Better Food for All: Innovation for improved nutrition – Early, Mid and Late Stage

Key Features

UK registered organisations can apply for a share of up to £20 million over the three strands of the competition. Projects will support the development of innovative solutions to address significant nutrition challenges. This funding is from Innovate UK.

Programme:     Innovate UK

Award:     Share of up to £20 million

Opens: 11th Jan 2023

Closes: 29th Mar 2023

! This scheme is now closed

Overview

Innovate UK, part of UK Research and Innovation is to invest up to £20 million across the three strands of the competition.

Scope

The aim of this competition is to support UK registered businesses in the development of innovative solutions to address significant nutrition challenges.

This competition is split into 3 strands:

The Better Food for All competition is part of Innovate UK’s funding support for growing the future economy, as outlined in Innovate UK’s Plan for Action. This funding also includes the Novel Low Emission Food Production systems competition: Feasibility Studies and Industrial Research. You must ensure you apply for the most relevant competition for your project.

It is your responsibility to ensure you submit your application to the correct strand for your project. You will not be able to transfer your application and it will not be sent for assessment if it is out of scope.

Eligibility

Your project must:

  • Early Stage – have total costs between £100,000 and £500,000
  • Mid Stage – have total costs between £250,000 and £1 million
  • Late Stage – have total costs between £150,000 and £800,000
  • start by 1 September 2023
  • end by 31 August 2025
  • last between 9 and 24 months
  • carry out all of its project work in the UK
  • intend to exploit the results from or in the UK

You must only include eligible project costs in your application.

Under current restrictions, this competition will not fund any procurement, commercial, business development or supply chain activity with any Russian and Belarusian entity as lead, partner or subcontractor. This includes any goods or services originating from a Russian and Belarusian source.

Each partner organisation must be invited into the Innovation Funding Service by the lead to collaborate on a project. Once accepted, partners will be asked to login or to create an account and enter their own project costs into the Innovation Funding Service.

Your project can include partners that do not receive any of this competition’s funding. Their costs will count towards the total project costs.

Subcontractors are allowed in this competition.

A business can only lead on one application but can be included as a collaborator in a further 2 applications.

If a business is not leading any application, it can collaborate in any number of applications.

You can use a previously submitted application to apply for this competition.

Exclusions

Innovate UK are not funding projects that:

  • are not focussed on foods for human consumption, for example pet food
  • are not sustainable in the context of environmental challenges
  • do not minimise negative effects

Innovate UK 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

Funding Costs

Up to £20 million has been allocated to fund innovation projects across the three strands of this competition. Funding will be in the form of a grant.

The total funding available for the competition can change. The funders have the right to:

  • adjust the funding allocations between the three competition strands
  • apply a ‘portfolio’ approach

If 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 but for the purpose of this project will be undertaking commercial or economic activity.

For experimental development projects which are nearer to market, you could get funding for your eligible project costs of:

  • up to 45% if you are a micro or small organisation
  • up to 35% if you are a medium sized organisation
  • up to 25% if you are a large organisation

You can participate as a subcontractor but not claim grant funding if you are:

  • an academic institution
  • an RTO
  • a charity
  • a not for profit organisation,
  • a public sector organisation or
  • a research organisation

Interested in applying for this competition?

Book an appointment to speak to one of our advisors to discuss your eligibility to apply for this Grant Funding opportunity.