Fisheries and Seafood Scheme

About the Fisheries and Seafood Scheme

The Fisheries and Seafood Scheme (FaSS) is a Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (Defra) grant scheme administered and delivered by Marine Management Organisation (MMO). It is funded from the Fishing and Coastal Growth Fund, which will invest £304m into fishing and seafood businesses and coastal communities across England.

The FaSS provides financial assistance to projects in England that would not be possible without government support.

Aims of the Fisheries and Seafood Scheme

The FaSS delivers investments to safeguard the long-term sustainability, resilience and prosperity of the seafood sector across England. It provides grants to support the Secretary of State’s key priorities for Defra by funding projects that contribute to:

• Creating a sustainable and resilient seafood sector
• Reducing emissions and waste from the seafood sector
• Cleaning up rivers, lakes and seas and supportsupporting nature recovery
• Boosting regional and economic growth within the seafood sector

FaSS Eligibility MeasuresMeasures 

FaSS offers up to £250,000 grant per applicant per annum to a wide range of project fundingmeasures. measures within each aim. You can click onbelow each measure to take you to the relevant guidance.

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Support for cooperative activities, building capability and advisory services	M17 Providing advisory services M18 Management, relief, and advisory services for aquaculture farms M19 Promoting skills, knowledge, and networking M20 Promoting skills, knowledge, and networking for aquaculture M22 Supporting new entrants into the industry M25 Supporting co-operative activities M31 Supporting partnerships between fishers and scientists
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Who can apply for funding?

To be eligible for this scheme you must be one of the following:

• An individual or business directly engaged within commercial sea fishing, aquaculture or processingprocessing, (1.), an organisation or business directly engaged within recreational sea fishing or an organisation or business directly engaged in the conservation, enhancement or restoration of the marine environment.
• An organisation or business that directly recycles/upcycles waste materials associated with the seafood sector and/or directly develops new technologies to improve environmental sustainability associated with the seafood sector.
• A public body or local authority in a local community that has a focus on fishing, aquaculture or processing activities (including trust ports and local authority ports, and public bodies, using funds for environmental improvements or the management of fisheries);
• A university or research institute;
• A new entrant to the industry or unemployed individual that could benefit from knowledge or skills in fishing, aquaculture or processing activities.

You You willmust be required to declare ifany youfunding havepreviously received funding from other government financial support schemesschemes, and,including ifthe so,purpose whatof for.

Please note that each eligible applicant can have a maximum £250,000 in FaSS contributions over a financial year.funding.

If you are a business, you will need to declare which of the following categories you fall under (definitions can be found in the general guidance document)

• Micro-entity
• Small business
• Medium-sized business
• Larger enterpriseenterprise.

YouApplicants willare be required to provide a level of match funding for yourtheir project. Please refer to guidance documents below to see the latest rates that apply.

Who cannot apply for funding?

You cannot apply for and receive funding if you:

• Have beenconvictions convictedfor fraud, IUU fishing, serious infringements, or serious conservation violations within the preceding 12 months of fraudapplying.
• Provide underfalse anyor fisheriesincomplete schemeinformation.
• HaveHide beenconflicts convictedof forinterest.
• Intend illegal,to unreporteduse andfunding unregulatedfor (IUU)capacity‑increasing fishing investments.
• HaveFall beenunder convictedpublic ofprocurement anmandatory offence(5‑yr) thator thediscretionary MMO(3‑yr) considersexclusions.
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• Fail monthsto beforecooperate applyingwith monitoring, access, or reporting.
• HaveBreach beenpublicity foundand tobranding haverequirements.
• You committedcannot provide a seriousclear violationand ofobvious conservationlink orand managementbenefits measuresto within the precedingfishing 12and monthsseafood ofsector applyingin England

Full details on grounds for exclusion and compliance requirements can be found in the Terms and Conditions which you are required to comply with when you accept any offer of grant.

What activities the Fisheries and Seafood Scheme can support

You must review the relevant guidance note for the project you are seeking funding for. These set out what you can and cannot apply for. The detailed guidance notes cover:cover: 

• Fishing related activities including energy improvements on a vessel
• Diversification and new forms of income
• Support to improve the resilience and sustainability of a shore-based facility
• Support for cooperative activities, building capability and advisory services
• Fishing related activities including energy improvements on a vessel
• Health and safety.
• Achieving good environmental status through the conservation and restoration of the marine environment
• Health Diversification and safety.new forms of income 

And we encourage applications that:

• Support labour and workforce development in the industry
• Enhance health and safety to improve safety onboard and reduce accidents
• Encourage community partnerships and local regeneration
• Develop infrastructure that benefits multiple users
• Strengthen trade and market access

If we consider that you can afford your project without the scheme’s support, your project will not be approved.

As a minimum, all projects will be assessed for value for money, benefits to be delivered, affordability and deliverability.

It is your responsibility to ensure that:

• Your project is technically viable and complies with all relevant health and safety legislation, other project specific safety requirements, and all other legal requirements;
• Items purchased with scheme funding meetsmeet all necessary legal requirements. If items purchased subsequently becomesbecome obsolete or illegal, then this is at your own risk. There can be no refunds or claims against the scheme;
• All relevant legal requirements of the project are complied with.

