New enterprise hub to promote commercialisation of non-food crops
Greenwise Staff
10th November 2008
A five-year project has been launched in the East of England that will create new plant-based products, such as bio-plastics and packaging, and promote the use of climate-friendly crops, such as hemp, to be used in buildings and car parts.
Innovation in Crops, or InCrops, has received a total of £2 million from the East of England Development Agency (EEDA) and the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) Competitiveness programme to develop an enterprise hub linking the region’s top researchers with businesses looking to develop new products.
According to its backers, the scheme will create 140 jobs, support 120 new low carbon products or services and achieve a significant reduction in carbon emissions.
Norfolk-based Lotus Cars will be one of the first businesses to benefit from the scheme. The car-maker is piloting the use of locally produced hemp in the fibreglass panels of its cars, thereby reducing the amount of embedded carbon in the finished product and cutting the carbon needed in transportation.
InCrops is based at the University of East Anglia, in Norwich. Partners across the region include Cambridge University School of Plant Science, Rothamsted Research, Building Research Establishment, John Innes Centre, Essex University and Renewables East, the regional agency for renewable energy.
As well as finding innovative uses for non-food crops, the project will also look to create markets for novel foods and more unusual crops, such as black cohosh, for medicinal uses, and honesty, which can be used for oil.
Those behind the scheme say it will also help farmers grow crops for new markets and ones that can thrive in a changing climate, as well as creating a new supply source for biomass fuel from post-harvest waste.
“There has been a good deal of controversy in recent months about the cultivation of crops for fuel that could be used for food,” said InCrops director, Dr John French. “But it's not necessarily a question of cultivating crops either for food or for other uses. We need to maximise our use of crops and reduce waste. We also need to investigate the future crops we should be growing as climate change starts to affect the land and agriculture of this region. These crops can be used for fibre, high-value chemicals and extracts, protein and starch.”
“By using renewable resources, we can develop a low carbon economy and help to tackle climate change by reducing our dependency on petrochemical products,” added Cindy Winn, Rural manager at EEDA.
The EEDA has injected funding worth £1,050,000 into the enterprise hub, with another £1,153,500 coming from the ERDF.