Purpose

Ambition 2030 captures the Scotland Food and Drink Partnership vision for the future growth of the Food and Drink sector and sets a headline target of doubling the economic value of the sector by 2030.

Innovation is one of the three key drivers to achieving Ambition 2030, with the others being skills and collaboration. It is well established that businesses that embrace innovation across all their activities grow faster and more sustainably.

Support to Scottish businesses has, until recently, been fragmented and as a result the full benefits of innovation have not always been realised.

Therefore we’ve helped to create a bold initiative called ‘Make Innovation Happen’, launched by Mr Fergus Ewing MSP at the Royal Highland Show 2017. ‘Make Innovation Happen’ supports all the five key stages of the innovation journey: Opportunity, Proposition, Viability, Engagement and Launch.  The initiative has simplified the landscape of funding, making it easier for companies to access support at any stage of this journey and to get continuity between different support agencies.

Prior to ‘Make Innovation Happen’, support for businesses involved in primary production or pre-manufacture was particularly fragmented and there was a major disconnect between this community and manufacturing. Underpinning research undertaken in SEFARI and this initiative is crucial in supporting the short, medium and long term economic success of the food and drink sector and facilitates improving connectivity throughout the food supply chain.  

We are able to help individual businesses and other partners access SEFARI research to develop multidisciplinary, outcome driven solutions that support innovation.  The unique and intimate knowledge of both industry and research held by SEFARI’s team of experts is also providing a platform to help give businesses early insight into future threats. This provides opportunities to support businesses in applying research findings to help future proof the industry.