What activities the Fisheries and Seafood Scheme can’t support

You cannot get funding for:

• Items and services that are statutory or mandatory requirements of law and bylaws cannot be funded;bylaws;
• Projects that risk leading to fisheries or fish stocks being overfished (based on best available evidence)
• Transferring the ownership of a business or fishing vessel, including through the creation of joint enterprises
• Operations that increase the fishing capacity of a fishing vessel, or for equipment that increases the ability of a fishing vessel to find fish, except where they meet legitimate public policy goals such as improved safety or sustainability
• Fishing for fish stocks managed by a Regional Fisheries Management Organisation or Arrangement to which the UK is not a member
• Fishing or fishing-related activities conducted without the permission of the flag state where required and, if operating in another state’s waters, without permission of that State
• Building, purchasing, importing or acquiring fishing vessels,
• Carrying out exploratory fishing;
• Pulse trawling;
• The same type of equipment for the same vessel if you have already received support through the scheme;
• Preventative or scheduled maintenance costs including those relating to vehicles
• Purchasing or leasing of vehicles that are not used exclusively to provide a direct contribution to the project;
• Interest on a debt or the re-payments of loans on any item(s) you have purchased;
• The costs of any item(s) bought with a loan until the loan is repaid (this does not include leased items if your offer letter allows funding for them);
• The purchase of land or housing that’s worth more than 10% of your project’s total expenditure;
• Your business’s operating costs unless MMO has told you otherwise in your offer letter;
• Any costs that have been fully or partially funded through an alternative grant;
• Any costs that you could recover in part or in total by making a claim on an insurance policy or by seeking compensation or damages;
• The cost for any items purchased prior to receiving acknowledgement of receipt of your funding application by MMO Grants Team.
• Items that have been purchased with a Hire Purchase Agreement.
• Consumable items such as office equipment (printers, memory sticks, tablets)tablets etc.) as well as phones, laptops and subscription services are not eligible for funding.
• Any costs related to the preparation or completion of Grant applications or claims.

Please contact MMO Grants Team if you are unsure whether your project is eligible or ineligible for funding. The above list is not exhaustive, the MMO Grants Team retain the right to refuse funding for any items in relation to the list, the decision is final and cannot be appealed.

The application process

Expression of Interest (EOI)

You may wish to submit an ‘expression of interest’ form to see if a project is eligible before completing an application form or responding to a funding round. It is not essential but may help you understand whether your project is likely to fit the criteria for funding.

Please see our additional guidance for support on how to Lodgelodge an Expressionexpression of Interestinterest

FaSS Panels

Applications with a total project cost of £150,000, or more, must be considered by the FaSS panel, which is responsible for reviewing and recommending projects in line with the overall objectives of the scheme. The panel is expected to meet to consider applications in September 2025.

Making an application

All applicants applying to the Fisheries and Seafood Scheme must read the general guidance document as well as the project specific guidance before applying.

You can apply for funding online. You may need to complete more than one application if your project has different elements within it. You should read the associated guidance for each part of your application.

You will need the following information to hand in order to complete the application:

• The appropriate guide for completing your application form
• Your business details such as your accounts, business registration number and VAT registration number.

If your application is successful, you will need to be able to pay for your entire project up front - you can then claim the costs back from MMO.

After you apply

apply 

We will contact you to confirm we have received your application and notify you if any further information is required.

We will only receipt applications once all information and documents needed for assessment have been provided.

Please refer to the general guidance document for further information 

We will write to you within ten12 workingweeks daysto tell you if your application has been successful. If we need more information from you, we will make three attempts to confirmcontact receiptyou over 30 days. If we do not receive everything we need by the end of those 30 days, we will have to reject your application.

Once Afteryour thisapplication has been receipted and you canhave beginreceived workconfirmation onfrom the project,MMO butGrants Team that your project has been officially accepted, you may choose to start your project. However, this is entirely at your own risk.

• The items,item, supplierssupplier and costscost must be the same as in your application:originally submitted application; any deviation will make the costs ineligible.

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You can also find further details in the post-application guidance document.

All guidance notes are located in the main guidance page

Important Documents

Terms and Conditions - Applicant Declaration

PDF, 83.3192 KB, 4 pages

SOP7 Payment Details Form

PDF, 213 KB, 1 page

Expression of Interest Guidance

PDF, 519179 KB, 5 pages

Expression of Interest Form

PDF, 395192 KB, 4 pages

Current 2025/26 FaSS Applicants

If you have a project awarded through FaSS in 2025/26 and need a copy of the relevant Terms and Conditions or post application guidance document then please contact the MMO Grants Team for a copy.

Successful Applicants

Details of the projects that have been awarded a FaSS funding can be found here:

Successful Applicants

MS Excel Spreadsheet, 116390 KB

MoreContact informationus

Write to:

Telephone: 0208 026 5539

Email: Email: FaSS.queries@marinemanagement.org.uk