Public Funding for Marks and Spencer Group P.L.C.

Awaiting Public Summary

Single-use plastic packaging is now firmly on the public's mind. Whilst government and industry have started to look for solutions, most innovation to date has focused on lightweighting, creating alternative single-use materials to SUPP or improving collection and recycling systems. While these are valuable improvements, Unpackaged believes the focus should be at the top of the waste hierarchy - i.e. the reduction, reuse and refilling of packaging - which would represent a true shift from a linear to a circular economy solution for plastic packaging. Refill (either in-store or at home) removes the need for single-use plastic packaging, as products are dispensed directly into customers' own reusable containers. If this concept were rolled out across mainstream supermarkets, it would dramatically reduce the amount of SUPP being placed on the market by UK retailers. With InnovateUK support, Unpackaged has assembled a Coalition of key UK retailers, a logistics partner and industry leading equipment manufacturers to design an optimised refill solution. This solution will be tested via a multi-retailer, multi-site, live Demonstrator Trial looking at everything from operational viability to consumer engagement and take-up. This will be the most ambitious collaborative cross-sector refill project to date, both in the UK and globally; and an example of how competitors can collaborate to solve the single-use plastic packaging crisis.

This project will develop a black-soldier-fly breeding programme that will supply continuously improving high-performance genetics to insect-as-feed producers in different environments. Livestock and aquaculture protein demand is increasing due to human population growth, yet current production depends on volatile and unsustainable soy and fishmeal imports. An alternative source of protein for livestock and aquaculture feed are insects, which are rapidly growing in importance globally. Today there are 55+ black-soldier-fly producers in the UK, Europe, the Americas and Asia. Market calculations predict 300 production facilities worldwide by 2025, with a capacity of 10,000 tonnes of insect protein/yr and £2.1B/yr revenue. Black-soldier-fly producers need high-performance genetics because production facilities are capital intensive. However, black-soldier-fly producers do not have breeding resources and expertise to develop high-performance genetics, while there are no suppliers of such genetics (breeding programs). The objectives of the project are to develop black-soldier-fly breeding resources and tools, an optimised black-soldier-fly breeding programme and assess market landscape for delivery of high-performance black-soldier-fly genetics to producers. The project will achieve the above actions by combining the expertise of BetaBugs, The Roslin Institute, and M&S. This will deliver a black-soldier-fly breeding programme, which will double black-soldier-fly protein production by 2025\. This increased production will have further economic and environmental benefits to the wider agribusiness sector through sustainable local production of protein and new jobs. These benefits will in turn increase the efficiency and resilience of production feed and food and with that address the challenge of cleanly feeding a growing population.

Today’s shoppers are faced with a vast number of products which can lead to an overwhelming shopping experience. They also buy across several retailers and have multiple purchase paths. Retailers attempt to help by providing personalised recommendations from their product catalogue, however this is currently restricted to online and is limited by data sets specific to each retailer. This research project aims to demonstrate a totally new approach to personalisation technology, based on Portable & Connectable Profiling. We plan to create a framework in which the full data sets available (instore, online, behaviourial & preference data from multiple retailers) is combined and modelled to provide a qualitative advance in predictions of what a shopper is mostly likely to love and keep. The project follows a customer-led approach and is in collaboration with a number of leading high street retailers, eager to push the boundaries of what data/technology can do to improve the customer experience. The deliverable will demonstrate significant revenue potential for UK retailers and an application that will help shoppers to find exactly what they seek, more quickly and intuitively.

New crop varieties that can tolerate abiotic/biotic stresses are essential for maintaining crop productivity in current and future growing environments. Breeding stress-tolerant crop varieties, however, is limited by the precision and throughput of plant phenotyping. This project will develop and apply a novel tractor-mounted platform for precise and high throughput field phenotyping of plant stress responses of soft fruit crops using IRT and hyperspectral imaging. It is proposed also to assess the value of canopy imaging as an indirect indicator of abiotic and biotic root stresses. Soft fruit crops such as raspberry can experience multiple stresses in field conditions, including poor soil conditions, variable water availability, and attack by root rot pathogens and root-feeding vine weevil larvae. Phenotyping data will be linked to genetic markers to facilitate breeding of productive, stress-resistant soft fruit varieties. This novel high-throughput phenotyping platform will accelerate the development and release of productive high quality soft fruit varieties that perform well in sustainable reduced input cropping and is expected to be valuable for routine monitoring of crops and stress diagnosis.

