The Bioprocessing Group within the Centre for Tropical Crops and Biocommodities at Queensland University of Technology (QUT) is the successor to the Research Division of the Sugar Research Institute (SRI).

The Bioprocessing Group has grown substantially in recent years to around 21 full time equivalent staff, through substantial growth in the other (non-sugar milling) activities. While the additional income and associated skills development in these areas have significantly improved the sustainability of the group, they have had minimal impact on building future sugar milling industry RD&E capability.

There is a need to ensure that the Bioprocessing Group maintains the ability to respond to their needs into the future. Achieving this status requires that the group can maintain its expertise in sugar milling operations and build expertise in areas that will become important to them in the future.

The proposal is to introduce a sugar milling R&D capability building program that commences with the employment of three new research staff in the first year across different disciplines (mechanical engineering, chemical engineering and chemistry) followed by one new researcher each subsequent year, to cater for the inevitable turnover of younger staff.