'NovelQ' (Novel Processing Methods for the Production and Distribution of High-Quality and Safe Foods)

The Integrated Project 'NovelQ' is now searching for industrial partners interested in exploiting and demonstrating novel processing technologies in the food area. The new demonstration projects, to be funded in this call include (but are not limited to) prototype design, assembly and its testing for application, will be carried out within 'Development and demonstration of novel processing technologies' (Sub-project 4) of NovelQ.

The main objectives of NovelQ are to focus on incremental innovations in novel food processing and packaging and to formulate integrated strategic solutions for technical and basic research hurdles for complex, real food products. Enhancements to the state-of-the-art are required in novel processing technologies, specifically high pressure processing, pulsed electrical field, cold plasma, advanced heating technologies (such as microwave, radio frequency and ohmic heating) and related novel packaging concepts.

The key objective of the present competitive call is to promote the participation of industry and to achieve clear examples of innovation in the area of novel processing methods within the overall context of enhancing the competitiveness of the European Union via incremental innovations in the area of food manufacturing.

This call is aimed at identifying:

• Industrial partners from EU Member States and Associated States active in the areas of novel processing equipment and/or food manufacturing.
• In total, up to 12 new partners are sought to participate in six
  demonstration projects to be carried out within NovelQ.
  Preferably, one equipment supplier and one food manufacturer
  should be engaged within each demonstration project.

The following call criteria should be taken into consideration:

• The demonstration project should focus on one of the core technologies of NovelQ (high pressure, pulsed electric field, plasma or advanced heating) and be of added value to NovelQ.
• The demonstration project should focus on demonstration of novel
  processing technologies and/or related packaging technologies.
  
• The main 'hands-on' deliverable should be tangible, either a piece
  of equipment or a product (processed and packed using novel
  processing schemes).

The outcome(s) will be presented to the wider European audience (confidential information will not be shared).

Deadline: The call closes on 17 October 2007 at 17h00 (Brussels time)
Expected duration of participation of new partners: 1 March 2008 - 28 February 2010
Download: full text of the call Full text Call for Additional Project Partners.pdf
Additional information: www.novelq.org/call

PARTNERS SEARCHERS FOR THE SECOND AGRO-FOOD CALL

Project no.
ETI-2005-023339-SPAS

Project acronym
SPAS

Project title “
SMEs Virtual Platform on Agro-Food Sector to access the Sixth and Seventh Framework Programme”

Instrument: Coordination action
Thematic Priority: Research and Innovation. “Economic and Technological intelligence”

Deliverable reference number and title

Deliverable: D.4.1. Data base of identified project and calls
Due date of deliverable: September 2007
Actual submission date: Aogust 2007
Start date of project: 1^st September 2005 Durata: 24 month
Organisation name of lead contractor for this deliverable: BESEL, SA.
Revision [2]

Project co-funded by the European Commission within the Sixth Framework Programme (2002-2006)
Dissemination Level
PU	Public	PU
PP	Restricted to other programme participants (including the Commission Services)
RE	Restricted to a group specified by the consortium (including the Commission Services)
CO	Confidential, only for members of the consortium (including the Commission Services)

Project that search partner (2º call for proposal THEME 2. Food, Agriculture and Fisheries, and Biotechnology and research for the benefit of SME)


Project title: UTILISATION OF THE BIOLOGICALLY ACTIVE COMPOUNDS FROM WASTES COMING FROM WINE PRODUCTION AND WINE MAKING PROCESSES

The aim of the project is to gain biologically active compounds (including natural antioxidants), ensure conditions for their production and separation and to determine optimum phase of vegetation for their utilization from wine grapes as a reach source of natural antioxidants from the vegetative phase until the final product. The suitable agro-technology might regulate growth intensity as well as fertility. In the EU, the grapevine production area is more than 4 mil hectares and potential for utilization of waste-less technology is thus enormous. The content of biologically active compounds (BAC) depends on site characteristics, variety, growing technology as well as the method of isolation. We will focus on (i) BAC analysis in leaves, shoots, grapes, seeds, pomace, (ii) selection of suitable varieties, (iii) analysis of grapes and proposing the most suitable technology for obtaining of oil and/or extracts, (iv) comparison of methods in relation to the maximisation of BAC content to provide to the cosmetics and pharmacological industry valuable compounds

