Flanders Reseach Institute for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food hosting offers for MSCA-IF postdoc fellowships in Food and Technology Science

MSCA postdoc fellowship hosting offers for 2021 call

The Flanders Research Institute for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (ILVO) is a public research institute located in Belgium. ILVO performs multidisciplinary, innovative and independent research aimed at economically, ecologically and socially sustainable agriculture and fisheries. Through this research, ILVO accumulates fundamental and applied knowledge which is vital for the improvement of products and production methods, for quality control and the safety of end products, and for the amelioration of policy instruments as a foundation for sector development and agricultural policy for rural areas.

Recently, some important management decisions have been made to orientate the research at ILVO in a holistic framework of systems thinking as well as to combine ILVO's tacit knowledge with new technological approaches like genomics, metabolomics, (remote) sensing technology, artificial intelligence, precision farming, innovative food/feed production technology, new breeding technologies, animal models, modelling as well as participatory social sciences approaches. This means that a lot of the research at ILVO is conducted in Living Labs, such as a Food Pilot, fishing vessels, modern greenhouses and animal farming units, and in the context of inter- and transdisciplinary research. To accelerate and further improve this new research process, ILVO is looking to host young and experienced researchers at post-doc level in the framework of Marie Sklodowska-Curie individual fellowships within the new Horizon Europe framework programmaoriHor.

Possible research items are shown below and are divided over the different research units of ILVO. Please contact the respective contact persons if you are interested in a specific item or research unit.

Technology and Food Science Unit

General contact person: Marc Heyndrickx; marc.heyndrickx@ilvo.vlaanderen.be

*Heat transfer and mass transport phenomena in thermal food processing.

They are very important, as they determine the processing time and conditions for optimal food quality and safety. We can establish accurate heat-transfer models based on thermal properties of food and e.g. enzyme kinetics determined in laboratory conditions (using T-t curves). From also a modeling perspective, a spatial and temporal discretization of the heat transfer problem will result in exact time-temperature profiles throughout the food, so that the evolution of food quality and safety parameters during thermal processing can be predicted. CFD (computation fluid dynamics) software with auxiliary numerical modelling techniques can be used to optimize thermal food processing.

*Development and implementation of molecular and mass spectrometric analysis methods for GMO and food allergen testing

including e.g. ELISA, qPCR (quantitative real-time PCR), ddPCR (droplet digital PCR), LC-MS and MALDI-TOF methods. Within ILVO’s Food Pilot it is possible to prepare allergen-incurred food matrices mimicking real-life food processing. These matrices can be used to study the impact of processing on allergens. This can either be focused on detectability (with ELISA, qPCR (quantitative real-time PCR), ddPCR (droplet digital PCR) or LC-MS or MALDI-TOF), on identifying stable proteotypic peptides or on investigating the modifications induced by this processing. The last two using LC-high resolution mass spectrometry (LC-HRMS).

*Precision crop farming.

As a research institute ILVO cooperates with government, industry, academia, civil participants and of course also with farmers to explore possibilities for innovation and economic added-value by the application of remote-sensing techniques in agriculture and precision application technologies for plant-protection products and fertilizers. In addition, ILVO focusses on integration of data to come to smart solutions that can support farmers in their management. Several national and international projects are currently running within this research field, enabling interested post-doc researchers to perform valuable synergetic activities.

* Precision livestock farming.

ILVO’s precision livestock farming group focuses on (1) development of sensors, algorithms and decision support tools for individual animal monitoring and related research activities, (2) supporting the sector in using these technologies and the information that they provide, (3) innovations together with industry for the digitization of processes such as data exchange. Our current projects include research on automated tools for lameness, claw lesions and health and behaviour monitoring for pigs and cows where we utilize sensors like 3D cameras, thermal cameras and RFID tags. Running innovation projects evolve around API economy, data standards, IoT (internet of things), HPC (high performance computing) and data exchange, for example IoF2020, CYBELE, SmartAgriHubs and DjustConnect. In addition we are involved in projects on farm demonstrations and the support of farmers and advisors in using digital tools. Several national and international projects are currently running within this research field, so we can welcome post-doc researchers with topics that align with these running (and future) projects.

