The 2023 CCC spring symposium took place in Groningen allowing for extensive networking opportunities during the poster sessions and the drinks after the symposium. The event attracted the participation of many researchers and scientists from various companies, universities, and even international attendees. As always this was again a wonderful occasion to reconnect with one another.
In the morning Prof. dr. Iris Sommer from UMCG gave a very insightful keynote presentation with the title: “Nutritional Psychiatry; an apple a day keeps the psychiatrist away”. While in the afternoon Prof. dr. Bjørn Christensen from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology gave an interesting keynote talk titled: “Alginates: structure, properties and novel applications”.
We could also get to know more about Next Food Collective from Marian Geluk, the executive director of the new organization. Next Food Collective emerged from a merger of TiFN, the Protein Competence Center (PCC), the Carbohydrate Competence Center (CCC), and the Sustainable Food Initiative (SFI). The mission of Next Food Collective is to accelerate the pace of sustainable and healthy food innovation. You can get to know more about it on the website: https://www.nextfoodcollective.nl/
It was also interesting to hear the stories of former CCC PhD candidates, Dr. ir. Sonja de Vries who works now as Associate Professor at the Animal Nutrition Group of WUR, Dr. Lingmin Tian who is now an Associate Professor in the Department of Food Science and Engineering at Jinan University in Guangzhou, China and Dr. Neha Sahasrabudhe who is working as Business developer at TU Delft.
In the breaks we could hear the inviting poster pitches followed by lively poster sessions where the researchers from CCC CarboBiotics, CarboBased and CarboSupport programs presented their newest results.
At the end of the day, the Rudy Rabbinge Prize was awarded to the best poster presenter. Prof. Rudy Rabbinge handed over the award for the best poster of the spring symposium, Laura Boetje. Congratulations!
The day was closed by drinks and bites which was yet another opportunity to network and socialize with the fellow carbohydrate enthusiasts.
