March news: Funding

BBSRC: Horticulture and Potato Initiative

Outline application deadline: 25 April 2012

As part of its portfolio of activities related to food security, BBSRC are launching a new collaborative funding activity to support excellent quality, industrially relevant research projects on potato and edible horticulture crops.

Up to £7M will be invested through two calls. The Scottish Government and Natural Environment Research Council are also contributing to this initiative. The first call is open and information can be found on the apply for funding page.

Through discussions with companies from the sector BBSRC have identified 6 key areas where research is necessary to help improve food security:

* Changing seasons
* Crop maturity and spoilage
* Soil
* Pests and pathogens
* Seed quality and vigour
* Resource use efficiency

All of these areas are within scope for the first call. Further details can be found in the full call text (download from www.bbsrc.ac.uk/web/FILES/Guidelines/hapi-call-text.pdf).

Two TSB / DEFRA competitions

On 14 March Jim Paice, Food and Farming Minister, launched a £15 million programme to stimulate innovation and growth in the food industry at the Farming, Food and Drink Innovate for Growth Summit. This programme comprises of two funding competitions.

The competitions

* The Technology Strategy Board, in partnership with Defra and BBSRC, will invest up to £15 million in major R&D projects that increase the efficiency, sustainability and competitiveness of the food processing and manufacturing sector, focussing on increasing efficiency and reducing supply chain waste. Applications open in June 2012.

* Defra and the Technology Strategy Board are also launching the Innovate for Growth competition, providing up to twenty £25k grants for innovative SMEs across the farming, food and drink industries. This funding will support the rapid development of an innovative idea and demonstrate its practical feasibility. The competition will open in April, with results announced in the summer.

To access the competition documents, please make sure you are a member of the Sustainable Agriculture and Food Innovation Platform group on connect.