Edgar Pye Research Trust Scholarship

The 2023 Scholarship Fund, from which awards will be allocated, is £2000.00. We are grateful to our sponsors, listed below, who have generously donated to make this fund possible.

The Research Project.
The aim is to sponsor a research-based project chosen competitively. The project may be in any area of farm animal feeding including animal nutrition and management, feed production and marketing. The project can be undertaken in the UK, abroad or based on travel to study the appropriate subject.

Who May Apply?
The Edgar Pye Research Scholarship is open to anyone who is either studying agriculture or a related subject, or who is already employed in the UK or Irish Animal Feed Industry, and is resident in the United Kingdom or the Republic of Ireland.

The award will be given to the applicant, who, in the opinion of the panel of judges, has most capably:

• Identified an area of research relevant to the UK and Irish Compound Feed Industry in the forthcoming five years
• Prepared a programme thoroughly, including sources of information
• Provided a realistic budget for the costs of the project
• Presented the proposals clearly and according to the rules

The Benefits of being awarded an Edgar Pye Research Scholarship:
1. A research scholarship award of up to £2000.00 will be given towards the research project described in the application. In recent years awards have typically ranged from £1500.00 to £3000.00.
2. Early exposure to the feed industry with enhanced employment opportunities
3. Contributing to developments in the animal feed industry

The Rules.
1. Closing date for submission in 2023 – 31st October.
2. Entries to be typewritten double-spaced not exceeding 5000 words. Entries to be single sided on A4 paper. Please email entries to secretary@sft.uk.com
3. The proposed research must be within the broad subject areas described above, and the objectives of the project must be set out clearly.
4. The project must be fully described and a budget of costs provided.
5. The amount awarded to a successful applicant will be at the discretion of the judges.
6. More than one applicant may receive an award at the discretion of the judges.
7. It is hoped to select the winner by 31st July and the project described and the award made shortly afterwards. The successful candidate will then have a set period, depending on the project, to complete it and submit a draft paper in a format provided to the SFT Advisory Committee.
8. All applicants must agree that if awarded an Edgar Pye Scholarship they will give a presentation, the scholarship research project, at an SFT conference within 18 months of the award. Travel and subsistence expenses to the conference will be reimbursed.
9. Entries will be submitted to a panel of judges selected by the Trustees of the Edgar Pye Research Scholarship Trust.
10. The decision of the judges is final.

Previous Awards.

In 2023 the Edgar Pye Research Trust has, due to the generosity of its sponsors, awarded three Scholarships of £3000 each. The scholars are:

Maria Fernandez, ‘the potential use of condensed tannins as supplements in the UK feed industry to reduce the environmental pollution and increase silage quality and shelf life for ruminants’.

James Cullen, ‘investigating the impact of sanitisation of the feeding system on the bacterial and fungal microbiota of liquid feed and liquid feeding systems for pigs’.

Elizabeth Brass, ‘the effect of essential oils on internal egg quality characteristics in the eggs of later laying hens’.

The Society of Feed Technologists (SFT) looks forward to the presentation of their research at its conferences in the next 18 months.

The Research Scholarship has been also awarded over recent years for the following research projects:

• Spotting Gastric Ulcers in Pigs by Their Behaviour

• How do Prebiotics Influence the Metabolic Pathways – Expressed by Chicken Caecal Microbiota.

• The Nutritional Value of Seaweed in Dairy Cow Nutrition.

• Superdosing of Phytase –Research and implications.

• Early Nutritional Strategies to promote lifetime pig performance.

• An investigation into the factors influencing the microbiological status of wheat entering feed and flour mills.

• Determination of the apparent and standardised amino acid digestibility values for wheat distillers dried grains with solubles supplemented with or without exogenous enzymes for broilers.

• The influence of Dietary Benzoic Acid and Turmeric (curcuma longa L) meal supplementation on the growth performance, nutrient utilization and intestinal health of broilers.

• Investigating the transfer of genes from genetically modified (GM) maize to the pig intestinal microbiota: one of the steps in determining the safety of GM feed.

Contact: for more information on applying or sponsoring please contact secretary@sft.uk.com