£16.5m Innovation Funding available through the Farming Innovation Programme

I received an email earlier this week to advise me to ‘Apply for share of £16.5 million innovation funding’.

On further reading, it’s funding for projects under Farming Innovation Programme; in which applications opened on the 31st August.

Whilst to be honest on first reading I am not sure how applicable this competition/ these competitions may be for much of our client base and the rural community I suspect that a few of you may have ideas that fit the remit of the scheme and would be open to collaborating with, for example, one of the local universities on the innovation and if that is the case the potential funding could be very attractive.

If before you read on you want to get a feel for projects supported under Round 1 scroll down on Defra blog.

Headline details

There are two strands to the competition which are overviewed as follows, with all projects needing to be ‘collaborative’.

Strand	Feasibility projects	Small research and development projects
Grant pot	£5.5m	£11m
Theme	There is no set theme for these competitions. However, all projects must focus on improving the productivity, environmental sustainability and resilience of England’s agricultural, horticultural and forestry sectors.
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 Bio-economy and agroforestry
Project costs	£200k to £500k	£1 million to £3 million up to 3 years.
Projects to start by	April 2023	June 2023
Project duration	Up to 24 months	Up to 36 months
Closing date for applications	12 October 2022	2 November 2022
Lead organisation must be:	· Be a UK registered business of any size · Collaborate with other UK registered organisations (e.g., academic institution or charity)	· Be a UK registered business of any size · Collaborate with other UK organisations (e.g., academic institution or charity) · Be or work with at least one grant claiming small medium enterprise (SME)
If you want help to find a project partner	Contact the Innovate UK KTN.	Contact the Innovate UK KTN.
Intervention rates (as a percentage of eligible project costs)	· 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	· 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

Examples of successful applicants from the previous round of this fund can be found at Defra’s blog announcing this round.

Interested in applying?

There is a list of suggested reading material and related content for those potentially interested in applying this includes:

Guidance:
Guidance on applying for a competition on the Innovation Funding Service
Feasibility projects (Round 2)
Small R&D partnership projects (Round 2)
Video briefing on how to apply.
Q&A webinar (11am on 1 September)
“Consortium building event (10am on 6 September)

Links to register to attend the two virtual events can be found Here.

PKF Francis Clark

As I indicated at the outset I cannot see this competition being of a wide appeal to all of agricultural community but that said we have a number of innovation clients who may have a project that fits the objectives of the funding and who would be open to collaborating with, for example, one of the local universities on the innovation.

If any of you wish to chat through an idea with me and/ or have a discussion about collaborative partners please do not hesitate to contact me.