APPLICANTS ARE being welcomed to apply for funding to improve sustainability, support the sector to make climate change mitigations and address the biodiversity crisis.
The Knowledge Transfer and Innovation Fund (KTIF), aims to promote skills development and knowledge transfer in the primary agricultural sector and will provide up to £70,000 per project.
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Rural Affairs Secretary Mairi Gougeon commented: “We must do all that we can to address the twin climate change and biodiversity crisis. We will need to work together to do this and this fund helps foster partnerships between those working in our rural communities.
“We are looking for projects that will focus on the shift toward a low-carbon and climate resilient economy in the agriculture sector," she continued. "We need to turn existing knowledge into practical solutions that will benefit our country and help us meet our climate change targets.
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“Applications will be assessed on a number of criteria including deliverability and how well the project benefits can be demonstrated. We’ll inform successful applicants in time for COP 26, to show how farmers, crofters and land managers are working hard to change the sector for the better.”
RSPB Scotland's Advisory Manager Chris Bailey added:“RSPB Scotland was grateful to be awarded KTIF funding for our project Bringing Biodiversity Back. This funding, despite the challenges of COVID, allowed us to work with farmers of the Nature Friendly Farming Network to produce a series of case studies, films and an online event demonstrating how farmers from a range of farm and croft types across Scotland farm in a nature friendly way supporting biodiversity and reducing their greenhouse gas emissions. The project has allowed the farmers to build stronger relationships with each other and new partnerships with other organisations which is a legacy that will last beyond the project.”
Final applications should be submitted no later than Friday, October 8, 2021 and projects will need to be completed by the end of March 2022.
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