Seafish is particularly interested in applications for grants that cover seafood marketing and consumer communication, or that promote the nutritional benefits of seafood. However, work aligning with any of the strategic themes identified by industry as crucial to promoting seafood, raising standards and improving efficiency will be eligible.
“We’ve decided to make this announcement now because we’ve been given leave to appeal to the Supreme Court regarding the outcome of our case against British Seafoods,” said Dr Paul Williams, Research Director at Seafish.
“Having been given leave to appeal, we’re confident that we will be successful, so we want to make sure everything is in place to allow us to continue serving industry as soon as the outcome of the case is decided,” Dr Williams continued.
Following an in-depth review of its work by its industry sponsors, Seafish is proposing to work to seven themes over the next three years. The seven themes are: Health, Consumers, Standards, Environment, Information, Safety at Sea, and Regulation.
Dr Williams said: “Projects submitted for funding should demonstrably benefit our industry under one or more of these themes. Our consultation with industry revealed that two themes in particular - Health and Consumer Concerns are of vital importance, so these are priority areas.
“All of this year’s applications will be assessed on a value for money basis and will need to show measurable benefit to the seafood industry. Applications that aim to provide the greatest value to the widest industry audience will score highest.”
This year there are some fundamental changes to the way the Fund will operate. After first discussing the idea with a member of the Seafish staff, applicants will be invited to complete and submit a Concept Form (CF) that summarises the proposed work, together with a letter of support from the main industry sponsor supporting the proposed work. These will be reviewed by a Seafish Advisory Committee. Applicants requesting over £5,000, whose CFs are reviewed successfully, will be invited to submit a detailed Project Proposal Form (PPF), (full PPFs will be supplied by Seafish on an individual basis at this stage in the process). The more detailed PPFs will be subjected to a formal review process.
Applicants should contact Seafish in the first instance for help with their proposals. For further information, see the Seafish website: www.seafish.org/funding.asp. Concept Forms can be downloaded from the Seafood Information Network (SIN) at http://sin.seafish.org/portal/site/sin/ipf/. SIN is a collaborative site which will store information and background details on all projects and requires registration see http://sin.seafish.org/portal/site/sin/.
The application period opens on 11 August 2010 and closes on 30 September 2010. Applications received after this deadline will not be accepted. Applicants will be informed of the outcome of their initial applications by mid November and successful projects will be announced from April 2011. Successful applicants will then be contacted by a Seafish Project Manager.
Seafish Announces 1 Million Project Fund
UK - Seafish, the authority on seafood, is inviting those with innovative ideas to apply for grants from the 2011 Seafish Industry Project Fund worth up to 1 million.
