food products.
The impact of precision health is rapidly accelerating, powered by advances in biosciences and digital technologies. The aim of these technologies is to assess health by taking into account the variability in genes, lifestyle and environment of each person. This helps researchers anticipate and prevent disease.
Supporting deep tech startups
In 2019 CSIRO and Austrade committed to a Deep Tech Collaboration Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Singaporean venture capital fund SGInnovate. SGInnovate specialises in supporting deep tech start-ups in the fields of artificial intelligence, medical technology, quantum computing and robotics. The goal of the Australia-Singapore partnership is to turn deep tech research into commercial ventures.
The MoU details collaboration on medical technology, digital health, novel foods, agricultural technology, artificial intelligence, quantum computing, cybersecurity domains and blockchain technology. The program will enable research teams and small/medium enterprises to efficiently access business and investor networks. It will also help them connect to relevant partnerships and talent and gain new insights outside their domestic market.
Modelling big events for disaster resilience
Data 61 have a joint project with National University of Singapore on Resource Deployment and Optimisation in Disaster Management (commenced June 2018), a two year collaboration to support the joint development of methodologies and human behaviour modelling. This will aid the automation of processes used for collecting data that feed machine learning based models.