The Scottish food and drink industry will benefit from a £1.1million boost aimed at driving innovation in the sector.
The funding has supported the launch of a new service for companies in farming, fishing and food and drink providing access to technical knowledge and expertise, specialist facilities, market insights and advice on innovation funding.
The Make Innovation Happen (www.makeinnovationhappen.scot) service is the brain child of the Scotland Food & Drink Innovation Working Group, which includes representatives from Highlands & Islands Enterprise (HIE), Interface, the Rowett Institute at the University of Aberdeen, trade body Scottish Food and Drink Federation, leadership group Scotland Food & Drink and development agency Scottish Enterprise.
The group is leading on ambitions set out by the Scotland Food & Drink Partnership, which included a range of industry and producer partners, to double turnover in the sector to £30billion by 2030.
The Make Innovation Happen service will provide food and drink businesses in Scotland looking for information and support with a single, streamlined access route to help them innovate. This service includes support for both incremental and disruptive innovation and is open to all businesses across the supply chain from farm to fork.
David Thomson, chief executive of Food and Drink Federation Scotland and Dr Alan Rowe of the Rowett Institute – both co-chairs of the working group, said in a statement: “The food and drink sector is one of the star performers in Scotland and innovation is critical to its continued success. The Scotland Food & Drink Partnership has shown exceptional collaboration to create a single gateway to make it easy for businesses to access the various types of support available all under one roof.”
Rural secretary, Fergus Ewing, said:“Make Innovation Happen offers an excellent opportunity to support businesses on their innovation journey. I would urge any food and drink businesses thinking of innovation to make use of this new service.”
Jim Watson, director of Innovation at Scottish Enterprise, said: “Business innovation is fundamental to Scotland’s future economic growth. We know innovation has a direct impact on business growth, with £488million of additional domestic and international sales forecast from the companies we supported to innovate in 2015/16.
“That’s why we’re fully committed, alongside our partners, to the new Make Innovation Happen service to help Scotland’s food and drink industry accelerate market-driven innovation across the whole supply chain, from primary producers all the way to consumers, to open up new markets and revenue streams.”