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Farming Innovation Programme - large R&D partnerships Round 2 UK registered businesses can apply for a share of up to £8 million for large R&D partnership projects, from the industry-led R&D Partnerships Fund, a part of the Farming Innovation Programme. Eligibility This competition is open to collaborations only. To lead a project your organisation must: be a UK registered business of any size. collaborate with other UK registered organisations You must be or involve at least one grant claiming micro, small or medium-sized enterprise (SME) and a research organisation. involve at least one grant claiming academic institution, research and technology organisation, charity, not-for-profit or public sector organisation Opening soon Opens: 20 February 2023 Closes: 19 April 2023

Programme: Innovate Uk

Award:

Opens: 20 February 2023

Closes: 19 April 2023

Description

The Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (Defra) will invest up to £8 million 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.

The aim of this competition is to:

  • fund industrial research and experimental development projects that will address major on-farm or immediate post farmgate challenges or opportunities
  • drive the development and demonstration of commercially relevant solutions with the potential to substantially improve overall productivity, profitability, and environmental sustainability
  • support the development of scalable solutions that can be taken up widely, be integrated into existing production systems, and have widespread impact
  • accelerate research development of new solutions by actively engaging collaboration between the agri-food sector and wider UK research community in the innovation process

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

It is your responsibility to ensure you submit your application to the correct competition 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.

In applying to this competition, you are entering into a competitive process. This competition closes at 11am UK time on the deadline stated.

Funding type

Grant

Project size

Your project’s total costs must be between £3 million and £5 million.

Who can apply

If your application is 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 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

Your project must:

  • have total costs between £3 million and £5 million
  • start by 1 November 2023
  • end by 30 November 2027
  • last up to 48 months
  • carry out all of its project work in the UK
  • intend to exploit the results from or 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 and Belarusian entity as lead, partner or subcontractor. This includes any goods or services originating from a Russian and Belarusian source.

Lead organisation

To lead a project your organisation must:

More information on the different types of organisation can be found in our Funding rules.

Academic institutions cannot lead.

Funding

The Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (Defra) has allocated up to £8 million to fund innovation projects in this competition. Defra will be working in partnership with UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) Transforming Food Production Challenge. Funding will be in the form of a grant.

For this competition a minimum of 50% of any grant that is requested by farmers, or growers or foresters in your application, must be allocated to farmers, or growers or foresters based in England.

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 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

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

For more information on company sizes, please refer to the company accounts guidance. This is a change from the EU definition unless you are applying under State aid.

If you are applying for an award funded under State aid Regulations, the definitions are set out in the European Commission Recommendation of 6 May 2003.

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