Food efficiency fund launched
25 Sep 2014
An £11 million fund to encourage engineering innovation and improve resource efficiency in the food and drink industry was launched by the government yesterday.
The funding competition, Improving food supply chain efficiency, will seek to support collaborative research and development projects that improve the resource efficiency and resilience of the UK food and drink supply chain.
This will allow businesses to collaborate to find industry-wide innovative engineering solutions
FDF director general Melanie Leech
The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council and Innovate UK (formerly the Technology Strategy Board) jointly announced the competition, which is open for applications from 13 October until noon on 3 December. This will be followed by a webinar for potential applications that will be held on 15 October.
Trade body the Food and Drink Federation (FDF) welcomed the competition, which it claimed would “enable the industry to be in the driving seat of delivering improvements throughout the supply chain”.
Areas that could be targeted in this competition, said the FDF, could include reduction of waste, using resources such as energy, water and raw materials more efficiently and improving the productivity of food manufacturing and processing operations.
“This major new investment will allow businesses to collaborate to find industry-wide innovative engineering solutions, creating a more resilient and resource-efficient food and drink manufacturing supply chain,” said FDF director general Melanie Leech.
“Through initiatives such as this fund and the development of the National Centre of Excellence for Food Engineering at Sheffield Hallam University, industry will be able to unlock its growth potential and drive competitive advantage.”
