The Seafood Innovation Fund (SIF) was a research and development (R&D) fund that launched in July 2019 and ended in March 2025. The SIF programme was part of the UK Seafood Fund under the Science and Innovation pillar.
Watch our SIF legacy video below.
The fund was administered by the Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science (Cefas) on behalf of the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra).
The fund supported projects, ideas and technologies that aimed to disrupt the seafood sector. Disruptive innovation is when the application of the technology or idea has a significant impact on the industry or the market.
Projects considered these priorities:
To reduce the environmental impact of seafood.
Technologies to bring the industry into the 21st century.
Ensuring seafood security for years to come.
Creating new partnerships across
the seafood & tech sectors
Strengthening the evidence base for
sustainable management.
To improve future certainty for
seafood business.
This project has been awarded funding to continue into the R&D phase as RD051. In this project we investigated the utility of methylation...
This project has been awarded funding to continue into the R&D phase as RD050. The feasibility study undertaken by R3 IoT as part...
A project aimed at fishing sustainably inshore with electric outboard engines, with the use of sustainable gear, to collect data on use of...
Our short film series explores what innovation means to the UK Seafood Innovation Fund.