Global Agriculture

Lantmännen Research Foundation announces SEK 25 million in funding for applied research

01 September 2021, UK: The Lantmännen Research Foundation awards up to SEK 25 million a year for research within the entire agriculture value chain, from field to fork. The Foundation has three prioritised focus areas – Agriculture and Machinery, Bioenergy and Green Materials, plus Food and Packaging. This year’s call for proposals is open for applications from today, 1 September and closes on 30 September 2021.

“Our Foundation is unique in the way that farmers, researchers and employees at Lantmännen work together to ensure the benefits of research for agriculture, its scientific quality and commercial potential,” says Helena Fredriksson, Head of Research at the Lantmännen Research Foundation.

The Lantmännen Research Foundation is primarily oriented towards applied research and innovations with practical applications. Within Agriculture and Machinery, priority areas are precision agriculture, sustainable cultivation systems and crop rotation, climate smart animal production and digitalisation. Within Bioenergy and Green Materials, the focus lies on leveraging the potential in the entire agriculture value chain to achieve a more circular and bio-based society. Research into renewable components for next generation chemicals, oils and materials, will attract specific interest. Prioritised areas within Food and Packaging are the health benefits of grain and legumes, improved bread quality as well as the impact of raw materials and processing on the functionality of ingredients. For more information about the evaluation criteria for this year’s call for proposals, read more here.

Applicants are welcome to contact the Research Foundation before submitting their application, to discuss project ideas and to find out more about possibilities of Lantmännen providing sample materials, trial locations and data of high quality.

“The opportunity to validate research findings in our own production facilities offers scope for researchers to get off on the right foot from the start and to be able to apply the results as quickly as possible,” says Pär-Johan Lööf, R&D Manager Agri at Lantmännen R&D. 

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Agriculture is a unique resource for the production of raw materials for a number of different application areas. Traditionally, this has concerned food and animal feed but in more recent times, there has been an increase in the use of new applications such as environment friendly fuels and biochemicals. There is a huge potential to increase knowledge about the connection between raw material, processing technology and functionality.

“The aim is to develop food that is both tasty and healthy, domestically produced animal feed and materials of the future,” says Annelie Moldin, R&D Manager Food and Energy at Lantmännen R&D.