Place-Based Investment: Unlocking Innovation in Food & Farming

Photo by Craig Stephen for Oxford Farming Conference

The UKRI Strength in Places Fund asks an important question: can we build on existing local strengths to boost research and innovation within underfunded areas across the UK?

This fund builds on existing regional strengths in research and innovation, driving economic benefits at the local level. It supports a diverse range of projects, including Growing Kent & Medway in Southeast England (£18 million), Decarbonisation of Maritime Transportation in Northern Ireland (£33 million), Digital Dairy Chain in Southwest Scotland and Northwest England (£21 million), and Media Cymru in South Wales (£22 million).

In food and farming, where success is deeply tied to geography, supply chains, and local expertise, place-based investment could unlock new opportunities for regional growth and resilience.

Dr Dominic Hill, Communications & Events Officer at Growing Kent & Medway, reflects on a discussion from the 2025 Oxford Farming Conference exploring the limitations of nationwide funding competitions, how UKRI’s Strength in Places Fund addresses these challenges, and what makes place-based investment in food and farming successful.

Where Our Current Funding Landscape Falls Short

According to Professor Dame Jessica Corner, Executive Chair at Research England, research funding in the UK has traditionally been distributed through a 'pure excellence model'. In this system, research organisations and businesses across the country compete for funding in centralised competitions, with awards granted based on predefined criteria aligned with the funding body's strategic goals.

On the surface, this model appears entirely meritocratic - anyone, anywhere in the country, can apply, and resources are allocated to the most deserving projects, judged against clear, pre-defined criteria. In theory, this ensures that only the highest-quality, most impactful research gets funded.

However, in practice, this approach has led to the concentration of talent and resources in a handful of locations. Well-established, prestigious institutions naturally attract individuals with a track record of successful funding applications.

This allows these institutions to recruit talented scientists, invest in state-of-the-art facilities, and conduct cutting-edge research. These assets can then be leveraged in future applications, creating a positive feedback loop of success.

This process can be seen in many meritocratic systems. Take the Premier League, for example: prestigious teams attract the best players, who produce results and increase revenues for their clubs. When these profits are invested into better training facilities and higher salaries, these clubs can recruit even better players, further driving results.

This is not a hypothetical; Manchester United and Manchester City have won 66% of Premier League titles since its inception in 1992 - a statistic that may please Mancunians but frustrates fans from places like Leicester, Ipswich, and Southampton.

This is reflected in UK research funding. In 2021-2022, over half (53%) of UKRI funding went to the Greater Southeast, with the majority concentrated in the so-called 'Golden Triangle' of Oxford, Cambridge, and London's universities. According to Dame Corner:

‘Most public funding for research has gone into the Greater Southeast, because of places like where we're sitting today [University of Oxford]. They're so excellent, so strong that they've been very good at sucking up a lot of the resource, certainly more than half of it.’

While this model has shaped the UK's research landscape for decades, it risks overlooking the critical role that other regions play. This is particularly important for sectors like horticulture, agriculture, and food production, where local knowledge and regional diversity are critical to success.

How Place-Based Investment Addresses Resource Centralisation

Place-based investment challenges the centralised funding model by identifying regions that have historically been underfunded and targeting investment to unlock growth in key regional industries.

For food and farming, where location is paramount, UKRI's place-based Strength in Places Fund is supporting two innovative programmes: Digital Dairy Chain in Southwest Scotland & Cumbria and Growing Kent & Medway in Southeast of England.

Growing Innovation in Kent and Medway

Growing Kent & Medway supports innovation in the horticulture and plant-based food and drink sector. The project received £18 million from UKRI’s Strength in Places Fund. At the Oxford Farming Conference, Dr Nicola Harrison, Programme Director at Growing Kent & Medway, explained:

‘The money in this programme is to reach new businesses and new communities, enabling them to grow and benefit from this type of investment.’ She added, ‘We’re investing in infrastructure to support the future needs of the sector and industry in the region. That, combined with the academic expertise in plant-based research, allows the programme to bring together business and research in a meaningful way.’