The overall aim of this industry led project is to increase the intake of soluble dietary fibre by the general population, providing Nutrition for Life to consumers of white bread, many of which are children. Today, almost 55% of all bread consumed in the UK is white bread with low fibre content, and partly responsible for the low fibre intake by the majority of the population. A plant breeding company and leading partner in the project, will develop a new wheat variety suitable for UK growing conditions with increased soluble fibre content and good bread making quality. This work will be carried out in close contact with academic partners at Rothamsted Research and the John Innes Centre. A Retailer will investigate the quality and nutritional value of bread made from high soluble fibre wheat, as well as exploit initial market opportunities, with the aim of launching a white bread with increased level of soluble fibre content. This project, involving a unique composition of plant breeders, retail industry, quality and genetic experts, has been made feasible with financial support from TSB.

The overall aim of this industry led project is to increase the intake of soluble dietary fibre by the general population, providing Nutrition for Life to consumers of white bread, many of which are children. Today, almost 55% of all bread consumed in the UK is white bread with low fibre content, and partly responsible for the low fibre intake by the majority of the population. A plant breeding company and leading partner in the project, will develop a new wheat variety suitable for UK growing conditions with increased soluble fibre content and good bread making quality. This work will be carried out in close contact with academic partners at Rothamsted Research and the John Innes Centre. A Retailer will investigate the quality and nutritional value of bread made from high soluble fibre wheat, as well as exploit initial market opportunities, with the aim of launching a white bread with increased level of soluble fibre content. This project, involving a unique composition of plant breeders, retail industry, quality and genetic experts, has been made feasible with financial support from TSB.

The overall aim of this industry led project is to increase the intake of soluble dietary fibre by the general population, providing Nutrition for Life to consumers of white bread, many of which are children. Today, almost 55% of all bread consumed in the UK is white bread with low fibre content, and partly responsible for the low fibre intake by the majority of the population. A plant breeding company and leading partner in the project, will develop a new wheat variety suitable for UK growing conditions with increased soluble fibre content and good bread making quality. This work will be carried out in close contact with academic partners at Rothamsted Research and the John Innes Centre. A Retailer will investigate the quality and nutritional value of bread made from high soluble fibre wheat, as well as exploit initial market opportunities, with the aim of launching a white bread with increased level of soluble fibre content. This project, involving a unique composition of plant breeders, retail industry, quality and genetic experts, has been made feasible with financial support from TSB.

The overall aim of this industry led project is to increase the intake of soluble dietary fibre by the general population, providing Nutrition for Life to consumers of white bread, many of which are children. Today, almost 55% of all bread consumed in the UK is white bread with low fibre content, and partly responsible for the low fibre intake by the majority of the population. A plant breeding company and leading partner in the project, will develop a new wheat variety suitable for UK growing conditions with increased soluble fibre content and good bread making quality. This work will be carried out in close contact with academic partners at Rothamsted Research and the John Innes Centre. A Retailer will investigate the quality and nutritional value of bread made from high soluble fibre wheat, as well as exploit initial market opportunities, with the aim of launching a white bread with increased level of soluble fibre content. This project, involving a unique composition of plant breeders, retail industry, quality and genetic experts, has been made feasible with financial support from TSB.

The overall aim of this industry led project is to increase the intake of soluble dietary fibre by the general population, providing Nutrition for Life to consumers of white bread, many of which are children. Today, almost 55% of all bread consumed in the UK is white bread with low fibre content, and partly responsible for the low fibre intake by the majority of the population. A plant breeding company and leading partner in the project, will develop a new wheat variety suitable for UK growing conditions with increased soluble fibre content and good bread making quality. This work will be carried out in close contact with academic partners at Rothamsted Research and the John Innes Centre. A Retailer will investigate the quality and nutritional value of bread made from high soluble fibre wheat, as well as exploit initial market opportunities, with the aim of launching a white bread with increased level of soluble fibre content. This project, involving a unique composition of plant breeders, retail industry, quality and genetic experts, has been made feasible with financial support from TSB.

