SFN News & Events

Conference
13th-14th July 2021
Summary
Many thanks to everyone who joined us for the 4th Annual Conference of the STFC Food Network+. Ourr first annual meeting as SFN 2.0 included keynote talks from Prof Robin May (Chief Scientific Advisor at the Food Standards Agency) and Swati Saxena (Scientific Advisor at FCDO India); a funding opportunities webinar with speakers from BBSRC, EPSRC, NERC, STFC, and Innovate UK, and BMGF; the pre-launch of the inaugural SFN Call for Proof of Concept Projects (up to £30k) and ECR internships; and updates from our funded scoping projects
Webinar

SFN AgriFood Innovations Webinar 4
Capturing Value from Food Chain Information

Thursday 29th June 2021

Speaker: Dr Raymond Obayi (Alliance Manchester Business School and STFC Food Network+ Liaison for Food Policy)

Summary
Well-designed data analytics solutions allow food chain actors to utilize data intelligently to address emerging business and policy challenges (traceability, visibility and smart analytics). Given the global scope of most food chains, it is crucial to explore policy and business innovations for linking up food chain information to enable efficient and responsive supply chain operations that use real-time insights to drive performance, meet customer needs and improve operational efficiency. To consolidate valuable data from multiple sources into smart and interactive dashboards for intelligent decision-making, policy innovations for food chain data management are required to overcome the challenges of data silos, interoperability and traceability. This seminar explores data trusts as a core innovation for harnessing the power of food chain data.

Latest News & Events

Webinar

IntelliDigest/SFN
Consumer Behaviour & Dietary Choice

Date: 18 June 2021; 13.00-16.00 BST
To coincide with World Gastronomy Day, this webinar looks at how consumer behaviour affects food sustainability and how the industry acts upon the rise in more healthy diets and the rise of vegetarianism and veganism.
Webinar

SFN 2.0 AgriFood Innovations Webinar 3
Towards a more resilient and sustainable food system devoid of waste

Date: 27 May 2021; 14.00-15.00 BST
Speaker: Dr Ifeyinwa Kanu
Find out how an innovative SFN Scoping Project - led by IntelliDigest CEO, Ifeyinwa Kanu - is using STFC capabilities to reduce food waste
Watch now!
Webinar

SFN 2.0 Virtual Sandpit 2021
Our 2nd Sandpit as SFN 2.0 took place from 16th - 22nd June 2021. It attracted huge interest with more than 120 participants taking part in at least one theme over three days. The Sandpit had a prominent international dimension with many participants joining us from across Asia and Africa. The Sandpit produced 21 very high quality proposals across the following three themes:
  1. One Health Food (Beyond GHGEs)
  2. Food Systems, Technologies and the Ocean
  3. Innovations for Small Scale Food Producers

Winning Projects

Webinar

SFN 2.0 AgriFood Innovations Webinar 2
So many worlds, so much to do; what data science can do for you

Date: 22 April 2021; 14.00-15.00 BST
Speaker: Jens Jensen STFC Hartree Centre
Find out how STFC Data Science capabilities are helping to build more resilient food systems
Now available on the SFN Youtube Channel
Webinar

SFN 2.0 AgriFood Innovations Webinar 1
Shining Light (and neutrons) on Food

Date: 23 March 2021; 15.00-16.00 GMT
Speaker: Claire Pizzey - Diamond Light Source
The first webinar in the SFN AgriFood Innovations Series provides an overview of the UK central research facilities at the Harwell Campus in South Oxfordshire and their relevance to the food and agri-tech sectors. You will find out how food and agri-tech companies benefit from the UK investment in these large scale infrastructure for advanced analytical characterisation: what can it do and how can it benefit your business?
Now available on the SFN Youtube Channel
SFN+
Event

STFC Food Network+ Asia Launch Event

15th April 2021 - 09.00-10.00 BST
Find out about our global community of Agrifood researchers and technologists and learn about collaborative, networking, and funding opportunities for Asia-based researchers and industry.
SFN+
Event

STFC Food Network+ Africa Launch Event

14th April 2021 - 13.00-14.00 BST
Find out about our global community of Agrifood researchers and technologists and learn about collaborative, networking, and funding opportunities for Africa-based researchers and industry.
Partner
Event

IFST Food Waste Webinar Series: What about the packaging?

