Deadline: 01-Dec-21
The Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (Defra) along with UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) has launched Farming Innovation Programme – feasibility projects for UK registered businesses.
The aim of this competition is to:
- investigate early-stage solutions that have the potential to substantially improve the overall productivity, sustainability and resilience of farming, and move existing agricultural sectors to net zero
- prioritise solutions that will have positive outputs for farmers, growers and foresters in commercially relevant situations
- accelerate research and development of new agricultural solutions by actively engaging collaboration with the wider UK research community in the innovation process
Themes
Your project must address a significant industry challenge or opportunity in at least one of the four industry subsectors below:
- livestock
- plants
- novel food production systems
- bioeconomy and agroforestry
Funding Information
- UK registered businesses can apply for a share of £5.5million for feasibility projects, from the industry-led R&D Partnerships Fund, a part of the Farming Innovation Programme.
- If the majority of your organisation’s work on the project is commercial or economic, your funding request must not exceed the limits below. These limits apply even if your organisation normally acts non-economically.
- For feasibility studies, you could get funding for your eligible project costs of:
- up to 70% if you are a micro or small organisation
- up to 60% if you are a medium-sized organisation
- up to 50% if you are a large organisation
Project size
- Your project’s total eligible costs must be between £200,000 and £500,000.
Eligibility Criteria
To lead a project, your organisation must:
- be a UK registered business of any size,
- collaborate with other UK organisations
To collaborate with the lead, your organisation must be a UK business of any size or a UK registered:
- academic institution
- charity
- public sector organisation
- research and technology organisation (RTO)
Your project must:
- have total eligible costs between £200,000 and £500,000
- start by 1 May 2022 and end by 30 April 2024
- last up to 24 months
- carry out all of its project work in the UK
- intend to exploit the results from or in England
- have at least 50% of the farmers, growers or foresters involved based in England
For more information, visit https://apply-for-innovation-funding.service.gov.uk/competition/1048/overview#eligibility