Popular ‘Fisheries and Seafood Scheme’ now fully allocated for 2023
The Fisheries and Seafood Scheme (FaSS), administered by Marine Management Organisation (MMO) on behalf of Defra, delivers investments to safeguard the long-term sustainability, resilience and prosperity of the seafood sector across England.
Since opening in 2021, the scheme has been incredibly successful and has invested £25.9 million in over 1,200 projects. FaSS has supported projects across the catching, aquaculture and processing sectors, in addition to those that improve the marine environment.
Having far exceeded the original budget, the scheme will now close for new applications.
Any applications that are currently being processed and have been acknowledged by the MMO Grants Team will still be assessed.
MMO’s Grants Team will contact any applicants that have recently applied who are yet to receive an acknowledgement to advise of next steps. If your application meets the eligibility criteria for the final year of the scheme, then you will not need to reapply and your existing application will progressed.
The expectation is that MMO will reopen a modified version of the FaSS in early 2024 to deliver the final year’s budget. In the meantime, potential applicants should be aware that funding is still available to modify and replace engines through the UK Seafood Fund, which can be accessed here.
Graeme High, MMO’s Head of Grants, said:
We are delighted that the financial assistance from FaSS has attracted so much interest from industry, and that we’ve been able to support so many projects from seafood and marine businesses, charities and other organisations across England.
As well as accepting applications from smaller projects throughout the year, our review panels for larger projects, have approved thirteen applications this year with a total project cost of just under £4m million.
We look forward to building on the success of this round when FaSS re-opens in early 2024.
For more information about FaSS, visit gov.uk: gov.uk/guidance/fisheries-and-seafood-scheme
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Last updated 25 August 2023 + show all updates
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