10th March 2021 - 11.00-12.00
This webinar will provide information on what constitutes food packaging waste, the producer responsibilities around such waste and which food businesses might have a packaging obligation.
News

Funding Success: Developing novel powder products for the nutraceutical sector

A meeting at the SFN Virtual Sandpit in July 2020 gave rise to this collaboration and ultimately resulted in a successful SPRINT-funded project. The project aims to turn food waste into new, premium products that are rich in fibre, nutrients and nutraceuticals.
News

Funding Success: Healthy soil, healthy food, healthy people

Huge congratulations to SFN/N8 AgriFood members who have been awarded funds to help transform the UK food system. The £6m project focusing on improvements to sustainability and resilience within horticulture, hydroponics and hybrid farms.
News

Funding Success: Transformations to Regenerative Food Systems

Huge congratulations to SFN/N8 AgriFood members who have been awarded funds to help transform the UK food system. The project will look at interventions in food retailing and farming to address issues such as childhood obesity, sustainability in agriculture and global warming.
Partner
Event

Satallite Applications Catapult - UK-Turkey building strong partnerships within agriculture, food and drink

9th February 2021 - 10.00-12.30 GMT
This event will explore the opportunities to optimise the Turkish Agriculture Food and Drink industry through building ecosystems across borders that deliver innovations to identified supply chain challenges.
Partner
Event

IFST Food Waste Seminar Series: Managing Waste at the consumer interface

4th February 2021
This webinar considers the waste/loss occurring at the consumer-facing end of the value chain - the speakers cover retail and hospitality aspects of waste management.
News

Farming for Change Report Published by FFCC

The Food, Farming and Countryside Commission has published Farming for Change: mapping a route to 2030. The report introduces new research showing agroecology can produce enough healthy food for a future UK population and explores how this new technical modelling challenges and places new technologies at the centre of the solution.
Partner
Event

Food Industry Innovation 2021 – Food, Nutrition & Health

3-4th March 2021
Excellent opportunity for SFN scoping projects to showcase their work. This KTN event is for people involved in innovation in the food and drink community, including start-ups, SMEs, academics, researchers and established businesses of all sizes.
Partner
Event

New Scientist Live: Future of Food & Agriculture

28th November 2020 
SFN+ Members can get free access to this virtuak event (normally £15). Just click on the button below:
News

Protein powerhouse: can this plant break our reliance on soybean? ​

The world has a protein problem – and one that will only get worse. Our over-reliance on soybean for animal feed is unsustainable and threatened by climate change. A project supported by the SFN could have the solution: an unremarkable-looking plant you have probably never even heard of. ​
News

Sweet success – a new technology to help honey producers ​

Whether drizzled over porridge or used to treat a sore throat, honey is one of our most cherished food products. In the UK, honey consumption is steadily rising but competition from cheaper imports and barriers to entering the ‘premium’ honey market could stop UK producers from benefitting. A project funded by the SFN is helping to address this by applying a pioneering spectroscopic technique for a new use in the honey industry ​
News

New way of cooking rice removes arsenic and retains mineral nutrients, SFN scoping project shows

An SFN scoping project found that over half of UK rice exceeds limits on arsenic for children. They have now released a new way to cook rice which removes the arsenic but not nutrients.
Partner
Event
Partner
Event

Precision Livestock Farming and Sensing Technology in Extensive Grassland Systems Webinars

17th and 19th November 2020 
These two 90 minute webinars will focus on the use of Precision Livestock Farming (PLF) approaches in extensive systems. PLF techniques and novel sensing technologies are having a major impact on the management of intensive systems to improve efficiency, reduce disease and improve welfare.
Event

Explore How Farmers Produce Food Responsibly

Online/Anytime
On this course, you’ll gain a better understanding of where our food comes from, how it’s produced, and the associated environmental, social and sustainability challenges for EU farmers. As well as horticulture and arable farming, you’ll explore meat, dairy, and egg production, as you examine different farming systems. You’ll also learn about the innovative technologies available to farmers to boost sustainability so that you can better understand farming challenges, and how farming relates to your food purchases.
Event

Photonics for AgriFood - Webinar

24th November 2020 
​Photonics is an underpinning technology with application in a wide range of end-use sectors. Photonics is a key enabler across industrial challenges from the digital economy to autonomous transport, provides innovative healthcare technologies for rapid disease detection, and is essential for Industry 4.0.

