Agri-Tech Catalyst awards £17.8m in funding

Projects to improve agriculture and food production at home and overseas have received £17.8 million under the latest round of the Government’s Argi-Tech Catalyst funding scheme. Projects include assessing the potential to commercialise the farming of lobsters; a proposal to cultivate scallops on ropes and a way of continuing to make whisky with UK wheat, by using a novel variety.

The technologies are among 21 successful bids that have won a competition run by Innovate UK to target commercially promising new technologies that could provide an economic boost to the UK agriculture sector.

The funding was awarded through the Agri-Tech Catalyst which can help to take innovations all the way from concept to commercialisation, awarding grants for early-stage pre-industrial research feasibility studies; industrial research; late-stage pre-experimental and experimental feasibility studies.

The Agri-Tech Catalyst will fund proposals relating to:

• primary crop and livestock production, including aquaculture
• non-food uses of crops including ornamentals (for example, for biomass)
• food security and nutrition challenges in international development
• challenges in downstream food processing, provided the solution lies in primary production.