February 01, 2023
Dr Chris Downs to lead FaBA
Dr Chris Downs is relishing his appointment as Director of Australia’s Food and Beverage Accelerator (FaBA), funded by the Commonwealth Department of Education and hosted by The University of Queensland.
The FaBA Trailblazer program is an investment to accelerate the growth of Australia’s food and beverage manufacturing sector, including growth in skilled jobs, establishing start-ups and growth in new value added products and ingredients.
“I welcome the opportunity to lead FaBA,” Dr Downs said.
“It’s an important opportunity to lift investment and innovation as well as the value from innovation for the food and innovation sector in this country.
“Australia needs to continue to invest in value addition of food and beverage products which are then available for both domestic consumption and export into global markets. And FaBA underpins that opportunity,” he said.
Dr Downs has worked at the interface between science and industry as a scientist, leader and executive in the agri-food industry for more than 30 years.
He is a former general manager for Crop and Food Science at the Queensland Department of Agriculture and Fisheries and led the Food Program at Australia’s national science agency, CSIRO.
He has also previously held executive positions in Food Science Australia, CSIRO Food and Nutritional Sciences, CSIRO Animal, Food and Health Sciences and at the New Zealand Institute for Crop and Food Research.
He is currently Director and Chair of the Institute for Food Technologists (IFT) in the US and a member of the advisory Board for High Value Nutrition in New Zealand.
Dr Downs began his role at FaBA in January 2023 and is based at The University of Queensland’s St Lucia campus.