RMIT has launched a Food Innovation Hub at its Bundoora campus in Melbourne’s north, positioning it as a way to help food manufacturers turn research into commercial products and tackle food system challenges.
The Hub combines the university’s food technology and nutrition capabilities and sits within a broader investment at Bundoora, which RMIT is developing as a precinct for vocational and higher education, research and industry partnerships.
It builds on RMIT’s food science base. The university ranked first in Australia and 26th globally for food science and technology in the 2025 Shanghai Ranking Global Ranking of Academic Subjects.
Food Innovation Hub director, Professor Mirjana Prica, said commercial translation was a significant weakness in Australian food research. “Translation is a huge gap in Australian food research,” she said. “We want to address that by working closely with industry to identify opportunities, co-create solutions and deliver research with practical applications.”
Prica pointed to value-added manufacturing as a priority, saying the Hub saw strong potential in transforming raw materials, mostly commodities, into high-value functional ingredients and foods using advanced engineering, processing and packaging technologies.
STEM College associate deputy vice-chancellor, research and innovation, Distinguished Professor Sujeeva Setunge, said the hubs were built around broad challenges rather than single disciplines. “The Food Innovation Hub will help researchers and students bridge the gap between scientific discovery and product development,” she said.
Hub users will work from RMIT’s Food Research and Innovation Centre, a multimillion-dollar facility where researchers, students and industry partners can test approaches to food processing, nutrition and product development.
The launch follows RMIT research into extracting protein from discarded cauliflower leaves using ultrasound, which the university says points to new uses for vegetable scraps in food manufacturing and waste reduction.
