The Country Store Project encourages producers, processors and users of non-food products to come forward with innovative ideas to add value to local products. The Accessing Innovation project provides the means to develop small sub-projects that are not covered in the existing work programme of Willows in Powys, All Sheep, Woodwaste Recycling and Alternative Building Products.

Several sub-projects are currently being supported through the Accessing Innovation strand. They are sub-projects to develop new products and research ways of exploiting resources in Powys. These sub-projects include:

Sourcing and Supply of Sustainable Landscape Materials
The project will research the potential to supply sustainable landscape materials from Powys/Wales. It will identify and understand the weaknesses encountered when seeking to source the materials, highlight examples of best practice, understand the barriers to why materials are not used in Powys and suggesting actions to begin to link local demand to local supply.

Douglas Fir Hot Tubs
The timber Douglas fir is produced in large quantities in Powys and Wales. Currently it has a very low value and is used mainly for low value products such as fencing materials. The Douglas Fir Hot Tub project is investigating if you can use this material to produce hot tubs and increase its value considerably.