Expertise required

• biologically active compounds – isolation, identification, determination, modification, synthesis
• proposing the most suitable technology for obtaining oils and/or extracts from wastes
• comparison of technologies in relation to the maximisation of BAC content
• characterisation of oils and/or extracts
• production of valuable compounds for cosmetics, food and pharmacological industry

Proposer. CONTACT
	Organisation	Mendel University of Agriculture and Forestry		Department	Dept. of Chemistry and Biochemistry
	Contact person	Prof. Dr. Vlastimil Kuban Prof. Ing. Vlastimil Fic		Male/female	M
	Address	Zemedelska 1		Telephone	+420 545 133 285
	Postcode	CZ 613 00		E-mail	kuban@mendelu.cz vinopol@c-box.cz
	City	Brno		Fax	+420 545 212 044
	Country	Czech Republic		Website	http://www.mendelu.cz

Project title: TOPOLOGY AND COMPOSITIONAL DETERMINANTS OF SECRETION SIGNALS AS POTENT CLASSIFIERS FOR NON-CLASSICALLY SECRETED PROTEINS.

Target 2º Theme 2 „Food, Agriculture and Fisheries, and Biotechnology” call.

Background information

Increasing amount of large scale date from genomic research determines urgent need to specify the proteome, including the secretome, i.e., the part of proteins secreted form the cell.

Capability of bacteria to release particular proteins into the extracellular medium by means of different secretion pathways are processes of basic importance for bacterial life as well as provides diverse biotechnological applications.

A number of prediction and classification tools have been developed to predict adequate protein cell localization and signal peptide cleavage sites in proteins secreted by ‘classical’, i.e., signal peptide - dependent pathways. However approximately 25 per cents of known extracellular proteins are classified as ‘non-classically’ secreted proteins lacking cleavable signal peptides. At present only one prediction method Secretome P can be used for this purpose [1, 2], which nevertheless does not specify any definite secretion type (type III or type I) possibly involved in non-classical protein secretion.

Several compositional and structural features at the termini of sequences have been proposed as specific unprocessed secretion signals of ‘non-classically’ secreted proteins. However, definite sizes, location and composition of secretion signals remain obscure, possibly due to the fact that studies in the field are mostly focused on some functionally related protein groups from a limited number of organisms and, as a consequence, fundamentals of secretion processes remain to be elucidated and fully understood.

Objectives and expected results

Our recent studies revealed definite amino acid frequencies of occurrence [3] and selected variables from periodicity patterns of aromatic and aliphatic amino acid residues [4] as the reliable predictors to discriminate between type III and type I secreted proteins, however further investigations in the field could provide substantially stronger set of predictors.

The goal of this research project is to define more precisely the composition, size and location of possible secretion signal for substrates of ‘non-classical’ secretion (type III and type I) pathways to provide strongly improved tool for identification of secretome proteins from genomic sequences of bacteria (proteobacteria and, possibly, firmicutes [4]).

The tool for identification and classification of secretome proteins could verify the compatibility between various secretion substrates (recombinant heterologous proteins such as vaccines, etc.) and secretion machinery (of potent carrier strain) in order to predict overall efficiency of the process.

Achieved prediction and classification algorithms could provide a basis for implementation of prediction and classification tool.

Basic references

[1] J.D. Bendtsen, L. Kiemer, A. Fansbøll and S. Brunak: “Non-classical protein secretion in bacteria”, BMC Microbiology, (2005), 5:58.

[2] J.D. Bendtsen, L.J. Jensen, N. Blom, G. von Heijne and S. Brunak: “Feature-based prediction of non-classical and leaderless protein secretion”, Protein Eng. Des. Sel., Vol. 17, (2004), pp. 349-356.

[3] P. Zikmanis, I. Andersone, M. Baltkalne: “Discriminative features of type III and type I secreted proteins from Gram-negative bacteria.”- CEJB, (2006), 1(1): 124-136.

[4]I. Andersone, P. Zikmanis: “Distinctive amino acid residue periodicities in terminal sequences of type III and type I secreted proteins from proteobacteria.”- CEJB, (2007), 2(2): 192-205.

