FDBusiness.com

To drive research and innovation in Scotland’s food and drink sector, Interface Food & Drink, in association with the Scottish Funding Council, has awarded a total of £110,000 to three industry led projects. Lobster Pod Ltd, Insignia Technologies Ltd and Agrico Ltd have all been announced as the winners of the latest Interface Food & Drink Innovation Competition. Each project will receive between £30,000 to £40,000 to support collaborations between companies and leading academics, to achieve economic impact and stimulate innovation and the adoption of new technologies within the sector.

The successful entrants met criteria set by leaders from Scotland’s food and drink industry. As a result, entries were assessed on supply chain efficiencies; cost and manufacturing effectiveness; energy and sustainability, new technologies and establishing and developing new global market opportunities.

Insignia Technologies Ltd, based at Bio City Scotland near Glasgow, is an innovative company with expertise in intelligent indicators and sensors. It has developed a range of labelling solutions that highlight to consumers and businesses the quality and freshness of their goods and products.   Insignia, working in collaboration with the University of Strathclyde’s Department of Pure and Applied Chemistry, is using the award to develop a system that will indicate anomalies in the refrigerated and frozen supply chains which will help reduce food waste and thus minimise environmental impact.

Dalgety Bay, Fife–based Lobster Pod Ltd is developing an innovative live shellfish transportation system which improves efficiencies in the supply chain through enhancing the welfare of the shellfish, as well as reducing transportation costs.  Lobster Pod Ltd, in collaboration with the University of Stirling’s Institute of Aquaculture, Glasgow University’s School of Medicine, Veterinary and Life Science and D R Collins & Son, will use the grant to evaluate the potential of this new system to support the development of the potentially game changing product and its effectiveness in real case transport scenarios.

Agrico Ltd and Hatton of Ogilvy Farms near Forfar have been funded to work with Edinburgh Napier University’s Biofuel Research Centre on a project to develop a process of using reject potatoes for the production of high value commodity chemicals and biofuels as well as to map the supply chain of waste potatoes. The aim is to reduce waste and provide a source of income for potato producers and users through the production of biofuels which can be used for power and heating as well as have the potential to produce animal feed.

Scotland’s food and drink industry is a key sector for the economy, employing in excess of 360,000 people. Interface Food & Drink promotes partnerships between businesses and academics to drive innovation through knowledge exchange, collaboration and funding.

Helen Pratt, national co-ordinator for Interface Food & Drink commented: “Innovation is the lifeblood of the industry. We believe that by getting industry and academia to collaborate, we can achieve exciting advances that will keep Scotland at the forefront of the sector.”

With this support from the Scottish Funding Council, partners from the three competition winners will now embark on six to nine month collaborative projects with some of Scotland’s universities. They will access the expertise of leading academics in their fields to develop their projects, with the potential for further collaboration and innovation.

Previous winner of the award, Mara Seaweed, has done just that, moving from a £5,000 innovation voucher to winners of last year’s competition, and they have now been awarded over £300,000 Innovate UK Agri-Tech catalyst funding to develop their work further with SAMS, part of the University of the Highlands and Islands.

Businesses interested in sourcing academic expertise can contact Helen Pratt on 0845 0130536 or email food@interface-online.org.uk.