News article
19 June 2014
FDF welcomes agri-food supply chain funding from Technology Strategy Board
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The Food and Drink Federation (FDF) has welcomed today's announcement from the
Technology Strategy Board to invest up to £2.3 million to establish Knowledge
Transfer Partnerships (KTPs) to improve the competitiveness, resilience and
responsiveness of the agri-food supply chain.
With the ongoing challenges the industry faces to produce more from less with
less resource, the aim of this initiative is to give food and drink businesses
access to the UK knowledge base so they can develop innovative solutions to
create
a more sustainable and competitive food supply chain. These solutions will
include: innovation for consumer health, wellbeing and choice; improving
productivity, resource efficiency and resilience in the supply chain and
assuring safety and
security across the supply chain.
The agri-food KTP is open for applications on 19 June 2014 and is open on a
rolling basis for applications until 11 February 2015.
Angela Coleshill, Director of Competitiveness at the Food and Drink Federation,
said:
“The availability of £2.3 million to fund Knowledge Transfer Partnerships
presents an exciting opportunity for food and drink businesses. Building on
efforts to
grow food engineering capability in the UK through the MEng food engineering
degree and the development of a Centre of Excellence in Food Engineering, this
investment presents yet another opportunity to drive innovation in our sector.”
“To help food and drink businesses understand how to access this funding,
Sheffield Hallam University will host a breakfast briefing on 8 July with the
Technology Strategy Board's regional KTP Advisor. I encourage all ambitious
food and
drink companies to come forward and propose new, innovative ways of working.”
Notes for editors:
- The Food and Drink Federation (FDF) is the voice of the food and drink
manufacturing industry – the UK's largest manufacturing sector. For more
information
about FDF and the industry we represent visit: www.fdf.org.uk
- The Technology Strategy Board works to accelerate economic growth by stimulating and supporting business-led
innovation. For more information on the agri-food supply chain funding, please
visit the TSB website here
- The MEng Food Engineering degree at Sheffield Hallam University has been developed by Graduate
Excellence, a partnership between the Food and Drink Federation, the National
Skills
Academy for Food & Drink and Sheffield Hallam University.
- Sheffield Hallam University is one of the UK's largest universities with more than 36,000 students, 27,000
of which are undergraduates. The University has the fourth highest number of
postgraduate taught students in the UK and runs approximately 580 different
courses. The University is England's largest provider of courses that involve
work
placements (such as a year in industry) and 91 per cent of the University's
graduates are in work or further study six months after graduation.
- The National Skills Academy for Food & Drink is the food and drink manufacturing industry's skills body. The Academy was
created in 2007 to facilitate sector specific training provision to drive up
sector
productivity and competitiveness in line with employer needs. Training
organisations that become part of the Academy undergo rigorous quality checks
and include
both publicly and privately funded learning centres. Each delivers some aspect
of skills development for the food and drink manufacturing industry as a whole,
and/or specialist skills for one of its various sub-sectors.
- Sheffield Hallam University's breakfast briefing on 8 July will take place
between 8.30am – 11.00am to book a place please visit the SHU website
More information
For further information please contact Anna Taylor on 020 7420 7118 or Avni Raval on 020 7420 7131
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