Target partner(s)

(type, expertise required and role in the project) BIO-INFORMATICS - Microbial genomics and bio-informatics Call: KBBE-2007-2A

(Research organizations interested in Protein subcellular location prediction, Microbial proteomics or Software development)

Contact details
Name, Surname:	Dr.habil.biol. Peteris, Zikmanis; Inara, Andersone; Ieva, Minicha
Address:	Kronvalda Boulevard 4, LV-1586, Riga, Latvia.
Phone:	+371 7033898
Fax:	+371 7034885
e-mail:	zikmanis@lanet.lv*, Inara.Andersone@gundega.lv, ievaminicha@yahoo.com
Web site:

Project Title: DEVELOPMENT OF STRATEGY OF CREATION OF RESOURCE-SAVING TECHNOLOGIES FOR BIOLOGICAL USE OF FLOWS OF ORGANIC WASTES (EXCEPTING A MUNICIPAL WASTES), CREATION OF A WIDE RANGE OF MARKET MANAGEMENT OF FOOD AND NON-FOOD PRODUCTIONS»

Target 2º Theme 2 „Food, Agriculture and Fisheries, and Biotechnology” call.

1. Development of a new system complex approaches to creation of resource-saving technologies of organic wastes processing at the industrial production of pork with receipt of biofuel.

2. Offer of the scheme of a technological line of processing of flows at the industrial production of pork with receipt of biofuel and with the reduction of the capital expenditures, approximately in 2 times.

3. Performance of the scientific-research feasibility report of expediency of use of the offered technological line.

4. Completion and manufacturing, replenishment of the technological equipment of the line of industrial flows processing.

5. The carrying-out of erection, starting-up and adjustment works, improvement of technological modes of the line on the complex with industrial production of pork meat, on one of complexes with productivity of 6, 12, 24 or 108 thousand metric centners of pork per year.

6. Organization and realization of the professional training of the personnel and delivery of the technological line in exploitation.

Contacts:

Director of IAS UAAS: Dr. Yeugen Rudenko, Doctor of Veterinary Sciences, Professor.

Tel. Office: +380 57 740 31 81, Fax: +380 57 740 39 94, E-mail: it_uaan@bk.ru.
Deputy Director on Science of IAS UAAS: Mr. Ivan Pomitun, Candidat of Agrarian Sciences.

Tel. Office: +380 57 740 32 37, Fax: +380 57 740 39 94, E-mail: it_uaan@bk.ru.

Head of Laboratory of Mechanization and Automation of Technological Processes of IAS UAAS: Mr. Viktor Piskun, Candidat of Agrarian Sciences, Senior Scientific Researcher.

Tel. Office: +380 57 740 32 97, Tel. Home: +380 57 740 01 02, Tel. Mobile: +380 67 992 82 99, Fax: +380 57 740 39 94, E-mail: Piskun_v@ukr.net


Project Title: Bioprospection of New Antitumor Compounds obtained from Brazilian Plants

Target 2º Theme 2 „Food, Agriculture and Fisheries, and Biotechnology” call.

Natural products are secondary metabolites, produced by plants, fungi, bacteria, protozoans and animals in response to external stimuli such as nutritional changes, infection and competition. Many of these metabolites have been isolated as biologically active compounds with a great therapeutic potential. In fact, nature will continue to be a major source of unique molecules, but close collaboration with biologists using novel screens will be necessary to identify novel chemotypes. Thus, the optimization of the studies on natural products requires close multidisciplinary national and international collaboration in the discovery and development process. The main objective of this project is to evaluate the biomedical potential of plant extracts or phytocompounds obtained from Mata Atlântica, Cerrado and Caatinga with potential anticancer properties, such as chemopreventive and chemotherapeutics agents. These studies will evaluate the extracts’ and Phytocompounds’ cytotoxicity and antitumor in vitro activity, theirs induction of cellular differentiation and theirs anti angiogenic effects once they represent that main targets for cancer therapy. When possible the mechanism of action and in vivo antitumor activity of these phytocompounds will be determined.

Contact:

Cláudia Pessoa, Letícia Veras Costa-Lotufo and Manoel Odorico Moraes Phone: +55 85 3366 8255. Fax: +55 85 3366 8333 e-mail: cpessoa@ufc.br


Project Title: Improving reproduction efficiency of broiler breeder hens through breeding

Target 2º Theme 2 „Food, Agriculture and Fisheries, and Biotechnology” call.