*The fusion of Copernicus data, with in-situ farm measurements and other auxiliary data for the forecasting of livestock methane emissions.

For the modeling process, the postdoc researcher will combine modern techniques of data science (Artificial Intelligence, machine learning, deep learning) with traditional spatial analysis to create robust livestock methane emissions prediction models for both classification and regression tasks. The main questions to be answered are:

• What are the drivers or the factors that affect livestock methane emissions over time?
• What is the relation between spatial structure, farm practices, and methane emissions drivers?
• How can we identify the impact of adjacent or nearby livestock activities on rural areas at different analysis scales?
• How can Earth Observation data, can support Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Emissions management?
• How data sharing practices and Artificial Intelligence (AI) federation may accelerate GHG modeling?

Why at ILVO? ILVO has extended experience in Precision Livestock Farming (PLF) and participates as a core partner in relevant lighthouse EU H2020 projects like IoF2020 and Cybele. ILVO also operates a data-sharing platform that makes use of cloud technology and enables the establishment of connections with various data sources. Additionally at ILVO, the leverage of AI, EO, and cloud technology in the AgriFood sector are daily tasks related to the completion of various research topics in PF and PLF. Moreover the Postdoc researcher will have the full support of motivated and top-level scientists and the opportunity to participate in a highly collaborative environment, that promotes the 2-way transfer of knowledge (between fellow and host and vice versa). Last but not least, the specific research topic is a high priority not only for ILVO but also for the AgriFood industry and the EU.

Useful sources:

https://www.iof2020.eu/

https://www.cybele-project.eu/

https://www.copernicus.eu/en

http://www.fao.org/news/story/en/item/197623/icode/

https://towardsdatascience.com/the-new-dawn-of-ai-federated-learning-8ccd9ed7fc3a

https://atmosphere.copernicus.eu/1st-artificial-intelligence-copernicus-workshop

https://www.atmos-meas-tech.net/12/6771/2019/amt-12-6771-2019.pdf

*Livestock emissions (gases, dust, odour).

ILVO is the reference institute of the Flemish government for the assessment and development of reduction techniques for livestock emissions (gases, dust, odour). Especially of interest are ammonia and greenhouse gas emissions from mechanically (pigs and poultry) and naturally ventilated (dairy & beef cattle) animal housing systems. Our research and collaboration efforts aim to develop innovative and widely applicable monitoring and mitigation techniques (both front- and end-of-pipe). Therefore we study emission and ventilation processes at different scales (lab, test installations, farm) using advanced measuring techniques (e.g. ultrasonic anemometry, FTIR, laser absorption spectrometry, olfactometry) and modelling tools (e.g. mechanistic modelling, Computational Fluid Dynamics). ILVO has a modern test infrastructure, including real life animal houses. Several national and international (H2020) projects are currently running within this research field, enabling interested post-doc researchers to perform valuable synergetic activities.

*Application of Artificial Intelligence in in agrifood sector

Artificial Intelligence (AI) has revolutionized the way raw data is processed. In the omnipresence of cameras and cheap sensors, large amounts of data are produced which have catalyzed the development of faster and more accurate models. Especially in the domain of image analysis where convolutional neural networks have revolutionized the processing chain.

ILVO is currently investigating several cases where image analysis could provide additional tools for the farmers to reduce their costs and the overall environmental impact. Using high resolution drone imagery, weeds, diseases and plagues are detected and mapped with object detection. Cameras mounted on robots, spraying beams and tractors are investigated in a step towards edge computing and real-time actionable data. Novel approaches are explored in the domain of anomaly detection to reduce the label cost and increase the models’ robustness under field circumstances.

In addition, hyperspectral and RGB cameras mounted on conveyor belts provide a continuous stream of data that can be used for supervised object detection or semi-supervised anomaly detection of food products.