The overall aim of this industry led project is to increase the intake of soluble dietary fibre by the general population, providing Nutrition for Life to consumers of white bread, many of which are children. Today, almost 55% of all bread consumed in the UK is white bread with low fibre content, and partly responsible for the low fibre intake by the majority of the population. A plant breeding company and leading partner in the project, will develop a new wheat variety suitable for UK growing conditions with increased soluble fibre content and good bread making quality. This work will be carried out in close contact with academic partners at Rothamsted Research and the John Innes Centre. A Retailer will investigate the quality and nutritional value of bread made from high soluble fibre wheat, as well as exploit initial market opportunities, with the aim of launching a white bread with increased level of soluble fibre content. This project, involving a unique composition of plant breeders, retail industry, quality and genetic experts, has been made feasible with financial support from TSB.

The overall aim of this industry led project is to increase the intake of soluble dietary fibre by the general population, providing Nutrition for Life to consumers of white bread, many of which are children. Today, almost 55% of all bread consumed in the UK is white bread with low fibre content, and partly responsible for the low fibre intake by the majority of the population. A plant breeding company and leading partner in the project, will develop a new wheat variety suitable for UK growing conditions with increased soluble fibre content and good bread making quality. This work will be carried out in close contact with academic partners at Rothamsted Research and the John Innes Centre. A Retailer will investigate the quality and nutritional value of bread made from high soluble fibre wheat, as well as exploit initial market opportunities, with the aim of launching a white bread with increased level of soluble fibre content. This project, involving a unique composition of plant breeders, retail industry, quality and genetic experts, has been made feasible with financial support from TSB.

The overall aim of this industry led project is to increase the intake of soluble dietary fibre by the general population, providing Nutrition for Life to consumers of white bread, many of which are children. Today, almost 55% of all bread consumed in the UK is white bread with low fibre content, and partly responsible for the low fibre intake by the majority of the population. A plant breeding company and leading partner in the project, will develop a new wheat variety suitable for UK growing conditions with increased soluble fibre content and good bread making quality. This work will be carried out in close contact with academic partners at Rothamsted Research and the John Innes Centre. A Retailer will investigate the quality and nutritional value of bread made from high soluble fibre wheat, as well as exploit initial market opportunities, with the aim of launching a white bread with increased level of soluble fibre content. This project, involving a unique composition of plant breeders, retail industry, quality and genetic experts, has been made feasible with financial support from TSB.

The overall aim of this industry led project is to increase the intake of soluble dietary fibre by the general population, providing Nutrition for Life to consumers of white bread, many of which are children. Today, almost 55% of all bread consumed in the UK is white bread with low fibre content, and partly responsible for the low fibre intake by the majority of the population. A plant breeding company and leading partner in the project, will develop a new wheat variety suitable for UK growing conditions with increased soluble fibre content and good bread making quality. This work will be carried out in close contact with academic partners at Rothamsted Research and the John Innes Centre. A Retailer will investigate the quality and nutritional value of bread made from high soluble fibre wheat, as well as exploit initial market opportunities, with the aim of launching a white bread with increased level of soluble fibre content. This project, involving a unique composition of plant breeders, retail industry, quality and genetic experts, has been made feasible with financial support from TSB.

The overall aim of this industry led project is to increase the intake of soluble dietary fibre by the general population, providing Nutrition for Life to consumers of white bread, many of which are children. Today, almost 55% of all bread consumed in the UK is white bread with low fibre content, and partly responsible for the low fibre intake by the majority of the population. A plant breeding company and leading partner in the project, will develop a new wheat variety suitable for UK growing conditions with increased soluble fibre content and good bread making quality. This work will be carried out in close contact with academic partners at Rothamsted Research and the John Innes Centre. A Retailer will investigate the quality and nutritional value of bread made from high soluble fibre wheat, as well as exploit initial market opportunities, with the aim of launching a white bread with increased level of soluble fibre content. This project, involving a unique composition of plant breeders, retail industry, quality and genetic experts, has been made feasible with financial support from TSB.

