UKRI-4491 ESRC-BBSRC Food Systems Commercialisation Catalyst

UKRI requires a supplier to support the development and delivery of an early-stage mission-led commercialisation catalyst (The Programme). The key aims for the Programme are to: i.Enable collaboration between bioscience and social science researchers: recruiting researchers, building and supporting multidisciplinary/interdisciplinary teams to address an agreed team challenge. ii.Support skills and capacity development: training, supporting and enabling the cohort of grant holders to grow and sustain positive social and/or environmental impact from their research in the mission area of healthy, sustainable and resilient food systems. This may include formal training, mentoring and peer support, networking, and facilitating connections with relevant expertise and national/international markets. iii.Support grant holders to explore alternative (non-traditional commercial) enterprise models to create effective and self-sustaining impact. Grant administration will be managed by UKRI. This Programme is in response to both ESRC and BBSRC’s (two of UKRI’s component research councils) strategic aims to support commercialisation for social, economic, and environmental good. ESRC and BBSRC are investing: •Up to £1m in maximum 10 grants within a single competition in 2025. The grant award facilitates researchers to develop their idea with a view to its eventual launch (10 awards at £100k each = £1m). The supplier will manage the grant competition; UKRI will administer the grants. •Up to £500k (exc. VAT) for this ‘mission-led commercialisation catalyst support package’ as described in this scope of work. The overall project costs cannot exceed this amount. To support delivery of this Programme, the supplier will be expected to recruit researchers, build and support multi/inter-disciplinary teams, where each award-holding team must have a mix of social science and bioscience expertise. The supplier will also be expected to train, support and enable these researchers to grow and sustain positive social / environmental impact from their research in the mission area of healthy, sustainable and resilient food systems. As such, the supplier must have expertise in social science commercialisation, commercialisation of bioscience innovations, as well as commercialisation of multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary research. Duration of Initial period will be 12 months commencing in March 2025. there will be an optional extension period of up to a further 6 months subject to approval.