Deadline: 28-Oct-20
UK has announced a new funding competition, “African agriculture knowledge transfer partnerships (KTP): 2020 to 2021, round 4” for UK registered higher or further education institutions, RTOs or Catapults to help fund an innovation project with another knowledge base and a business partner registered in Ghana, Nigeria, Kenya or South Africa.
The African agriculture strand of the Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) scheme supports a partnership between:
- a UK registered higher education or further education institution, research and technology organization (RTO) or Catapult;
- an African business or not-for-profit organization;
- a knowledge base in Africa.
Scope
Your project must align with the scope of the ‘Agri-tech catalyst round 9: agriculture and food systems innovation, late stage’ competition. Your application must be for a specific, strategic innovation project that tackles one or more challenges faced by the business partner. It can be any kind of project but it must show:
- that it helps the business with a real need;
- how it fits the strategic aims of the business partner;
- there is a genuine market opportunity and route to market;
- how the knowledge gained will be embedded within the business partner;
- the commercial impact for the business partner, and any wider impacts;
- that you have a clear understanding of what qualifications, skills, attributes and experience the associate will need.
The UK knowledge base, African knowledge base and the business partner must sign the KTP joint commitment statement. You must deliver an exploitation plan during your project and you will need to share your initial plan as part of your application.
Funding Information
- They will consider partially funding project costs of any amount if they judge the costs to be appropriate. Typically projects cost no more than £125,000 per year. Projects are fully funded by Innovate UK.
Projects they will not Fund
- They are not Funding
- projects which are classed as state aid;
- undertakings which gain a selective economic or commercial advantage from the funding;
- research projects;
- projects that are not strategic for the business partner;
- projects that work with public sector organizations;
- projects that do not demonstrate a genuine market opportunity.
- They are also not funding projects with the following themes:
- forestry or ornamentals;
- wild-capture fisheries;
- equine;
- crops for energy production.
Eligibility Criteria
This award is provided on a non-aid basis. This means the knowledge base partner must publish or make openly available, on a non-selective basis, all project outputs. If the business partner decides to commercially exploit the project outputs, it can only do so with no selective advantage. Each African agriculture KTP is a partnership between the following:
- a UK knowledge base, which will be the lead organization and submit the application;
- an African knowledge base and business partner, both in one of the following countries: Republic of Ghana, Federal Republic of Nigeria, Republic of Kenya or Republic of South Africa.
UK knowledge base Partner
Each application must be created by a UK knowledge base, with the help of a knowledge transfer adviser. The UK knowledge base must lead the project and must:
- be a UK registered higher education (HE) or further education (FE) institution, RTO or Catapult;
- invite one business or not-for-profit organization from Republic of Ghana, Federal Republic of Nigeria, Republic of Kenya or Republic of South Africa to join the application and collaborate with them on the development of the project;
- invite one African knowledge base from the same African country to join the application and collaborate with them on the development of the project;
- invite one knowledge transfer adviser to join the application;
- not act in any way to gain selective commercial or economic advantage from the outputs of the project;
- allow associates to carry out the majority of the project at the business partner’s premises;
- make sure the application is completed and submitted before the competition closes.
African Business Partner
African business partners can work with knowledge bases of their choice, one from the UK and one from their own country. They encourage business partners to approach knowledge bases directly. To collaborate with the knowledge bases, the business partner must:
- be a business, of any size, or a not-for-profit organization registered in Republic of Ghana, Federal Republic of Nigeria, Republic of Kenya or Republic of South Africa;
- have more than 2 employees;
- demonstrate its ability to financially support its contribution to the project;
- be invited by the UK knowledge base and complete its parts of the application;
- provide business finance information for the past 3 years.
*Typically projects last 24 months, depending on the project requirements. KTP does not support projects with public sector organizations.
For more information, visit https://bit.ly/3lNDglg