Liquid Food & Beverages in Refillable Packaging Funding Competition Stakeholder Event

About the event

UKRI-Innovate UK’s Smart Sustainable Plastic Packaging (SSPP) Challenge is planning to run a competition to fund projects that demonstrate the viability of retailing liquid products in refillable packaging at scale. Due to open on Monday 18 September and run for 6 weeks, the new SSPP competition will provide grants of between £0.5m and £1.5m for projects that can demonstrate, at scale, a system enabling high volume/fast moving liquid products (including milk, soft drinks, alcoholic beverages and sauces) to be purchased in refillable packaging – either already pre-filled or refilled in store.

Projects must start by 01 April 2024 and should end by 31 March 2025. In addition, projects must include at least one large retail chain and/or brand-owner as project lead or grant-funded partner, and the in-store pilot must include a minimum of 5 stores (although bids featuring more extensive pilots are actively encouraged) and include a pilot period of at least 6 months.

A Stakeholder Event will be held for potential bidders on 12 September in Birmingham. This event will provide delegates with the background and further detail for the competition and the support available to bidders from Innovate UK, and help catalyse collaboration and knowledge sharing. Places are limited, so interested parties should register as soon as possible, using the link below.

A formal online Competition Briefing will also be held on Monday 18th September, 2-3.30pm: click here for details and to register for a place.

Details of the competition have now been released: click here to find out more.

For further information about the competition or Stakeholder Event, please contact sally.beken@iuk.ktn-uk.org

Who should attend

This event is for anyone who has skills, capabilities or experience that they believe could be utilised in the supply chain for reuse/refill at large scale liquid product sales, and believe they could be part of a successful project to deliver milk, beverages, or other liquids in the FMCG sector.

Agenda

• 10:00: The challenge and ambition to support refill/reuse in high volume liquids – Paul Davidson, Director, Smart Sustainable Plastic Packaging Challenge, Innovate UK
• 10:15: The mechanics of Innovate UK financial support – Gavin Lewis, Innovation Lead, Innovate UK
• 10:30: The key elements of a successful application for this challenge –  Sally Beken, UK Circular Plastics Network Manager, Innovate UK KTN
• 10:45: Overview of refill/return projects and initiatives to date from WRAP Pact –  Leah Wistrand, WRAP
• 11:00: Break
• 11:25: Overview of Reuse/refill from a Grocery perspective – Natasha Maynard Sustainability Programme Manager- IGD. Overview of IGD work on refill and heat map work (which highlights liquid food categories)
• 11:40: Reuse/refill from a retailer’s perspective – Paul Garner – ASDA. This session will outline ASDA’s experience with refill/reuse to date, what’s worked and what hasn’t with customers.
• 12:00: Lunch
• 12:45: Networking Section. After the speakers the remaining time will be for networking, you can book time with Innovate UK SSPP team or Innovate UK KTN and or mingle with in person attendees can chat to collaborate.
• 15:00: Closing remarks – Nick Cliffe, Deputy challenge director, SSPP, Innovate UK

Competition briefing, 18th September

In addition to the event detailed here, SSPP and Innovate UK KTN will be holding an online funding competition briefing event on Monday 18th September from 14:00-15:30. Click here for details of the online briefing event.