We have established an efficient protocol for comparative proteomic analysis of adipose tissue secretome between broiler and layer hens. We have identified a number of such differently secreted proteins. We are now studying the effect of these proteins on maturation of ovarian follicles and on leptin bioactivity. We believe that some of these proteins could provide markers for breading of broiler hens towards improved reproduction.

CONTACT DETAILS
	Organisation	ARO, Volcani Center		Department	Animal Science
	Contact person	Miriam Friedman-Einat		Male/female	female
	Address	P.O.Box 6		Email	einat@agri.huji.ac.il
	Postcode	50-250		Fax	+972-8-9475075
	City	Bet-Dagan		Telephone	+972-8-9484412
	Country	ISRAEL		Website	http://www.agri.gov.il/People/MiriEinat.html

Project Title: DEVELOPMENT OF INNOVATIVE RENEWABLE TRAYS, BASED ON MODIFIED STARCH OR PHB AND PULP FIBERS, FOR ORGANIC FARMING PRODUCTS -TRAYSRENEW

Target call: RESEARCH FOR THE BENEFIT OF SMEs

Objectives:

- Development of an innovative material with high percentage of cellulose fibres within a modified starch or PHB matrix. Use of the developed material to fabricate some trays at laboratory scale, the final product might have a “rustic” and ecological appearance. Production at pilot scale of modified starch/pulp and or PHB/pulp trays.

- Evaluation of the suitability of the trays for bio-products market as a new added value (consumer acceptance, fulfil mechanical and chemical properties…).

This project will provide an added ecological value to SMEs working within the biological fruit and/or vegetable markets.

The project is focussed to open markets for compostable, biodegradable and renewable materials for packaging

The main objective of this project is to provide an innovative tray which would give an ecological and commercial added value for packaged fruits and/or vegetables produced by organic methods. This tray will be fabricated from mixtures of modified starch or PHB and pulp fibres to provided a rustic appearance and 100% of renewability and biodegradability.

To reach the main objective next aims might be reached:

- Benchmarking of alternative products

CONTACT DETAILS:

Susana Álvarez Machirant (Project Manager)

ITENE – Packaging Transport and Logistics Research Institute

00 34 96 390 17 98

00 34 96 390 54 00

salvarez@itene.com

www.itene.com

SME PARTNER PROFILES:

SME 1: Polymeric thermoforming sheets producers

SME 2: Compression moulding trays enterprises

SME 3: Packer or producer of organic faming products.

SME 4: Retailer


Project Title: DEVELOPMENT OF LABORATORY BASED DISTRIBUTION TEST TO SIMULATE TRANSPORT AND HANDLING OF PACKAGED PRODUCTS THROUGH THE SUPPLY CHAIN OF DEVELOPING REGIONS

Target call: RESEARCH FOR THE BENEFIT OF SMEs

PROJECT OBJECTIVES

To have confidence that materials and components being imported and finished products being exported to developing regions will pass through the distribution chain in fit for purpose condition ready for use.

A significant amount of materials and components are imported from the Far East and other developing regions, and high value goods produced in Europe are increasingly being sold in developing regions (and are therefore being transported from Europe to these areas). Pack handling and transport practices in developing regions are different from those employed in Western countries, which can result.

in packaging or product damage. The need to accurately assess the fitness for purpose of packaged products with respect to this distribution environment is growing.

Main objectives of the project are:

• To review the physical hazards of the supply chains of developing regions through visual audit and data gathering
• To analyse the observed and measured hazards in order to develop a laboratory based test method to simulate the physical hazards
• To validate the test method through initial laboratory tests, comparing the results to real life product/pack damage observations

SME PROFILE:

Any SME importing components or finished goods or exporting goods to developing regions including toys, home and personal care, electrical and electronic goods, pharmaceutical goods, medical products, automotive and industrial machinery

CONTACT DETAILS:

Susana Álvarez Machirant (Project Manager)

ITENE – Packaging Transport and Logistics Research Institute

00 34 96 390 17 98

00 34 96 390 54 00

salvarez@itene.com

www.itene.com


Project Title: DEVELOPING AND INTEGRATING A NOVEL TECHNOLOGY TO IMPROVE SAFETY, QUALITY AND TRACEABILITY OF THE MAP, CAP AND VACUUM FOOD PRODUCTS WITH AN INTELLIGENT CONCEPT

Target call: RESEARCH FOR THE BENEFIT OF SMEs

PROJECT OBJECTIVES

Nowadays a significant amount of MAP, CAP and Vacuum food products are damaged by the leak of the gases that are used in the packaging process. This is a typical problem which is suffered by the SMEs and cause damages, reduce the shelf life of the products and launch the food product with a bad esthetical food appearance.

