Developing a Platform for International Partnerships
PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE
As many of you will have read within IFT’s new strategic plan (http://www.ift.org/about-us/our-purpose.aspx), we have made important promises to our community with objectives that support our overarching mission and vision. One key promise outlined in this plan is to establish productive and interactive global networks on behalf of IFT members. The objective aligned with this promise is to “embrace the global nature of the science of food and to expand access to the IFT body of knowledge by developing a platform for international partnerships.”
To deliver on this, IFT wants to strategically engage with organizations that emerge as effective scientific, technological, or advocacy partners. Thus, we have embarked on a new dialogue with our international partners to identify collaborative areas where we can share information, resources, and opportunities for food scientists and technologists to advance their careers.
As part of the strategic planning process, we continue to have an ongoing dialogue with our existing partners to understand their needs and expectations. Based on initial outreach and discussions, I believe there are three guiding principles for partnerships that should drive our discussions with current and potential partnering organizations and establish a vision for the future.
The first one is respect. IFT intends to engage with its partners with the utmost respect for their members, histories, and initiatives. We want to engage in partnerships in a way that adheres to IFT’s core values; in addition to respect, those values include community, integrity, passion, and progress.
The second principle is predictability. IFT intends for its partnerships to be predictable, well-formulated, and mutually beneficial for both IFT members and our partners with clarity on expectations and commitments.
The third guiding principle is centralization. IFT intends to provide its partners with a single point of contact to form liaisons with the different functional and strategic areas managed by IFT volunteers and staff. We want to promote open dialogue with our partners and ensure timely and immediate support for collaborative global activities.
With these guiding principles in mind, we are working to develop opportunities for partnerships with organizations worldwide. During the coming months, we will work closely with several long-term IFT partnering organizations to define a predictable, centralized, and respectful platform for collaboration. This new work enhances the existing partnerships in place and opens the door for new collaborative opportunities since the science of food will continually involve a range of disciplines.
IFT has thrived from our existing productive relationships with many partners around the world, which have ultimately brought value to our members and other organizations. For example, IFT continues to collaborate with partners in Brazil, Canada, China, Mexico, South Africa, and the United Kingdom through summits, joint publishing initiatives, unique learning opportunities, and collaborations on the Certified Food Scientist (CFS) program. As a member of IFT for more than 30 years and a resident of the United Kingdom, I have had the opportunity to participate in many collaborative programs between our British Section and the UK Institute of Food Science & Technology (IFST). These include visits by IFT presidents and other U.S.-based members who have had the opportunity to share experiences and perspectives between Europe and the United States on food safety, processing technologies, nutritional science, dietary guidelines, and more. Such events also often provided an opportunity for U.S.-based members to visit leading food research centers in the United Kingdom. More recently, British food scientists and technologists and members of IFST have greatly enjoyed the rewarding experience of participating in IFT’s Lead 360 program for new professionals. In addition, the UK’s Campden BRI is now offering the CFS preparation course. These examples and those from other partnerships will serve as a foundation for fruitful new collaborations.
Our members have indicated that the global nature of our work is continuously expanding and evolving. The existing partnerships I’ve highlighted, and new ones on the horizon, support the exchange of ideas and sharing of data and resources and ensure that two like-minded organizations with a common mission complement efforts and achieve one vision.
Our partnership efforts moving forward ensure that we connect with those in our profession in productive ways, with abiding principles and common values, to put the needs of food scientists and professionals in the science of food at the forefront of all that we do.
Colin Dennis, CBE, PhD, CFS, CSci
IFT President, 2015–2016
Chairman, IFIS Ltd., Reading, United Kingdom
[email protected]