The Transforming UK Food Systems SPF (Global Food Security programme website) is an interdisciplinary research programme that will help transform the UK food system within a global context by addressing two over-arching questions:
- If we put healthy people and a healthy natural environment at the heart of the food system, what would we eat, how would we encourage people to eat it, and where would that food come from? What would we grow and manufacture in the UK and what would we need to import?
- In delivering this transformed food system, what interventions would be needed across government, business and civil society?
This programme will consider the complex interactions between health, environment, economic and behavioural factors across the food system, while taking into account wider needs for different groups in society. The programme will foster a joined-up approach linking nutritionally healthy and accessible diets with sustainable food production and supply. It will deliver coherent evidence to enable concerted action from government, business and civil society to help achieve dietary health, obesity reduction and net zero emission goals.
This is the second and final research funding call in the Transforming UK Food Systems SPF Programme, and along with the projects funded in the first call, and the Centre for Doctoral Training (Global Food Security programme website), projects funded in this second call will contribute to the delivery of the overall programme aims (Global Food Security programme website).
This funding call will support high informed risk, high reward interdisciplinary research, aiming to transform the UK food system for healthier people and a healthy environment. Following analysis of the programme’s existing research portfolio, three thematic areas have been identified in which we would like to see research proposals.
This opportunity is open to, and can be led by, any discipline across the breadth of the UKRI remit and proposals must represent high-quality interdisciplinary research and innovation, integrating social and natural sciences. We wish to strengthen the research base by attracting new expertise and new partners into the field.
All proposals must demonstrate collaboration and co-design with at least one stakeholder organisation from civil society, relevant business or government (local, devolved or national). We would expect a more diverse and greater number of stakeholders in proposals bidding for larger amounts of funding. It is expected that the stakeholder or stakeholders will have helped shape the research through collaboration and two-way knowledge exchange, with this continuing throughout the research process.
The programme aims to support a diverse portfolio of projects of varying sizes which address different aspects of the UK food system. Funds of between £250,000 and £2 million (80% fEC) can be requested for projects of between two to three years. We anticipate supporting proposals across the breadth of the funding range (subject to quality and portfolio management), from smaller pump-priming awards through to larger interdisciplinary consortia.
All proposals will be assessed against the assessment criteria in the context of the amount of funding being requested to ensure a level playing field across different sized projects. We will also aim to ensure a breadth of coverage across the thematic areas and different grant sizes, in the projects invited back to the full proposal stage.
The Strategic Priorities Fund (SPF) has been established to:
- drive an increase in high-quality interdisciplinary research and innovation
- ensure that UKRI’s investments link up effectively with government departments’ research priorities and opportunities.
Proposals must therefore consider and describe how their research also addresses government priorities as set out in the government research and development priorities section (see additional info).
Successful projects will be expected to work with the Programme Director, (Professor Guy Poppy) and the UKRI SPF Food Systems team, and to participate in wider programme network events to add impact to the overall Transforming UK Food Systems SPF portfolio. Proposals are expected to be complementary to, but not spin-offs from, projects previously funded in the Transforming UK Food Systems SPF portfolio.
Scope
Following analysis of the programme’s existing portfolio, we are inviting research proposals within three thematic areas. If you have a highly innovative and transformative idea outside these themes that you would like us to consider on an exceptional basis, please contact food.systems@bbsrc.ukri.org. However, please note that research outside the themes is unlikely to be considered competitive.
We are looking to support transformative high informed risk, high reward interdisciplinary research. Within these themes it will address aspects of both:
- production, processing, manufacturing or food environments
- healthier diets or consumption.
We do not expect all of these areas to be covered within a single application, and research does not have to cover every stage of the food system. However, the research must be set in this wider context and recognise the linkages with other parts of the food system, even if these wider linkages are not actively researched. Successful projects will be expected to work with the programme to ensure the wider context is considered or utilised to enable wider food systems thinking.
Realising the programme’s aims will require transformative new ideas and interdisciplinary research in collaboration with stakeholders across the UK food system, including (but not limited to) those who are involved in:
- production (for example, crops, livestock, aquaculture, fisheries, horticulture)
- processing
- manufacturing
- supply chain
- logistics
- marketing
- retail
- procurement
- catering
- food environments
- consumption.
We particularly encourage action-focussed research, such as interventions or trials, and research exploring the impact of interventions and research methodologies designed to enable and strengthen participation and action from citizens, where they might lead to food system transformation in the near to medium term. We are also particularly interested in addressing the disconnect between producers, manufacturers, distributors and consumers of food.
Thematic areas
1. Transforming food environments
This thematic area aims to support interdisciplinary research to transform food environments and improve public health for all sections of society by reducing the consumption of foods that are high in fat, sugar and salt (HFSS) in a sustainable way.
