The Horticulture and Potato Initiative (HAPI) is part of BBSRC’s strategy to drive innovation in bioscience to meet challenges of a more sustainable and productive agri-food system. HAPI connects academic and industrial partners to support the translation of pre-competitive research and meet the challenges faced by the horticultural and potato sectors.
HAPI is managed:
- by BBSRC in partnership with the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC), the Scottish Government, and leading businesses from the fresh produce sector
- with support from HAPI coordinators, the Horticulture Innovation Partnership (HIP).
HAPI was formed with research users from across the supply chain, including breeders, growers and processors. They were all involved in determining the scope of the HAPI funding calls. In total, 33 companies are directly involved with HAPI and contributed more than £800,000.
We have invested £9 million in 10 collaborative projects, and five PhD studentships at 16 research organisations through two calls. HAPI also supported three Knowledge Exchange (KE) Fellowships to facilitate the translation of research for industry.