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FOOD FOCUSTHAILAND
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to advance Malaysia towards more competitive and competent nation
building founded upon strong STI principles. The policy is formulated
based on the nation’s achievements, challenges, and lessons learnt. It
emphasizesnewdirections toguide the implementationofSTI increating
a scientifically advanced nation for socio-economic transformation and
inclusive growth.
While there isuncertaintysurrounding thedevelopmentandadoption
of emerging technologies inadiverse cultureandeconomic structureof
theASEAN countries, what is certain is that the transformations driven
by this industrial revolution will unfold. Their complexity and
interconnectedness across sectors imply that all stakeholders of the
ASEANcommunity–governments,business,academia,andcivil society
–havea responsibility towork together tobetterunderstand theemerging
trends. The ASEAN countries have come to realize the importance of
regional collaboration (APASTI 2016-2025). The community needs to
ensure that aset of commonvalues isestablished todrivepolicychoices
and to enact the changes that will make Industry 4.0 an opportunity for
all.
Technological Drivers inAgro-Food Industry
Combining thedigital,physical,andbiologicalworldsopensupcountless
possibilities tooperateandcreatenewproducts in theagro-foodbusiness.
The listofpotentialapplications isvirtuallyendless.From farmsproducing
rawagriculturalmaterials tomanufacturingprocessesproducingproducts
andservicesaddingvalue to theentire industry throughspeedandbreadth
of technology. Some potential exampleapplications include:
• Theuseof drones combinedwithdataanalytics that enablemore
preciseand efficient use of fertilizer andwater.
• 3Dprinting that included integratedelectronic components isnow
progressing towarda4Dprocess todeliverself-alteringproductscapable
of responding toenvironmental changes such as heat andhumidity.
• An increasing ability tomodify animals so that they can be raised
on a diet that ismore economical or better suited to local conditions as
well as to creating food crops that are capable of withstanding extreme
temperatures or drought.
• A confluence of genetic engineering and advances in computing
power reducescostandeases the identificationofgeneticvariations that
generate particular traits anddiseases.
Foodomics is a living example for regional collaboration in the
Industry4.0era. Foodomicshasemergedasadiscipline in thefield
of foodandnutrition thatappliesand integratescomprehensivehigh-
throughput–omics technologies to improvehumanhealth,well-being,
and nutritional knowledge. This discipline finds its applications in
addressing food quality, authenticity, traceability, and safety. Major
challenges are integrating and connecting data sets from different
expression levels and complementary skills in chemistry, analysis,
statistics, biology, and bioinformatics. Initiated in December 2014,
Food Biomarker Alliance (FOODBALL) is a regional collaborative
project that aims to identify andquantify dietary biomarkers inorder
to improve the capabilities of nutritional assessment and research.
TheFOODBALLProject consistsof 22partners from11countries. It
is supported by the EU Joint Programming Initiative “AHealth Diet
for aHealthy Life” through participating organization’s local funding
agencies.
Current SceneofASEANSTI Cooperation
Beginning in 2012, the e-Asia Joint Research Program (JRP) has
been formulatingandsupporting international joint researchprojects
in theEastAsianRegionon themultilateralbasisaswellaspromoting
researcher interaction through workshops and so on. The projects
are selected through openCall for Proposals. Prospectivemember
organizations are public funding institutions of 10ASEANmember
countries + 8 (Australia, Japan, New Zealand, China, India, Korea,
Russia, U.S.; East AsiaSummit - EAS participating countries). The
e-Asia JRP aims to develop a vibrant and collaborative research
community inScienceandTechnology, topromote innovation in the
East Asian region and contribute to the region’s economic
development. From2012-2015, therehavebeen 85applied and18
awarded projects.
Generally, ASEAN’s joint funding scheme for research and
innovation has been dialogue-partners driven. More collaboration
amongAMS isencouragedasASEANGrandChallengesandASEAN
COST Cross-Cutting Priority Theme have already been identified,
e.g., Smart Farming, Food-Water-Energy Nexus, Climate &
Environment, Health&Wellness.
ASEANSTI Forum2016wasorganizedby theNational Science
ASEANSTI Forum2016–Shaping theFuture ofASEAN Innovation,
21-23September 2016, Bangkok, Thailand
Technologyand InnovationPolicyOffice together
with the Ministry of Science and Technology of
Thailand aiming to provide an open forum for
policy makers and practitioners to discuss STI
issues and challenges faced by ASEAN while
exploring potential cooperation to promote
innovation linkages among ASEAN and its
partners.The forumcalled foracommonASEAN
foresight study, encouragingmore intra-ASEAN
collaboration with engagement of the private
sector and the youth and changing roles of
government from fixing to facilitating. Thismove
is in direction of Industry 4.0 and potential
activities are:
