Date Created: 13 December 2011
Several Scottish companies are to receive a share of a £7 million of Westminster investment to research methods of producing healthier, safer and more nutritious food.
Over 50 UK companies will share the research funding – 11 of these are from Scotland.
With one fifth of all UK companies who have won the funding being Scottish secures Scotland's international reputation as a hotbed of food and drink research and development activity, with companies based here often leading the way in food and health innovation.
“The global health, nutrition and wellbeing market is expected to be worth around £348 billion by 2012,” said Maggie McGinlay, Director of Scottish Enterprise’s Food and Drink Team.
“It’s great to see that 11 of the 51 projects being awarded this funding are being led by Scottish companies looking to exploit these market opportunities for growth.”
Links to be established with Scotland's life sciences community
News of the investment comes at a time when more emphasis is being placed on establishing links between the food and drink and life sciences sectors.
Members of the life sciences community could provide valuable insights into the rearing of healthier livestock, which in turn creates a better quality of meat – something that Scotland is already famous for. Scientific methods could also help to produce crop yields using less water, land, agrochemicals and fuel.
Scotland has one of the largest life sciences clusters in Europe and has a worldwide reputation for breakthroughs in scientific discovery, making it an excellent location for collaboration with the food and drink sector to occur.
Find out more about Scotland’s life sciences strengths