*Application of Earth observation techniques in agriculture and livestock

The European Copernicus program and NASA’s missions provide a large amount of free remote sensing data worldwide. Remote images are acquired by optical, radar and other sensor types with a wide range of spatial and spectral resolutions, temporal frequencies and geographical coverages. We are actually witnessing a democratization of the satellite data, and the research institutes like ILVO have the responsibility to transform these row data into useful tools, advices and plans for farmers and policy makers. Earth observation data play a key role in an increasing number of ILVO projects at European and national level, dealing with i) soil management and conservation with emphasis on the estimation of the soil organic carbon to support farmers and decision makers in the context of the common agriculture policy; ii) crop monitoring and yield estimation including the evaluation of the factors which have direct impact on the productivity, to support farmers in their decisions; iii) livestock methane emission monitoring and forecasting by the fusion of Copernicus data with in-situ farm measurements and other auxiliary data. We can welcome post-doc researchers with topics that align with the ongoing and future ILVO projects.

*Functional plant proteins for healthy, innovative and qualitative food products

ILVO has a Food Pilot (www.foodpilot.be) which is a unique technological application centre for the food and allied industry, encompassing complete processing lines for meat, juices, dairy, heating (UHT, sterilisation, pasteurisation), drying, dry and wet extrusion, mixing and milling as well as analytical labs for microbiology, (bio)chemistry, physico-chemistry and taste panels. To further expand our expertise in the field of proteins, an up to date processing line for the extraction of proteins from different plant-based sources will be available. In combination with the recently installed high-moisture extrusion (HME) unit on our twin-screw extruder, these systems will provide excellent opportunities to perform ground-breaking research in the field of protein extraction and application. At lab scale was also invested in a benchtop high moisture extrusion equipment to mimic extrusion processes on lab scale.

With the increasing interest in the use of different plant proteins by the food industry, the lack of basic knowledge regarding the behavior of these proteins in several industrial-scale processes and different food matrices is becoming a bottleneck for further exploitation. The main objectives of the running and envisaged research projects is to increase basic knowledge on the impact of different processing steps (extraction, drying, high moisture extrusion (HME)) on the quality properties of different plant proteins such as their functionality. Different case studies are possible. As alternative sources of plant proteins both soy and pea are relevant. Both crops with a potential to be grown in Belgium are gaining more interest. In the Plant Sciences Unit of ILVO several projects are running or will be started up to discover the potential of the growth of these crops in the region of Flanders. The next step will be the evaluation of possible applications of these locally grown crops and their extracted proteins in food or feed applications. Finally, there’s an increasing interest into (micro)algae and microbes as potential feedstock for the extraction of proteins. Besides studying the impact of the processing steps on functionality of the proteins, the expertise and infrastructure is available to study impact on nutritional value, organoleptic quality, allergenicity, digestibility, … which are all relevant in the context of process and product development to realize protein diversification and its implementation in a healthy and balanced diet.

Contact person: Bart.VanDroogenbroeck@ilvo.vlaanderen.be

*Metabolomics, metagenomics, proteomics, bio-informatics and systems biology in the context of food- health research.

A new research line has started on the relation between food and health. This applies on production animals as well as on humans. Animals can be used as human model organisms; ILVO has recently acquired mini-pigs for this purpose. Several influencing factors can be investigated such as composition of the diet, alternatives for antibiotics, pro- and prebiotics, nutraceuticals. Analytical approaches such as gut bacterial metagenomics, metabolomics, proteomics, gut physiology and intestinal morphology will be used. Untargeted metabolomics using high resolution mass spectrometry (HRMS) is one of the analytical goals to identify marker metabolites (e.g. biogenic amines) in food and the gut. A thorough bio-informatics and systems biology approach will be needed to link and interpret the multitude of multidisciplinary data for which experienced researchers are invited to join this research line.

*Untargeted food analyses with MALDI-TOF mass spectrometric and InfraRed spectroscopic techniques .

Untargeted food analyses is an emerging discipline which can be used for quality, safety or authenticity control of food processes or products as on-line or at-line applications. It is based on database building and recognition of patterns of the (bio)chemical composition or physico-chemical properties of food products. Suitable analytical techniques which enable fast pattern acquisition are MALDI-TOF (positive and negative ionization mode) and infrared spectroscopic techniques such as NR-IR and FT-IR. It is the aim to build large databases of properties and characteristics of specified food products and perform pattern recognition with the aid of artificial intelligence which can be in the form of machine learning. ILVO has the necessary analytical infrastructure and expertise in artificial intelligence to start with this new untargeted platform of food analyses.