SenSpores

Research project

SenSpores is an Interreg VI Germany-the Netherlands project (ERDF) aimed at developing novel sensor strategies for the rapid, on-site detection of fungal and bacterial spores in liquid food products. The microbiology and food safety department of the Hochschule Niederrhein leads the public-private partnership. The project is funded by the European Regional Development Fund of the European Union through Interreg VIa Deutschland-Nederland (€1.342.556,46 EU subsidy). Additional funding is provided by MWIKE NRW (€287.690,67), the Province of Limburg (€115.076,29) and the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate (€172.614,42).

The innovation developed by the technical partners will be directly tested in an industrial environment. To successfully transform the lab-based sensors into high TRL industrial protoypes, the research departments of the participating knowledge institutes will collaborate with regional engineering companies. The participation of end-users active in the regional dairy, brewery, agriculture and fruit juice industry, ensures that the technical partners will have ample room to test their sensors on real food samples. Furthermore, it will allow for the creation of a tailor-made sensor design with device specs and usability optimized for the application.

SenSpores is a public-private, cross-border partnership in which three knowledge institutions (lead partner Hochschule Niederrhein, Maastricht University, and Ruhr Universität Bochum) collaborate with two regional engineering SMEs (Sensip-Dx BV and Yookr BV), and four SMEs representing the regional food industry (Botany BV, Privatbrauerei Bolten GmbH & Co.KG, Heinz Funken GmbH & Co. KG, Privatmolkerei Naarmann GmbH, and SIG Combibloc Systems GmbH).

Bart van Grinsven and colleagues talk about their SenSpores research to the German news programme Lokalzeit aus Düsseldorf.