About SUSFERM

The Centre for Sustainable Fermentation and Bioprocessing Systems for Food and the Bioeconomy was established in October 2021 to provide a new interdisciplinary focus to address major challenges and opportunities in the allied areas of sustainable food production and the circular bioeconomy.

SUSFERM is a multidisciplinary centre that integrates the expertise of research teams from Microbiology, Food and Nutritional Sciences and Process & Chemical Engineering to create new research synergies to tackle complex scientific and technological challenges associated with development of new products and processes related to microbial fermentation.

A Centre of Excellence for Microbial Fermentation

Microbial fermentation science is at the heart of SUSFERM research programmes, many of which focus on enhancing capacity to use microbes in the Food, Drink and Bioeconomy sectors.

New training programmes to deliver MSc and PhD graduates equipped with the skills and expertise required to address current and future industry requirements sector are being developed.

A Technology Partner for Fermentation Science

SUSFERM aims to help the biotechnology sector develop innovation solutions to sustainability challenges. The Centre is keen to develop additional collaborative research partnerships with industrial partners and will be happy to talk with interested parties to see how we might work together.

microbial fermentation is at the heart of contemporary developments in these sectors.

SUSFERM Director Professor John Morrissey commented: “We will design and implement research and training programmes that are aligned to sectoral needs with a focus on generating knowledge and skills to overcome gaps and bottlenecks. The emphasis on how sustainability links food production and the bioeconomy is an important feature of SUSFERM and allows us to maintain a tight sectoral focus.

Whether it is taking advantage of microbial diversity to identify novel functionality for food systems, or using engineered synthetic cell factories in biorefineries, microbial fermentation is at the heart of contemporary developments in these sectors.”