The overall aim of this industry led project is to increase the intake of soluble dietary fibre by the general population, providing Nutrition for Life to consumers of white bread, many of which are children. Today, almost 55% of all bread consumed in the UK is white bread with low fibre content, and partly responsible for the low fibre intake by the majority of the population. A plant breeding company and leading partner in the project, will develop a new wheat variety suitable for UK growing conditions with increased soluble fibre content and good bread making quality. This work will be carried out in close contact with academic partners at Rothamsted Research and the John Innes Centre. A Retailer will investigate the quality and nutritional value of bread made from high soluble fibre wheat, as well as exploit initial market opportunities, with the aim of launching a white bread with increased level of soluble fibre content. This project, involving a unique composition of plant breeders, retail industry, quality and genetic experts, has been made feasible with financial support from TSB.

The overall aim of this industry led project is to increase the intake of soluble dietary fibre by the general population, providing Nutrition for Life to consumers of white bread, many of which are children. Today, almost 55% of all bread consumed in the UK is white bread with low fibre content, and partly responsible for the low fibre intake by the majority of the population. A plant breeding company and leading partner in the project, will develop a new wheat variety suitable for UK growing conditions with increased soluble fibre content and good bread making quality. This work will be carried out in close contact with academic partners at Rothamsted Research and the John Innes Centre. A Retailer will investigate the quality and nutritional value of bread made from high soluble fibre wheat, as well as exploit initial market opportunities, with the aim of launching a white bread with increased level of soluble fibre content. This project, involving a unique composition of plant breeders, retail industry, quality and genetic experts, has been made feasible with financial support from TSB.

The overall aim of this industry led project is to increase the intake of soluble dietary fibre by the general population, providing Nutrition for Life to consumers of white bread, many of which are children. Today, almost 55% of all bread consumed in the UK is white bread with low fibre content, and partly responsible for the low fibre intake by the majority of the population. A plant breeding company and leading partner in the project, will develop a new wheat variety suitable for UK growing conditions with increased soluble fibre content and good bread making quality. This work will be carried out in close contact with academic partners at Rothamsted Research and the John Innes Centre. A Retailer will investigate the quality and nutritional value of bread made from high soluble fibre wheat, as well as exploit initial market opportunities, with the aim of launching a white bread with increased level of soluble fibre content. This project, involving a unique composition of plant breeders, retail industry, quality and genetic experts, has been made feasible with financial support from TSB.

The overall aim of this industry led project is to increase the intake of soluble dietary fibre by the general population, providing Nutrition for Life to consumers of white bread, many of which are children. Today, almost 55% of all bread consumed in the UK is white bread with low fibre content, and partly responsible for the low fibre intake by the majority of the population. A plant breeding company and leading partner in the project, will develop a new wheat variety suitable for UK growing conditions with increased soluble fibre content and good bread making quality. This work will be carried out in close contact with academic partners at Rothamsted Research and the John Innes Centre. A Retailer will investigate the quality and nutritional value of bread made from high soluble fibre wheat, as well as exploit initial market opportunities, with the aim of launching a white bread with increased level of soluble fibre content. This project, involving a unique composition of plant breeders, retail industry, quality and genetic experts, has been made feasible with financial support from TSB.

The overall aim of this industry led project is to increase the intake of soluble dietary fibre by the general population, providing Nutrition for Life to consumers of white bread, many of which are children. Today, almost 55% of all bread consumed in the UK is white bread with low fibre content, and partly responsible for the low fibre intake by the majority of the population. A plant breeding company and leading partner in the project, will develop a new wheat variety suitable for UK growing conditions with increased soluble fibre content and good bread making quality. This work will be carried out in close contact with academic partners at Rothamsted Research and the John Innes Centre. A Retailer will investigate the quality and nutritional value of bread made from high soluble fibre wheat, as well as exploit initial market opportunities, with the aim of launching a white bread with increased level of soluble fibre content. This project, involving a unique composition of plant breeders, retail industry, quality and genetic experts, has been made feasible with financial support from TSB.

