Call Guidance for AI Pilots Award

Total Fund: £50K (minimum)

Eligible Activities: Novel collaborations on food safety between researchers and food businesses. Activities can include small or pilot collaborative research projects that are demonstrational or translational, or cross-sector secondments to establish a new collaboration.

Project Budget: £2K to £10K

Opening Date: 15 July 2026

Closing Date: 30 October 2026

Decision made: 30 November 2026

Award completion date: no later than 17 December 2027

What is this opportunity?

The UK Food Safety Research Network is a community connecting partners across food industry, academia and government to consider and apply science to improve the safety of foods in the UK.

This BBSRC and FSA co-funded network looks to address microbial risk in the food chain, with the goal of introducing new capability, knowledge or skills to help reduce these risks.

This AI Pilots Award funding opportunity is to establish novel and translational collaborations between partners exploring shared challenges, to identify promising areas of impactful activities, and to achieve our ambition of establishing a longer term sustainable collaborative network. To achieve this goal we invite applications to our streamlined assessment for cross-sector and/ or cross-disciplinary projects centred around the following themes:

Theme 1. AI for microbial hazard detection and scientific understanding.

Purpose: Use AI to improve the detection, characterisation and understanding of microbial food safety hazards.

Examples:

• Pathogen detection and surveillance
• Genomics and metagenomics
• Source attribution
• Microbial risk assessment

Outcome: New evidence and scientific understanding for microbial food safety.

Theme 2. AI for operational food safety decision-making.

Purpose: Apply AI to improve operational decisions that reduce microbial food safety risks across the supply chain.

Examples:

• Intelligent sampling
• Environmental monitoring
• HACCP decision support
• Traceability and incident response

Outcome: Practical AI tools that improve food safety management.

Theme 3. AI for integrated food system resilience where food safety is a possible simultaneous outcome.

Purpose: Apply AI to broader food system challenges while delivering a clear and measurable food safety benefit

Examples:

• Cold-chain optimisation
• Food redistribution
• Supply chain resilience
• Multi-objective optimisation

Outcome: Food system resilience with provision for a food safety benefit.

Further information concerning these priorities can be found in the references below.

Who is this for?

Funding is available for current Food Safety Research Network members and must represent a novel collaboration between an academic lead applicant eligible to receive BBSRC funding AND at least one non-academic partner.

Joining the Food Safety Network is free – further details can be found on our website.

Multiple academic and non-academic partners are encouraged where it benefits the project. We would consider the introduction of a new partner to an existing collaboration to be within the scope of this call. The lead awardee must be the UKRI-eligible organisation and will receive the award and be responsible for the onwards dispersal of any funding to partners, where relevant.

We have a very broad view on who can impact the safety of foods, and the Network welcomes project ideas from partnerships formed from across the food sector:

• from primary producers to distributors to retailers; and
• from academic researchers that have expertise in areas such as microbiology, data sciences, and social and economic sciences; and
• from government and policy organisations that have roles in food regulation and the establishment and training on best practices.

Please contact the Network management team for further information on eligibility.

What types of projects are we interested in?

Activities funded through this AI Pilots Award should fall within the below:

• Feasibility trials – small scale trials of potential solutions or food safety interventions to demonstrate feasibility of an idea or approach.
• Proof of Concept studies – early-stage investigation of the suitability and potential benefits of a product, process or service to demonstrate proof of concept.
• Capability building – pre-work, including acquisition of materials to enable preliminary trials, and development of techniques or technologies.
• Demonstration activities – enabling potential users to understand the benefits of novel ideas, technologies or approaches. This could include initial product design, developing virtual demonstrations, mock-ups, and models.
• Partnership building – UK and International – activities to identify partners and visits to gather knowledge about current practices, potential interventions, and proposed management strategies.
• Business case development – gathering evidence to de-risk further investment in targeted translational activities for food safety.
• Undertaking initial desk-based market research – this could include early-stage user intelligence to de-risk future innovation focused research.

Seeding Awards cannot be used to support

• Generic translation activities or infrastructure.
• Patent filing or similar costs associated directly to registering intellectual property rights.
• Non-specific public engagement activities and science communication, however specific activities designed to have specific impact upon a specific public may be acceptable.

Please contact the Network management team for further information on the scope of your proposed activities.

How much and what resource is available in this round of applications?

£50K is available in this call, with the potential of more funds becoming available. Awards will be made at 80% full economic cost to the lead research organisation under standard UKRI research grant terms and conditions. All awards will be made and funds distributed by Quadram Institute Bioscience (QIB) in its role as coordinator of the Food Safety Research Network.

Funding requirements specific to this call are:

• Awards will be paid in arrears to the lead awardee. The lead awardee will be responsible for disseminating funds to other partners on their award.
• Equipment (of any cost) is not an eligible cost.
• A maximum 20% of costs may be subcontracted, however, facility access charges can be included outside this limit.
• In-kind contributions are encouraged but not mandated from project members and should be described in the application form, with in-kind contributions expected for access to facilities, some staff time, and use of existing infrastructure.

In all other regards, eligible costs align with usual BBSRC requirements. Please contact the Network management team to clarify the status of any costs if you are not sure.

How will applications be assessed?

All applications will be assessed by a review panel comprising key stakeholders in the Network. The panel will consider each proposals strengths against three scoring criteria:

1. Strategic fit – does the proposed activity align with the objectives of the call?
2. Delivery – will the proposed approach efficiently and effectively deliver against its stated aims?
3. Impact – will the project deliver near term and sustained impact aligned with the priorities of the call?

These criteria will be used to assess and determine proposals to be funded within the available budget for this call. We reserve the right to request further information from applicants to support decision making.

How can I apply?

We are using a streamlined application process using a pro forma available on our website.

Timeline

The closing date for all applications is 16:00 30th October 2026. Applications received after this time will not be considered..

The provisional date for the assessment meeting is w/c 23rd November 2026. Applicants will be notified of the outcome of their application soon after this meeting to enable awards to begin as soon as possible.

All activities supported through this opportunity must conclude by 17th December 2027.

Reporting

All applicants will be required to complete a brief report detailing the outcomes and impact of their activities on conclusion.

Given the constricted operational timelines, we will continue with a light-touch approach with sub-awardees and organise videoconferences during the project to discuss status of key project milestones, activities with partners, and project barriers. Nearer to the close of each project we follow-up with awardees to identify project highlights and possible impact narratives, for inclusion on the Research page of the FSRN website.