Active Food & Agriculture Plants, Animals & Ecology

Trust

Funder InnovateUK (part of UKRI)
Recipient organisation Recycled Crop Nutrients Limited
Funding £747K
Period Feb 2025 — Jan 2028

In plain English

AI plain-English summary

The UK is running out of phosphorus, a critical fertiliser ingredient, with global reserves possibly exhausted within 50 to 100 years and concentrated in politically unstable regions. This matters because the UK has no domestic phosphorus reserves. The country currently relies on imported fossil-based mineral fertilisers, while phosphorus runoff from manure and feed damages rivers like the Wye Valley. Recycling nutrients from manure into Recycled Precision Fertilisers (RPFs) could solve both problems, but farmers do not trust them. The TRUST initiative aims to remove that barrier by generating hard evidence on how RPFs perform: their nutrient efficiency, crop yields, and environmental safety. If successful, the project could shift UK agriculture away from a fragile, imported supply chain toward a circular system that turns farm waste into reliable fertiliser. That would reduce pressure on aquatic ecosystems, lower the carbon footprint of food production, and make the UK less vulnerable to price shocks or supply disruptions from abroad. The impact is not on a shopper’s plate tomorrow, but on the quiet infrastructure—fertiliser supply, water quality regulation, and farm economics—that keeps the food system stable.

View original technical description
The global increase in food demand, compounded by climate change and geopolitical instability, are affecting food security. The reliance on fossil-based mineral fertilizers, especially phosphorus (P), is precarious, with reserves potentially depleting in 50-100 years and located in unstable regions, risking supply chains. The UK faces an urgent threat due to P scarcity and lack of local reserves, compounded by P runoff from imported feed and manure misuse, harming aquatic ecosystems such as the Wye Valley. Recycling nutrients from waste streams like manure to create Recycled Precision Fertilisers (RPFs) offers economic and environmental benefits. However, adoption is hindered by barriers such as lack of integrated knowledge and technology, absence of practical tools and management plans trusted by farmers, insufficient analysis of RPFs' environmental and safety impacts, and inadequate regulatory frameworks, leading to low market uptake. The TRUST initiative seeks to overcome these obstacles by developing evidence-based practices to improve the value of RPFs. Focusing on nutrient use efficiency, crop productivity, and environmental benefits, TRUST aims to boost RPF acceptability and demand, supporting sustainable agriculture and bolstering food security in the UK.

View the original record at the funder ↗

Related Research

Grants with similar aims, by meaning.

The role of Phosphorus in the Resilience and Sustainability of the UK food system
Circular nutrient management: transforming phosphorus and nitrogen in farm slurry to stable commercial fertilisers
NTPlus2 - Circular Nutrient Management for Agriculture
Commercial exploitation of novel biofertilisers for increased soil health
Improving the sustainability of phosphorus use in arable farming

Original classification

Grant for R&D

Plain English summaries and category classifications on this site are generated by AI and may not perfectly reflect the original research.