The new ISCF Future Food Production Systems call has officially opened.
As Andrew McLay from Innovate UK hinted, at the One Health event on September 6th, the focus has shifted since the Transforming Food Production call last year and the emphasis is now on ‘moving towards net zero emissions by 2040’.
Up to £20 million of grant funding is available from the Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund for projects that disrupt the traditional land-based models of food production.
The Transforming Food Production Challenge’s stated aims are: to help food production systems achieve net zero emissions by 2040, to help produce food in ways that are more efficient, resilient and sustainable and to speed up the development and use of integrated precision approaches to improve productivity in agricultural systems.
All projects must be collaborative and involve a micro, small or medium-sized enterprise (SME). They must create integrated, data-driven solutions to drive agricultural productivity as well as target net-zero emissions. A broad range of technologies and systems will be considered.
To be in with a chance of securing the funds, projects must be geared towards the transformation of future food production systems. They should be ambitious, multidisciplinary and systems-focused rather than dedicated to developing a single technology.
Innovate UK is particularly looking to support large-scale, ambitious projects, with total eligible costs in excess of £1 million but less than £10 million. Projects must start by 1st July 2020 and end by 31st March 2023. They can last between 24 and 33 months.
The competition opened on Tuesday 17th September 2019 and closes on Wednesday 22nd January 2020 at 12noon. For more information go to: innovation funding.
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