The overall aim of this industry led project is to increase the intake of soluble dietary fibre by the general population, providing Nutrition for Life to consumers of white bread, many of which are children. Today, almost 55% of all bread consumed in the UK is white bread with low fibre content, and partly responsible for the low fibre intake by the majority of the population. A plant breeding company and leading partner in the project, will develop a new wheat variety suitable for UK growing conditions with increased soluble fibre content and good bread making quality. This work will be carried out in close contact with academic partners at Rothamsted Research and the John Innes Centre. A Retailer will investigate the quality and nutritional value of bread made from high soluble fibre wheat, as well as exploit initial market opportunities, with the aim of launching a white bread with increased level of soluble fibre content. This project, involving a unique composition of plant breeders, retail industry, quality and genetic experts, has been made feasible with financial support from TSB.

Currently there is great scope for increasing soft fruit production in the UK to meet demand from consumers and processors. Soft fruit is a success story for the UK being a valuable and sustainable horticulture industry with the associated broader health benefits derived from consumption. Currently however no high quality varieties with resistance to pests and diseases are available. Breeding soft fruit crops is time consuming and can be 15 years in variety development. Breeding tools in the form of markers have recently been developed on a case by case basis and individually introduced into breeding programmes. What is now required are markers for multiple complex traits to be identified and utilised in the development of a high throughput format that would lead to significant advances in variety development in terms of time and accuracy in selection meeting stakeholder requirements.

PROJECT TITLE: Protein content vs yield in legumes:releasing the constraint Summary: The demand for vegetable protein in the UK feed industry, coupled to supply constraints, creates a market opportunity for sustainable farming in the UK. To take advantage of this opportunity farmers need a high yielding, protein rich product. Legume seeds (pulses) have high protein content and so are the product of choice, and they also contribute to environmental sustainability. For legumes and other crops there is a negative correlation between seed yield and protein content so breeding for yield does not ensure increased protein production. We will establish the protein content required by feed compounders and identify the genetic determinants that sustain this production without detriment to seed yield. We aim to deliver novel plant genotypes to breeders to benefit feed industries, sustainable agriculture and the environment

This project centres on exploring the potential to extract key new information from the spectral analysis gained through the mid Infra Red testing of individual cow milk samples. The scope exists to use the spectral data gained from such testing to estimate the quantity of a range of fatty acids in milk. Such information is valuable in terms of assessing cow health, fertility and nutrition status and also can be used to estimate the methane emissions of the cow. This project will focus on determining the potential to establish a number of new cow performance measures that will allow the dairy industry to optimise herd performance and maximise the lifetime yield of the herd. This in turn will not only boost the economic sustainability of dairying but also lessen the environmental impact of the sector. Another aspect of the project will be to assess the heritability of certain fatty acid traits. It is anticipated that heritability will be shown to be a key determinant of certain fatty acid types. If this can be demonstrated through the project, breeding programmes can be developed that take these traits into account such that the genetic pool within the dairy herd is strengthened in the right areas, delivering improved cow health and potentially improving the healthiness of dairy products for human consumption.

Production of protein in the EU, supplies only 30 percent of the protein needed for animal feed, which has been increasing over the past decade. To meet this demand, large volumes of proteins and protein-rich feed stuff have to be imported into the EU. Up to 30 million tonnes (Mt) of Soya Bean Meal (SBM) equivalent are imported into the EU annually, and there are currently no complete replacements for non-ruminant diets. Such protein imports raise serious questions over the long-term sustainability of protein supply, particularly in relation to food security. Finding increased capacity from the EU annual cropping system cannot be relied upon as the only source as new crops grown may simply substitute for existing ones with similar overall protein yield. This project explores the exciting possibility of extracting proteins from leafy material from plants, and underutilised crop fractions based on work initially considered in the 70s. The aim of this project is to develop a commercially viable process to manufacture a high quality home grown protein for use in replacing or reducing the reliance of SBM in poultry diets. The commercial production of LPC can also improve resource use efficiency in the food chain by using previously underutilised crop by-products. The total value of this project is £0.63M and will benefit from a grant of £300,000 from the government backed Technology Strategy Board.