​Speakers from industry and academia will highlight the latest developments and KTN will provide an overview of the landscape and funding opportunities for each area.
Event

Innovation in Arable Farming: Technologies for Sustainable Farming Systems

19th October 2020
This is a FREE, three-week online programme exploring evidence-based information that outlines the benefits and challenges of adopting new technologies within the EU. You will learn from farmers who have adopted agri-tech on their farms to enhance production, while meeting environmental and social responsibilities, and hear how they overcame any barriers to adoption.​​
News

SFN Scoping Projects Announced

October 2020
We were are delighted to annouce the 17 projects that will be funded via the SFN Scoping Project Call 2020. You can find out more about the projects via by following the link below
Event

Food2030 Conference - Transforming Food Systems through Research and Innovation

16th October 2020
Researchers, innovators, entrepreneurs, food system stakeholders and citizens are invited to exchange and debate ideas on how Research and Innovation can accelerate the transformation of food systems, and contribute more to the evidence-base for strengthening their governance. The event is co-organised by the European Commission’s FOOD2030 team, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and the German EU Presidency.
Event

Escape Citizen Science Workshop

2-4 December 2020
Attendees will learn how to build citizen science projects that will enhance the quality and impact of their research. They will learn about the advanced technologies that can be coupled with their projects to improve accuracy and efficiency. They will also learn how citizen science can be used in conjunction with machine learning to generate training data and refine the predictions of trained machine learning models.
Workshop recommended by Dr Hugh Dickinson (SFN Liaison for Data Science)
News

SFN Newsletter - Sept

September 2020
The newsletter includes an update on SFN activities, links to recorded and forthcoming events, and a list of active funding opportunities. Click the link below to download the September edition.
sfnnewsletter_sept20.pdf
File Size: 570 kb
File Type: pdf
Download File
News

SFN Blog - 2020 Sandpit Winners: Adapting food systems to work with uncertainty

In our last blog post, we told the story of how the STFC Food Network+ (SFN) didn’t let a global pandemic stop the most recent Sandpit from going ahead by transitioning the whole event online for the first time. Although this gave a very different experience to the usual, in-person format, this clearly didn’t impact the quality of the proposals which resulted from the discussions. Here we feature the winning projects for each theme, which were decided by democratic vote to receive £10K each in funding. 
​
News

SFN Sandpit Winners Announed

July 2020
Congratulations to the 3 winning projects from our Virtual Sandpit 2020.

SFN Blog - Innovation under lockdown: the SFN Sandpit goes virtual!

Even the most interactive events based on networking and group discussion can be successfully run online – as the recent STFC Food Network+ (SFN) virtual Sandpit demonstrated.

SFN Call for Scoping Projects 2020 - Now closed

UPDATE: UK-based scoping projects can now be funded at 100% FEC up to a maximum of £8k. Projects led by partners in ODA-listed countries in Africa and Asia can be funded up to a maximum of £10k (100% FEC)

Our call for collaborative scoping projects for £500 - £10,000 is now open. This call is open to all projects that bring together STFC capabilities and food research and industry. You can download a copy of our application form here [if you don’t use google docs then just go to ‘File’ and select ‘Download as’ ‘Microsoft word(.docx)’]. To help you think of new ideas and prepare, we would like to remind you that you can access the SFN handbook here. If you have part of an idea and aren’t sure how to link up with the relevant food or STFC-side people, please contact the relevant SFN Champion. We hope you will consider applying to this call so we can fund a diverse range of exciting new projects. Please send your application forms to stfcfoodnetwork@sheffield.ac.uk

New Champions Announced

We are extremely pleased to welcome our new team of champions and liaisons for SFN 2.0. You can find out more about them on our website (click here). Thank you to all of you for your work on the Virtual Sandpit. You all did a fantastic job!

