Sustainable Agriculture Research and Innovation Club (SARIC)

The Sustainable Agriculture Research and Innovation Club (SARIC) is a joint Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) and Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) initiative to support innovative projects that will provide solutions to key challenges affecting the efficiency, productivity and sustainability of the UK crop and livestock sectors.

Research challenges

Approximately £10 million of funding is available through the five-year partnership between BBSRC, NERC and a consortium of leading companies to address two key challenges identified by industry:

  • resilient and robust crop and livestock production systems
  • predictive capability and modelling for new technologies, tools, products and services.

Funding for these areas is split into two streams:

  • research grants, providing new knowledge and data
  • research translation grants developing tools and products from existing data.

In recognition of an increased interest and importance of the inclusion of social and economic science perspectives to challenges in sustainable agriculture, Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) has become a partner in the second SARIC funding opportunity.

Club members

SARIC has 12 company members who contribute to funding research and take part in directing the Club’s activities. SARIC has a total budget of approximately £10 million:

  • £1 million – company membership subscriptions
  • £9 million – BBSRC, NERC and ESRC.

Industry members

  • Associated British Agriculture
  • AHDB
  • Anglian Water
  • Barworth Agriculture
  • Bayer Crop Science
  • BBRO
  • Cawood Scientific
  • Elsoms Seeds
  • Environment Systems
  • Monsanto
  • Syngenta
  • Welsh Water

Contact

James Phillips
Email: james.phillips@bbsrc.ukri.org.

Last updated: 17 August 2023

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