This focus is well suited to the region - Kent was likely named the 'Garden of England' by Henry VIII, who, like his great (x14) grandnephew, King Charles, was a passionate horticulturist. In 2021, 8.6% of England's horticultural holdings were located in Kent and Medway, despite the region accounting for only 2.7% of England's land.

Kent and Medway produces 40% of the horticultural products consumed in the UK and supplies two in every nine British-grown apples sold in UK supermarkets. The region is also home to Niab in East Malling, the UK’s leading centre for horticultural crop research and innovation, and Thanet Earth, the country’s largest greenhouse complex.

The £5 million innovation fund within the Growing Kent & Medway programme is directly supporting business innovation and provides complementary initiatives including a mentoring programme, a product development accelerator, and a youth entrepreneurship programme.

This highlights a key point of difference between place-based investment and the 'pure excellence model': instead of funding isolated projects, it connects and develops new, local networks of researchers and businesses. This fosters collaborative innovation and builds up a regional ecosystem worth more to the economy than the sum of their parts.

Real-World Impact: Fermenti Case Study

A powerful example of this approach in action is the experience of Marie-Laure Prevost, Founder of Fermenti, a start-up producing freeze-dried, fermented snacks aimed at improving gut health.

After relocating from London to Kent, Marie joined Growing Kent & Medway's Food Accelerator programme, where she gained access to scientific expertise and advanced facilities through the Medway Food Innovation Centre at the University of Greenwich, also funded by Growing Kent & Medway.

Marie then accessed the Growing Kent & Medway Mentoring Programme, run by the University of Kent. The Mentoring Programme provides 1:1 business coaching. with regional leading-experts from our sector. Marie was matched with Nimisha Raja MBE, Founder of Nim's Naturally, who supported Marie on her entrepreneurship journey.

Building on their new business relationship, Marie and Nimisha identified opportunities to partner for an innovation grant from Growing Kent & Medway's Business Sustainability Challenge, to trial the incorporation of rescued fruit from Nimisha's manufacturing process into Fermenti's fermented snacks.

This collaboration illustrates how place-based investment builds ecosystems where businesses don't just grow individually but support and strengthen each other. Initiatives like UKRI's Strength in Places Fund are also able to direct regional innovation towards supporting national aims, including security, sustainability, and long-term economic growth.

Connecting Business with Cutting-Edge Research

Place-based investment doesn't just connect businesses - it bridges the gap between industry and academia by integrating local research institutions within wider networks.

Digital Dairy Chain has been instrumental in linking dairy businesses with universities and research organisations. Andrew Gardner, Technical Director at Galebreaker, described the impact:

'Going into higher-risk development or innovative development, you really need to bring other partners with you. Galebreaker doesn't have that expertise or links necessarily to academia to really give you that support network to try new things. And actually, that's exactly what we found with Digital Dairy Chain. We've been introduced to new partners, the academics, as well as the farmers.'

The Digital Dairy Chain received over £21 million from UKRI to help transform the dairy sector in Southwest Scotland and Cumbria. When asked at the Oxford Farming Conference why the dairy industry is the focus for this region, Programme Director, Stuart Martin, simply said:

'There are lots of cows, lots of grass, and lots of rainfall. There's also a very strong supply chain right through from cow to consumer.'

A Smarter Approach to Innovation Funding

Place-based investment recognises that innovation funding cannot follow a one-size-fits-all model. By focusing on regional strengths, offering tailored support, and building collaborative networks, it disrupts the cycle of centralised funding and empowers underfunded regions to drive their own growth.

For food and farming, where geography is fundamental, this approach is not just beneficial but essential. In a geopolitical landscape where food security is increasingly fragile and environmental protections are under threat; the most effective solutions may not come from broad international policies but from targeted local investment.

With continued support for initiatives like Growing Kent & Medway and Digital Dairy Chain, the UK can unlock innovation across the country, ensuring that every region has equal opportunities to contribute to a more sustainable and resilient food system.

This article is based on a joint session by Growing Kent & Medway and Digital Dairy Chain at the Oxford Farming Conference in January 2025. Click here to read more about both programmes and here to watch the full session recording.