Defra Farming Innovation Investor Partnership
UK registered SMEs can apply for a share of up to £5m to develop innovative farming solutions., aligned with private investment from selected investor partners.
Opportunity Details
When
Registration Opens
24/07/2023
Registration Closes
30/08/2023
Award
Your project must have total costs between £750,000 and £3 million. Innovate UK's grant can be up to 1/3 of the project costs. The aligned private investment must provide you with suitable capital at least twice the amount of the grant requested to complete your project and support company growth and scale ambitions.
Organisation
Innovate UK
Innovate UK, part of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), will work with The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) to invest up to £5 million in innovation projects.
This funding is linked to Defra’s Farming Innovation Programme which is a partnership with UKRI’s Transforming Food Production Challenge and delivered by Innovate UK.
The aim of this competition is to:
- develop ambitious late-stage innovative solutions, technologies, systems or approaches that will make significant steps towards improving productivity, increasing sustainability and resilience, and helping the agriculture sector move towards achieving net zero emissions by 2050
- support late-stage experimental development projects being close to market and ultimately adoption by farmers
Your proposal must be able to demonstrate how the project will benefit farmers, growers or foresters in England.
To be offered grant funding your project must:
- be assessed as eligible for grant funding
- have secured aligned investment with a lead investor from the pool
You can view the areas of expertise and investment preferences for the investors here.
You can apply for this competition before you speak to an investor but initiating dialogue with investors is encouraged.
In addition to investment, the lead investors in the pool can provide you with commercial acumen in, for example:
- leadership
- market access
- skills
- resources
Successful UK registered SME’s will receive:
- grant funding from Innovate UK
- aligned investment funding with one of the programme’s pool of investors acting as the lead investor
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To lead a project your organisation must:
- be a UK registered micro, small or medium-sized enterprise (SME)
- be prepared to negotiate heads of terms for an aligned private investment
Subcontractors are allowed in this competition.
A business can only lead on one application in this competition.
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Your project must:
- have total costs between £750,000 and £3 million
- start by 1 April 2024
- last 18 months
- carry out all of its project work in the UK
- intend to exploit the results from or in the UK
- be able to demonstrate how it will benefit farmers, growers or foresters in England
If you are successful, any awards given to primary agricultural producers are subject to the green box exemption under the World Trade Organisation (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.
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The aim of this competition is to:
- develop ambitious late-stage innovative solutions, technologies, systems or approaches that will make significant steps towards improving productivity, increasing sustainability and resilience, and helping the agriculture sector move towards achieving net zero emissions by 2050
- support late-stage experimental development projects being close to market and ultimately adoption by farmers
Your proposal must:
- demonstrate your ambition to finalise a late-stage innovation
- show your potential to grow and scale your business through successful negotiation of investment from a lead investor associated with the competition
- provide a coherent project plan which integrates into your business strategy
Your solutions must significantly improve farm focused:
- productivity
- sustainability and the environmental impact
- progression towards net zero emissions
- resilience
Your project must be able to demonstrate how the project will benefit farmers, growers or foresters in England.
Your project must address a significant industry challenge or opportunity in at least one of the industry subsectors below:
- livestock
- plants
- novel food production systems
- bioeconomy and agroforestry
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We are not funding projects that:
- are not carried out by single SMEs
- are collaborative research and development (R&D) projects
- are not part of a company’s growth plan
- are unable to prove there is potential for return on investment and growth
- 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 crops or plants for medicinal or pharmaceutical use
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Innovate UK will hold an online webinar for potential applicants at 10.30am on Tuesday 25th July: click here to register for a place.
If you want help to find a project partner, contact Innovate UK KTN’s agri-food or investment teams as appropriate.