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.
On the back of anecdotal observations recorded by fishermen, this study tested whether LED lights could be used to catch commercial quantities of...
This project assessed supply-chain bottlenecks for farmed kelp, and trialled various solutions focusing on storage and post-harvest processes. Methods for at-sea storage of...
Significant quantities of seafood are wasted due to temperature condition uncertainty in the supply chain, and overall, 70% of food wasted in the...
Our short film series explores what innovation means to the UK Seafood Innovation Fund.