African Agriculture Knowledge transfer partnerships (KTP) 2023-24 Round 1

This Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) competition is part of the African agriculture strand of KTP. Innovate UK is investing up to £2.5 million towards the funding of projects in this strand.

The African agriculture strand of the Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) scheme supports partnerships between a UK knowledge base, an African knowledge base, and an African business partner. See below for what these terms mean.

The partnership will bring new skills and the latest academic thinking into the business partner to deliver a specific, strategic innovation project.

Your project must be in one of the following areas:

• primary crop and livestock production, including aquaculture
• non-food uses of crops, excluding ornamentals
• challenges in food processing, distribution or storage, and value addition, such as through a change in the physical state or form of the product
• improving the availability and accessibility of safe, healthy and nutritious foods

If you are from a knowledge base that has not yet developed a project, get started by reading the KTP guidance.

If you are from an African business, read the KTP guidance and then contact the Knowledge Transfer Network or a knowledge base to discuss your proposal.

Eligibility

Each African agriculture KTP is a partnership between the following:

• a UK registered higher education or further education institution, research and technology organisation (RTO) or Catapult (which we will refer to as the ‘UK knowledge base’)
• an African business or not for profit organisation (which we will refer to collectively as the ‘business partner’)
• a knowledge base in Africa (which we will refer to as the ‘African knowledge base’)

The business and African knowledge base must both be based in one of the following countries:

• Republic of Ghana
• Federal Republic of Nigeria
• Republic of Kenya
• Republic of South Africa

(The African agriculture KTP does not support projects where the business partner is in the public sector.)

Each application must be created by a UK knowledge base, who will also lead the project. The UK knowledge base partner must:

• be a UK registered higher education (HE) or further education (FE) institution, Research Technology Organisation (RTO) or Catapult
• be registered as a knowledge base with the KTP programme
• invite one business or not-for-profit organisation from Republic of Ghana, Federal Republic of Nigeria, Republic of Kenya or Republic of South Africa to join the application and collaborate with them on the development of the project
• invite one African knowledge base from the same African country as the business partner to join the application and collaborate with them on the development of the project
• invite one knowledge transfer adviser to support the application
• ensure that neither knowledge base have ownership of 50% or more of the business partner or a controlling interest via a shareholder agreement

The African business partner must:

• be a business, of any size, or a not-for-profit organisation registered in Republic of Ghana, Federal Republic of Nigeria, Republic of Kenya or Republic of South Africa
• have 2 or more full time equivalent employees

The African knowledge base partner must be a registered higher education or further education institution from the same country as the African business partner.

Full requirements for all three partners can be found here.

Subcontractors are not allowed in this competition.

Each knowledge base can collaborate with any number of business partners. Each business partner (including separate businesses within a business group) can only take part in up to 4 concurrent KTP funded projects.

Applications must be supported by an Innovate UK appointed Knowledge Transfer Adviser (KTA) who will be informed of your application. It will be withdrawn from the competition if they have not given their support.

Scope

Your application must align with this scope criteria and be for a specific, strategic innovation project that tackles one or more challenges faced by the business partner.

It can be any kind of project, but it must show:

• why the business needs this KTP
• what new knowledge is required by the business
• what new capabilities will be embedded as a result of the KTP

Your proposal must tackle one or more challenges faced by the business partner in one of the following areas:

• primary crop and livestock production, including aquaculture
• non-food uses of crops, excluding ornamentals
• challenges in food processing, distribution or storage, and value addition, for example through a change in the physical state or form of the product
• improving the availability and accessibility of safe, healthy and nutritious foods

Your project’s innovations must:

• be sustainable in the context of environmental challenges, such as climate change and resource scarcity
• minimise negative effects such as pollution, food loss and waste
• promote safe, healthy and nutritious diets

You must demonstrate how the primary benefit from your project will be a contribution to international development outcomes, specifically both:

• enhanced food and nutrition security
• welfare of the poor in urban and rural areas in developing countries

We encourage applications from micro, small or medium enterprises (SMEs) based in Kenya, Nigeria, Ghana and South Africa. Large businesses can apply if they are not part of an international group.

We are not funding projects with the following themes:

• forestry or ornamentals
• wild-capture fisheries
• equine
• crops for energy production

UK knowledge base partners looking to apply should contact their institution’s Knowledge Transfer Adviser (KTA) in the first instance: click here for a list of KTAs.

The four lead KTA contacts for the African countries involved are:
Ghana: John Clayton
Nigeria: Ken Frame
Kenya: Joel Ferguson
South Africa: Gerry O’Hagan