FOODBIOMES is a Greek research infrastructure project focusing on microbiome applications in food systems. It covers the infrastructure’s preparatory phase, funded under the “Regional Excellence” action for research, education, and innovation. This research infrastructure aspires to serve as a Center of Excellence and a pioneering hub for research, education, and innovation, linking local stakeholders with scientific centers at European and international levels. It likewise plays a significant role in education and in upgrading human capital and local industry, boosting the economy of peripheral and island regions in Eastern Thrace, Epirus, the Northern Aegean, and the Ionian Islands.

Core project objectives

• Form a key link between innovation, education, and research; conduct innovative research on food microbiomes; and create and deliver training activities for knowledge dissemination.
• Devise and offer services to researchers and professionals in relevant fields, enhancing know-how and fostering development in the agri-food sector.
• Implement a modernization plan for partner labs with state-of-the-art equipment, newly recruited staff, and specialized scientists, ensuring improved efficiency.
• Build and expand networks and collaborations with food industry players, researchers, national and European centers, and research infrastructures, making new technologies more accessible. FOODBIOMES strives to discover and generate excellence-driven collaborations with local agencies and companies as well as international organizations, facilitating knowledge exchange and global recognition.
• Reinforce the organizational structure and operational framework to position the infrastructure as a model of excellence and achieve its objectives.

Scientific and research objectives:

• Isolate and characterize potentially beneficial (probiotic) microorganisms from multiple sources
• Use probiotic strains to produce new, clinically validated functional foods
• Integrate herbs and aromatic plants to develop new food ingredients that positively affect the microbiomes of both foods and humans
• Investigate how food microbiomes and functional ingredients influence the gut microbiome; use microbiome data and chemical fingerprinting for food authenticity verification