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Farming Innovation Programme: Research Starter Round 3 (UK)

Deadline: 8-Mar-23

Farming, growing or forestry businesses based in England can apply for a share of up to £850,000 for feasibility projects to improve productivity, sustainability, resilience and move the agricultural sector to net zero.

This funding is part of Defra’s Farming Innovation Programme which is delivered in partnership with UKRI’s Transforming Food Production Challenge.

Aims
  • The aim of this competition is to:
    • investigate early-stage solutions with the potential to substantially improve overall productivity, sustainability, resilience and move existing agricultural sectors to net zero
    • prioritise solutions that have positive outputs for farmers, growers or foresters in commercially relevant situations
    • accelerate development of effective new agricultural solutions by working with end-users and collaborating with the wider UK research community in the innovation process
  • This competition provides an entry point​ for farmers, growers or foresters that have bold, ambitious, early-stage ideas to solve major problems that impact their business. This can help you exploit new significant opportunities for both your business and the industry sub-sector.​
  • The outputs of this EoI competition will provide you with the knowledge and information needed to aid in applying for grant funding for the development of your idea.
  • Your proposed feasibility study must investigate new solutions to industry identified challenges, or opportunities for farmers, growers or foresters that have the potential to significantly improve:
    • productivity
    • sustainability and environmental impact
    • progression towards net zero emissions
    • resilience
  • Your project must focus on developing on-farm or immediate post farmgate​ solutions.
  • You must be able to demonstrate how the project will benefit farmers, growers or forestry in England.
Specific Themes

Your project must address a significant industry challenge or opportunity in at least one of the four industry subsectors:

  • livestock
  • plants
  • novel food production systems
  • bioeconomy and agroforestry
Funding Information
  • At the full application stage your project’s total costs must be between £28,000 and £56,000.
Projects they will not fund
  • They are not funding projects that:
    • are equine specific​
    • involve wild caught fisheries
    • are cellular or acellular production systems, fermentation systems for bacteria, yeast or fungi​
    • are for the production of crops or plants for medicinal or pharmaceutical use
    • are aquaculture, including algae and seaweed for human consumption
    • do not benefit farmers, growers or foresters in England
  • They cannot fund projects that are:
    • dependent on export performance, for example giving a subsidy to a baker on the condition that it exports a certain quantity of bread to another country
    • dependent on domestic inputs usage, for example giving a subsidy to a baker on the condition that it uses 50% UK flour in their product
Eligibility Criteria
  • Your project
    • If your application is successful at this EoI stage, you will be invited to apply for a full stage competition. In the full stage you must collaborate with other eligible partners.
    • Your full stage project must:
      • have total costs between £28,000 and £56,000
      • start by 1 November 2023
      • end by 31 October 2024
      • last between 6 and 12 months
      • carry out all of its project work in the UK
      • intend to exploit the results from or in England
    • Under current restrictions this competition will not fund any procurement, commercial, business development or supply chain activity with any Russian or Belarusian entity as lead, partner or subcontractor. This includes any goods or services originating from a Russian or Belarusian source.
  • Lead organisation
    • To lead a project your organisation must:
      • be an active farming, growing or forestry business of any size based in England
      • be able to evidence that you are an established business, including sole traders and partnerships
      • have a UK bank account
      • not have been awarded Innovate UK funding as a project lead within the last 5 years before 8 March 2023
  • Project team
    • To collaborate with the lead at the full stage, an organisation must be a farmer, grower or forester based in the UK or a UK registered:
      • business of any size
      • academic institution
      • charity
      • not for profit
      • public sector organisation
      • research and technology organisation (RTO)
  • Subcontractors
    • Subcontractors will be allowed at the full stage of this competition.
    • Subcontractors can be from anywhere in the UK and you must select them through your usual procurement process.
    • All subcontractor costs must be justified and appropriate to the total project costs.
  • Number of applications
    • A farming, growing or forestry business can only lead on one EoI application.

For more information, visit Defra.