Farming Innovation Programme small R&D partnership projects Rnd 2

Overview

The Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (Defra), will invest up to £11million in innovation projects.

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

Scope

The aim of this competition is to fund industrial research studies developing new solutions that will address major on-farm or immediate post farmgate challenges or opportunities.

Your solutions must significantly improve:

productivity
sustainability and environmental impact of farming
progression towards net zero emissions
resilience

Businesses within a supply chain, are encouraged to come together as a partnership to solve major challenges or opportunities.

Your project must be able to demonstrate how the project will benefit farmers, growers or foresters in England.

Specific 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

Exclusions

Innovate UK are not funding projects that:

do not benefit farmers, growers or foresters in England
are equine specific
involve wild caught fisheries
involve aquaculture for fish production or human consumption
involve cellular or acellular production systems, fermentation systems for bacteria, yeast or fungi for human consumption
are for the production of cannabis for medicinal or pharmaceutical use
are dependent on export performance
are dependent on domestic inputs usage

Eligibility

If you are successful, any awards given to primary agricultural producers are subject to the green box exemption under the WTO Agreement on Agriculture.

Please see further guidance on green box subsidies here WTO guidance for support in agriculture. Applicants receiving this type of support must ensure that there is minimal to no distortion of trade and comply with the requirements of Annex 2 of the Agriculture Agreement.

Your project must:

have total eligible costs between £1million and £3million
start by 1 June 2023
end by 31 May 2026
last up to 36 months
be collaborative
carry out all of its project work in the UK
intend to exploit the results from or in England
have a minimum of 50% of any grant requested by farmers, growers or foresters, allocated to farmers, growers or foresters based in England

Your project must:

have total eligible costs between £1million and £3million
start by 1 June 2023
end by 31 May 2026
last up to 36 months
be collaborative
carry out all of its project work in the UK
intend to exploit the results from or in England
have a minimum of 50% of any grant requested by farmers, growers or foresters, allocated to farmers, growers or foresters based in England

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 or Belarusian entity as lead, partner or subcontractor. This includes any goods or services originating from a Russian or Belarusian source.

To lead a project your organisation must:

be a UK registered business of any size
collaborate with other UK organisations
be or work with at least one grant claiming small medium enterprise (SME)

Academic institutions and research organisations cannot lead.

To collaborate with the lead, your organisation must be a UK business of any size or a UK registered:

academic institution
charity
not-for-profit
public sector organisation
research and technology organisation (RTO)

Each partner organisation must be invited into the Innovation Funding Service by the lead to collaborate on a project.

Subcontractors are allowed in this competition..

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

Funding Costs

The Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (Defra) has allocated up to £11million, working in partnership with UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) Transforming Food Production Challenge, to fund innovation projects in this competition. Funding will be in the form of a grant.

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 industrial research projects, 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

Research participation

The research organisations undertaking non-economic activity as part of the project can share up to 30% of the total eligible project costs. If your consortium contains more than one research organisation undertaking non-economic activity, this maximum is shared between them.

Of that 30% you could get funding for your eligible project costs of up to:

80% of full economic costs (FEC) if you are a Je-s registered institution such as an academic
100% of your eligible project costs if you are an RTO, charity, not for profit organisation, public sector organisation or research organisation

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