Australia’s graingrowers have a significant investment in a new cooperative research centre that aims to see this country gets its share of the growing international market for functional grain-based foods.

The Cooperative Research Centre for Innovative Grain Food Products – in which the Grains Research & Development Corporation is a partner – has won Federal Government support worth $24 million over seven years.

The GRDC and its CRC partners – BRI Australia (the former Bread Research Institute), Joe White Maltings, Western Australia’s Council of Grain Grower Organisations and Export Grain Centre, Weston Technologies, Grainco Australia, Puragrain, Joe White Maltings, the Southern Cross University in Lismore and Danisco Australia (the Australian arm of a Danish ingredients company) – will invest another $17 million.

Interim chief executive Graham McMaster says the CRC will be working to increase demand for Australian grain-based products in a world where consumers increasingly want foods that are healthy, tasty and convenient.

It will look for components of grains and pulses with potential to reverse the big three health concerns in today’s affluent societies – obesity, cardiovascular disease and diabetes.

Dr McMaster, who is also CEO of BRI Australia, says the combination of market driven and "blue sky" research envisioned by the CRC has the potential to transform the Australian grains industry, add more than $40 billion in extra value and simultaneously ease the pressure on grain farm environments.

"The Australian grains industry needs to do things differently or struggle to compete," Dr McMaster said.

"We need to think and lead into new areas that will deliver more profit right along the chain, from the growers of specialised grains through to the domestic and international companies that market the end products consumers want.

"We will look for potentially valuable components in grains and pulses that will improve their value in the market place; the widespread use of soybean protein is a pointer to what can be achieved.

"And while we’re realising the true economic value of grains we will be doing so with an eye to the farming systems that produce them, looking for economic and environmental benefits combined."

Dr McMaster says education will be a major consideration in the operations of the CRC for Innovative Grain Food Products, reflected in its structured links with universities in Queensland, New South Wales and Western Australia.

PhD and post-doctoral students will be employed across a range of research within the participating companies, all of them required to study with a strong emphasis on the management and commercialisation of intellectual property and entrepreneurship, areas where the CRC expects to capture the value of its work.

And there won’t be any great institutional expenditure to set up the new CRC; Dr McMaster says it will comprise three "virtual" hubs – at Southern Cross University in at Lismore, the Export Grains Centre in Western Australia and at BRI Australia in Sydney.

GRDC managing director John Lovett said participation in the CRC for Innovative Grain Food Products appealed because its purpose closely matched the Value Chain component of the corporation’s new five year plan, "Driving Innovation’

"We were impressed by the commercial ethos of the impressive list of corporations and organisations committed to the CRC concept and their willingness to invest hard dollars in it," Professor Lovett said.

"Eight investors and only two research providers are represented on the interim CRC board, which indicates to the GRDC that it will be driven by market pull, rather than science push, which is so often the case.