The possibility of predict and prevent this kind of leaks by an intelligent packaging solution would be an advantage of the food industry and would contribute with improvements for the food industry, especially with the products which are packaged by MAP, CAP and vacuum technologies.

Main objectives of the project are:

-To review the packaging solutions of the food products in MAP, CAP and Vacuum technologies in order to improve the designs, the right materials, etc.

-To avoid product damage and improve the quality and the safety of the food products.

-To design an intelligent packaging solution for the integration of leak indicators into the packaging material

- To integrate a printed indicator into the packaging material

-To extend the shelf life of the food products with the new intelligent packaging solutions, therefore, avoiding damages and a shorter shelf life of the food products.

-To validate the new packaging designs in pilot studies at the SMEs.

CONTACT DETAILS:

Susana Álvarez Machirant (Project Manager)

ITENE – Packaging Transport and Logistics Research Institute

00 34 96 390 17 98

00 34 96 390 54 00

salvarez@itene.com

www.itene.com


Project title: OPTIROUTING – A LOW COST AND MODULAR SOLUTION FOR ROUTING OPTIMISATION IN TRANSPORT AND DISTRIBUTION SMES

PROJECT OBJECTIVES

The aim of this project is the development of a routing optimisation software solution easy to configurate and to use it, based on a low cost subscription fee that ensure easy maintenance and future updates. The solution to develop will be modular and includes a standarized GIS based solution. The solution supports fleet trace and tracking, real time planning and mobile communication with the fleet.

The SMEs will be able to appropiately plan the service of distribution by optimising the kilometers traveled and the fleet utilisation, reducing distribution cost around 10%.

Different type of distributors SMEs will participate in order to cover a wide diversity of business cases and restrictions to test and validate different optimal route search algorithms.

SMEs PROFILE:

Distribution and transport companies with own fleet where distribution cost could be reduce by optimising the route planning. Normally capillar distribution.

• Food & beverage
• Gas and Fuel distribution
• Courier or home delivery companies
• …

CONTACT DATA:

Emilio González Viosca (Project Manager)

ITENE – Instituto Tecnológico de Embalaje, Transporte y Logística

+34 96 390 54 00

egonzalez@itene.com

www.itene.com


Project title: VALUETRACE - QUALITY MONITORING & TRACEABILITY FOR THE SUPPLY CHAINS IN FRESH FOODS, PHARMACEUTICALS AND HEALTHCARE

Target call: RESEARCH FOR THE BENEFIT OF SMEs

PROJECT OBJECTIVES

The aim of this project is the development of a system for quality monitoring and traceablility of products for fresh food, pharmaceuticals and healthcare supply chains, based on reasonably reusable cheap RFID identification & security control tag that allow for continuous quality logging/monitoring and able to be read by any of the partners in the supply chain, i.e. supplier, distributors, logistic operators.

The project includes

• Research in demands related to technology in fresh food, pharmaceuticals and healthcare supply chains.
• Development of innovative solutions for SME where RFID solutions is a part of it.
• Development of prototypes and different piloting programmes.
• Testing of solutions in laboratories on a pilot basis.
• Testing into practise in different SME's (parts of supply chains) including implementation programmes.

SMEs PROFILE:

Suppliers with temperature monitoring requirements, i.e. fresh and frozen food, pharmaceuticals and/or healthcare products (i.e. bio-pharmaceutical)

CONTACT DATA:

Emilio González Viosca (Project Manager)

ITENE – Instituto Tecnológico de Embalaje, Transporte y Logística

+34 96 390 54 00

egonzalez@itene.com

www.itene.com


Project title: MAGO - OPTIMIZATION OF FREIGHT CAPACITY MANAGEMENT AND GOODS TRACKING SYSTEM FOR ROAD HAULAGE COMPANIES

PROJECT OBJECTIVES

The project goal is to develop a platform through the research of different business models in the road haulage value chain and by tracking freights location. This will allow an easy and dynamical optimization of the capacity and the resource management of small companies in the road transport sector.

