Food company Moy Park, together with its partners Queen’s University Belfast and JF McKenna, has secured funding from Innovate UK to develop its £250,000 ‘Ideal Home’ project.

The project will provide an improved, resource and energy-efficient solution to poultry houses, as the farming industry looks to meet the sustainability target of net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2040.

The ‘Ideal Home’ project will focus on animal health and welfare while improving heating, ventilation, lighting and feeding systems through energy efficient and sustainable solutions.

Innovate UK is the UK’s innovation agency which provides funding and support to science and technology projects.

Speaking about the project, Moy Park’s head of research and development, Dr Anne Richmond, said: “Our corporate responsibility agenda focuses our efforts on developing our business in a sustainable and ethical way, investing and improving wherever we can to meet present and future needs.

“Ideal Home is an exciting and innovative project with high reward potential, which drives transformational change to boost sustainability and productivity across the UK’s poultry production system. From an industry perspective, work must start now to help achieve the net zero emission target by 2040, in a manner that assures high animal welfare.

“The Ideal Home partnership, led by Moy Park, has developed a project that introduces a detailed baseline assessment identifying the current situation within ‘traditional’ housing. Net zero emission agriculture, coupled with feeding the growing global population, can only succeed if improved production and sustainability are fully integrated into the food production process.”