This project aims to understand and utilise plant physical mechanisms for resistance to pest and diseases in soft fruit/bush crops, to overcome changes in EU Directive 91/414/EEC and WFD and satisfy consumer demand for residue free, high quality fruit grown in the UK. Fresh fruit accounts for a market of £4 billion in the UK, and soft fruit/berries account for 17% of this. UK raspberries have a value of £94 million, strawberries £196 million, blackcurrants £12 million and blueberry, currently a minor player has a value of £95 million. Demand for UK grown fruit is increasing dramatically, however few high quality soft fruit varieties are available with adequate pest and disease resistance due to the focus on fruit quality by the major commercial fruit breeding companies. For production to be sustainable, a greater understanding of plant-derived resistances to pests and diseases is required that can be deployed in IPDM programmes to reduce reliance on chemicals but still produce high quality fruit. Physical resistance traits are particularly promising for crop protection because they tend to be more robust against pest and disease adaptation, and unlike chemically-based resistance traits, are less likely to adversely affect fruit quality. This work aims to look at root architecture and morphology, leaf trichomes, cane/stem architecture and plant habit to determine how variation in these physical traits contributes to resistance against major soft fruit pest and diseases. Using the raspberry model, key genes in chromosomal regions controlling variation in these traits can be selected across different fruits and used to greatly reduce the time varieties are in development.

This project aims to develop an integrated control strategy for the cabbage root fly (CRF) on radish. G's Fresh supplies ca. 65% of all the radish to the UK market and is forced to rely on routine application of chlorpyrifos, an organophosphorus insecticide, to control CRF. This pesticide has a number of undesirable characteristics, is rarely 100% effective and over-reliance on one treatment is risky. We will investigate all potential components of an IPM strategy that may have commercial application, including population modelling together with cultural, physical, biological and insecticidal control. The project plan will: review historical data on crop management and damage levels and use phenological model to link this to the cabbage root fly life cycle; review potential components of an IPM strategy; design and implement experiments (field-scale and smaller) to evaluate individual components; design and implement trials to evaluate the most promising components in combination to develop a strategy; evaluate the IPM strategy in a commercial context; and summarise and disseminate information. The key innovation will be the development of an IPM strategy for a rapidly-growing root crop, grown to a high specification that is based on a sound understanding of the biology and behaviour of the target pest.

The project aims to convert waste product from seafood processing into valuable materials for novel industrial applications. The Consortium researches on the development of worldwide-sourced and UK-manufactured high performance functional materials for use in the food, agricultural and drilling sectors by processing chitosan, a biopolymer from crustacean waste. A novel low environmental impact process for obtaining chitosan and a range of functional materials based on derivatisation of the biopolymer is being developed. The demographic trend towards smaller households in the UK means that there is rapid growth in packaging that offers fresh food in a consumer-ready state. Increasing safety and shelf-life of highly perishable food is very important for producers and consumers and presents a major business opportunity, that is addressed in this project. The agricultural applications of the functional material demonstrate clear technical advantages over competing materials, because it allows the reduction of chemical and irrigation inputs. The project is funded by the Technology Strategy Board and the Consortium brings together leading companies in polymer, food, agricultural and drilling industries along with academic institutions with the aim to modify the processing of crustacean shells (using existing waste) and provide a range of new bio-based materials.

Conventional Portland cement (PC) production is a major contributor to global CO2 emissions and hence there is a great deal of commercial interest in low carbon cements. One variety of such low carbon cements can be produced by mixing binder materials (including heat treated clays, industrial ashes or slags) with an alkaline chemical activator and construction aggregates to form concrete. The mixture sets and hardens but the new cements have associated CO2 emissions that are much lower than those associated with PC manufacture. These cements (which are the subject of this project), now need to be optimised, manufactured and their performance demonstrated as fit for purpose on a commercial scale. The project includes a supply chain focused consortium including manufacturers of chemical activators, precast and ready-mixed concretes. The project is conducting industrial plant trials, generating performance and durability data, optimising the chemical activator compositions and addressing barriers to market.