Food environments can be defined as the collective physical, socio-economic and cultural context in which citizens engage with the food system to make decisions about acquiring, preparing and consuming food. Food culture and identity play a key role in shaping our food system in terms of where food businesses are distributed, what they sell, how they market and promote their products and what citizens eat. A recent report (on the Global Food Security programme website) stated that 96% of food system enterprises are SMEs, therefore consideration of the role of SMEs, technology and innovation in transformation could also be important. Alongside these factors there are powerful biological, psychological and social drivers that motivate us towards consuming HFSS foods.
Food environments play a key role in influencing food choices, and there has been an increase in recent years in the consumption of food prepared outside the home, including through retail, the service sector, and online food delivery platforms. Interventions to reduce consumption of HFSS foods could take place anywhere in the food system, for example:
- sustainable food production and manufacturing
- retail
- marketing
- food procurement
- physical or online food environments, or in policy and regulation.
Consideration should also be given to co-benefits for a healthy natural environment, reducing environmental (greenhouse gas, or GHG) and wider sustainability.
Examples of research within this theme (not prescriptive or not limited to):
- the interplay between food environments and the drivers of food choices, data-driven approaches, lived experiences and the power of local food systems, place-based decision-making, participatory food movements and the impact of technology and regulation on driving change
- the role of marketing in shaping our food environments and driving consumption
- opportunities for integrating environmental sustainability and health within food environments.
2. Sustainable nutrition across the food system
This thematic area aims to support interdisciplinary research to transform the UK food system from a focus on ‘calories per unit area’ to one that prioritises the ‘number of people fed healthily and sustainably per unit area’ in an equitable and just way.
The nutritional benefits of foods need to be improved in a sustainable and environmentally friendly manner across the whole supply chain, from soils, farming and fishing, to food processing, manufacturing, retail and consumption. We need to ensure key nutrients are increased in production, processing and manufacturing, with concomitant increases in consumption and bioavailability to improve health outcomes, and reduce environmental impacts, as part of a balanced, healthy, sustainable, affordable and accessible diet.
Interdisciplinary research projects should contribute to the development of transformative and economically viable approaches or interventions targeted at critical points from the farm or ocean to the fork, and which can lead to demonstrable improvement in both environmental and human health. Consideration should be given to consumer demand and acceptance as well as the impact of any transformation on different groups in society.
Examples of research within this theme (not prescriptive or not limited to):
- new business models and how to transform food processing or manufacturing to improve quality over quantity in terms of wider nutritional and environmental benefits, whilst using sustainably produced ingredients
- novel production or manufacturing methods
- behavioural economics and incentives in food production and consumption
- maintaining affordability whilst reflecting the true costs to health and the environment in food prices
- increasing availability of nutrients in primary production, processing, manufacturing and consumption, including bioavailability and measuring health outcomes
- food from the ocean, wild capture and aquaculture and measures to increase consumption of seafood in a sustainable way.
3. Food imports and domestic production
This thematic area aims to support interdisciplinary research to understand where our food would come from in a healthy and environmentally sustainable food system, and how this might be best achieved in practice from a biological, environmental, social, economic and cultural perspective. It could consider the role of imports and food standards (public and private) in ensuring a healthy and sustainable UK food supply, whilst minimising our impact overseas.
The UK food system is diverse and varied and set within a global context. If we were to transform the UK food system for healthy people and a healthy environment, where would that food come from, what would we produce domestically and what would we import? Where are the opportunities, synergies and trade-offs? How do we take account of impacts and externalities in making this transformation? As we start to build back better following the COVID-19 pandemic and leaving the EU, there is an opportunity to transform the areas of food imports and domestic production for improved human and environmental health.
Examples of research within this theme (not prescriptive or not limited to):
- considerations of the UK food system within a global context, including the appropriate level of domestic production
- the use of a diverse range of crops and production systems at local levels
- land use trade-offs
- the role of food imports in providing diversity/variation and positive contributions to the nation’s diet from a health perspective
- politics, economics, trade and regulations
- traceability in supply chains
- sustainable and ethical sourcing of food from overseas to reduce the impact of our demand
- opportunities from the UK leaving the EU
- opportunities from a post COVID-19 food system.
Research call exclusions
Applications will be rejected before peer review for proposals which:
- are not interdisciplinary and do not integrate the social and natural sciences
- do not include aspects of production, processing, manufacturing or food environments and healthier diets or consumption
- do not include at least one stakeholder from business, civil society or government
- are not focused on transforming the UK food system for healthy people and a healthy environment, and foods consumed in the UK (including both domestic production and imports).
Research on food systems in other countries is excluded, however the environmental impacts of the UK’s demand on other countries is included.