SFN Newsletter - July

July 2020
The newsletter includes an update on SFN activities, links to recorded and forthcoming events, and a list of active funding opportunities.

SFN Blog - Saving Soils with Satallites

Satellite technology could help us start to reverse the perilous condition of our soils…

Future Funding Opportunities - Webinar

Friday July 10th, 3.00-4.15pm

UKRI contacts presented future grant opportunities & SFN released call for scoping projects.
Presenters slides are available via this link.

Virtual Sandpit 2020 - Webinar

Thursday July 9th, 3.00-4.30pm
Webinar 1 - We ran a webinar in preparation for the Virtual Sandpit. Please note that this webinar is for shortlisted sandpit participants only. SFN Champions/ Liaisons presenting challenges/ STFC capabilities.

Call Open for Virtual Sandpit 2020

Dates: 15, 16, 17, & 21 July 2020
Deadline for Applications – 30 June 2020
The first call under SFN 2.0 seeking expression of interests for virtual sandpit to fund projects up to £10,000 is now open. This year’s sandpit is focussed on “Food Systems in the UK and Beyond: Navigating Through Uncertainties.” The details about the schedule, various themes and application form can be found here. This call is open to all participants from STFC capabilities, food systems research, industry and policy makers across the UK, Asia and Africa to come together for collaborative projects. To help you think of new ideas and prepare, we would like to remind you that you can access the SFN handbook here. If you have part of an idea and aren’t sure how to link up with the relevant food or STFC-side people, please contact the relevant SFN Champion. We hope you will consider applying to this call so we can fund a diverse range of exciting new projects. We will aim to confirm all those successful in securing a place for the sandpit by 06 July 2020.


SFN Blog - Going against the grain – making rice safer 

Visit our blog page to find out all about SFN Scoping Project 'Arsenic Detection and Distribution in Rice Plants Using High Resolution X-ray Imaging' led by Dr Manoj Menon. You can also see the paper that Manoj had published on this topic here
News

EFRA-commissioned report on the Impact of Covid19 on UK food supply chains

May 2020
SFN was invited by EFRA to provide a written evidence on Covid 19 impact on the UK food supply chains. SFN conducted a quick response research on the Impact of C19 on Beef and Dairy Supply Chains and produced a report for EFRA. This research was led by Dr Sonal Choudhary and co-led by other SFN liaisons: Dr Raymond Obayi (SFN Liaison for Food Policy Analysis), Rakesh Nayak (SFN Liaison for Manufacturing Industries), Dr Seyed Ebrahimi (SFN Liaison for Resilient Supply Chains), Dr Panayiota J Alevizou (SFN Member), Dr Graeme Heron (SFN Member). This report was reviewed by Mr Geoff McBride - Theme Leader for Global Food Security, Agri-Tech & Water at STFC.

New Champions Needed

As part of the vision for our new extended Network (SFN 2.0) and with sincere thanks to all of our SFN 1.0 Champions for the fantastic job they did (Stephen, Simon, Christian, Sonal, Diogo, Seb and Sarah) we’d like to invite ‘Expressions of Interest’ (EoIs) from you, our members, to join us as Champions for our new term. Find our more and apply through our champions page 

New SFN CoInvestigators and Steering Committee

Following our initial kick-off meeting with our new Steering Committee and CoInvestigators we’d like to introduce this new team to you - You can find out all about the people that will be helping us to achieve our network aims, advising and mentoring us for the next four years here
News

SFN Review on 21st Century Abattoirs for FSA

Oct 2019
SFN led a Review on 21st Century Abattoirs which resulted in a £250K MoU between STFC & FSA for running sandpit in Oct 2019 and funding projects worth £20K-£70K. The review was led by Dr Sonal Choudhary and co-led by other SFN liaisons: Dr Raymond Obayi (SFN Liaison for Food Policy Analysis), Rakesh Nayak (SFN Liaison for Manufacturing Industries), Dr Seyed Ebrahimi (SFN Liaison for Resilient Supply Chains), and Dr Panayiota J Alevizou (SFN Member)