Developing a system which:

• Allows truck companies to know their freight’s location at all times. (RFID)(SIG).
• Favors the best haulage management by interchanging freights and subcontracting other trucks companies, saving money, avoiding situations where trucks come back empty, following the law, finding the best way to transport the freights, etc. (business models).
• Entails effective capacity management by an exhaustive demand control and resources assignation
• Secures the system from impeding fraud situations, such a way that every user should be properly registered establishing certain requisites. (GRID computing)
• The system will be intuitive, seamless, and dynamic, taking into account truck drivers’ knowledge about ICT technologies and mobile devices. (multiplatform) (multilingual)

SMEs PROFILE:

Small Long hauliers transport companies

CONTACT DATA:

Emilio González Viosca (Project Manager)

ITENE – Instituto Tecnológico de Embalaje, Transporte y Logística

+34 96 390 54 00

egonzalez@itene.com

www.itene.com

AGRO-FOOD INDUSTRY INNOVATION INFORMATION DIFFUSION

CALL FOR TENDERS INFORMATION
No ENTR/2007/010
TITLE: AGRO-FOOD INDUSTRY INNOVATION INFORMATION DIFFUSION
Open procedure, OJ 2007/S 105-128747 of 05/06/2007

Framework contract on: AGRO-FOOD INDUSTRY INNOVATION INFORMATION DIFFUSION

The contract is a multiple framework service contract to facilitate the diffusion and transfer of innovative technologies towards the small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the food production sector through a thorough preliminary survey, the organisation of two-day events in different EU27 Member States (including a preliminary meeting and reporting) and the organisation of a synthesis event.
This contract requests:

• Logistic competency in organisation of events,
• Knowledge of agro-food industry economics, processes and innovation,
• Knowledge of Commission tools in favour of innovation and SMEs,
• Adaptation ability according to local political situations.

For more information please visit: http://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/calls/files/07_010/spec.pdf
http://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/calls/calls.html#116026

Key Dates
Time-limit for receipt of tenders or requests to participate: 18/07/2007 (16h00).
The framework service contract shall enter into force on the date on which it is signed by the last contracting party. It is expected to be signed in September 2007.
The duration of the framework contract shall be 24 months.

Relevant information

Duration of the framework agreement: 2 years.
Estimated total value of purchases for the entire duration of the framework agreement: EUR 600.000, excluding VAT.

TENDER

Competitiveness analysis of a specific sub-sector within the European food industry, impact assessment of the food legislation and of international changes in the agro-food market

Contract notice in OJ 2007/S 95–116026 of 19/05/2007.
CALL FOR TENDERS. No ENTR/2007/020

NATURE OF THE CONTRACT

“Competitiveness analysis of a specific sub-sector of the European Food Industry and impact assessment of the food legislation and of international changes in the agrofood market”

The contract is a service contract to carry out both an economic and interpretative analysis of the competitiveness of a specific and representative sub-sector of the Food Industry in the twenty seven Member States of the European Union.
The aim of the study is to assess the impact of structural changes that undermine the sub-sector competitiveness with special emphasis placed on the impact of cumulative regulatory burdens.
The aim of the study is also to assess and test potential instruments for corrective policy, which the European Community could propose in the near future.

More information: http://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/calls/calls.html#116026
http://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/calls/files/07_020/specs.pdf

Key dates
Time-limit for receipt of tenders or requests to participate: 22.06.2007

Relevant information

Total quantity or scope: The amount necessary to perform the first contract period is estimated at EUR 200 000, in case of renewal of the contract the amount necessary for the second contract period is estimated at EUR 75 000.Estimated value, excluding VAT: EUR 275 000.

WELFAREQUALITY Project launch call for new partners

Welfare Quality® (WQ) aims to link societal concerns and market demands with welfare science
to develop reliable on-farm monitoring systems, product information systems, and practical species-specific strategies to improve animal welfare.
Sub Project 4 (SP4) of the project is tasked with drawing together some of the work already carried out in the first 3 years of the WQ project to create information resources, to assess ways of maximising the benefit of the findings of the WQ project, and to train those who may use it in the future. SP4 is co-ordinating a number of future projects in the areas of;

• A web based information resource
• A technical information resource
• Consumer studies
• Socio Economic Studies
• ‘On Farm’ Implementation Studies
• Views of users on the welfare assessment results
• Consultation system on welfare assessment results