A blind woman is walking along a street, slowly approaching an obstacle ahead. As she gets closer, the device hanging from her neck emit a high-pulse click, which reflects off the object.

Trained in human echolocation, the returning echo activates a visual processing area in her brain, providing her with information such as the shape, material and distance, which she then uses to build a 3D image of the object in her mind. A wooden bench, she concludes, before she continues on her stroll.

Thanks to COVID-19, most of our interactions now take place in an almost fully digital world. Employees attend meetings on Zoom and students take exams online; even film festivals and art exhibitions have found ways to take place virtually. While not the same as face-to-face meetings, digital events now have the potential to reach an even wider audience in new and engaging ways.

The key to securing long-term food security is investing in innovative technologies like alternative proteins, said experts at IPI’s AgriFood Innovation Webinar.

When countries around the world went into lockdown to stem the spread of COVID-19, it revealed vulnerabilities in many of the processes we take for granted in everyday life. The food system—dependent on a complex web of supply chains spanning the globe—was particularly hard hit, as consumers flocked to supermarkets to stock up and unharvested food crops languished in abandoned fields.

Innovation in the Land of Rising Opportunities

With their expertise and wide network in technology and commercial domains, Japan IP Network supports overseas businesses that wish to realise their potential in the Japanese market through open innovation.

GIIAVA’s partnership with NUS, sparked off by IPI, aims to repurpose low-grade vegetable oil for higher value-added uses, which increases revenue yet benefits the environment.

Dr Yashodhan Bhawe stood in front of several large tanks, looking puzzled. He was expecting a straightforward scale-up for a new vegetable oil upgrading process, but things turned awry when “big masses of blobs” were produced instead.

From the Lab to the FarmLearn about three innovations that are changing the way we produce and consume our food.The world’s skyrocketing population, coupled with climatic disasters such as heat waves and droughts, pose significant challenges to our ever-diminishing food supply. The United Nations has predicted a 40% global water deficit by 2030 if we continue our ‘business-as-usual’ way of life.

Making connections with open innovationThe Centre of Innovation for Electronics & IoT supports local enterprises in developing innovations to help grow their business and give it that competitive edge.Few industries innovate as quickly as the electronics industry. Year after year, new products leveraging on the latest technologies are released, from laptops that work faster and better to smart home devices that control your home appliances. Whether it is consumer electronics or industry applications, electronics has always sought to improve itself continuously through innovation.

Extracting value from food wasteWith nature as their north star, Singapore-based food technology startup KosmodeHealth is finding plant-based solutions for the agri-food and biomedical industries.It is estimated that a third of all the food grown for consumption ends up going to waste. This wastage largely stems from the disposal of by-products generated by food processing, such as the barley grains that are no longer used after brewing beer. These by-products are actually high in protein and fibre but are currently mainly ‘up-cycled’ into animal feed and fertilisers.

Filling Our Cups for the Future
Do you have an idea to change the global beverage industry? Apply to the Future of Beverages’ Open Innovation Call and turn your ideas into reality.

Water is essential for life, but people have been finding different ways to stay hydrated and enhance the taste of water since the dawn of mankind. Tea was supposedly discovered in 2732 B.C. while beer goes back even further into the mists of time, with evidence that people began brewing some 13,000 years ago.