Launch of IUK’s Farming Innovation Programme – Large R&D Partnership Projects Competition
This Innovate UK (IUK) competition has been established to fund industrial research and experimental development projects that will address major on-farm or immediate post farmgate challenges or opportunities.
Solutions or project outputs must significantly improve productivity, sustainability and environmental impact of farming, a progression towards net zero emissions, and resilience.
Projects must address a significant industry challenge or opportunity in at least one of these industry subsectors:
- Livestock
- Plants
- Novel food production systems
- Bioeconomy and agroforestry
A total of £8 million has been allocated to this competition. Each project’s total costs must be between £3 million and £5 million.
Businesses within a supply chain are encouraged to come together as a partnership to solve major challenges or opportunities.
The competition is open to collaborations only. A UK registered business of any size must lead a project. They must involve at least one micro, small or medium-sized enterprise (SME) and a research and technology organisation (RTO). To collaborate with the lead, organisations must be a UK business of any size or a UK registered academic institution, charity, not-for-profit, public sector organisation or RTO.
Applicants must carry out all of the project work in the UK, and intend to exploit the results from or in England. Projects must have a minimum of 50% of any grant requested by farmers, growers or foresters, allocated to farmers, growers or foresters based in England.
The deadline for applications is 29 June 2022 (11:00 BST).