Farming Innovation Programme - feasibility round 3
UK businesses can apply for a share of up to £4.5m for feasibility projects to benefit farmers, growers or foresters in England.
The Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (Defra), will invest up to £4.5 million in innovation projects. This funding is part of Defra’s Farming Innovation Programme which is delivered in partnership with Innovate UK’s Transforming Food Production (TFP) Challenge.
The aim of this funding competition is to fund feasibility studies investigating new solutions that will address major on-farm or immediate post farmgate challenges or opportunities. This will include projects that:
- investigate early-stage solutions that have the potential to substantially improve the overall productivity, sustainability and resilience of farming, and move existing agricultural sectors to net zero
- prioritise solutions that will have positive outputs for farmers, growers and foresters in commercially relevant situations
- accelerate research and development of new agricultural solutions by actively engaging collaboration with the 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.
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To lead a project your organisation must:
- be a UK registered business of any size
- collaborate with other UK registered organisations
To collaborate with the lead, your organisation must be a UK registered:
- business of any size
- academic institution
- charity
- not for profit
- public sector organisation
- research and technology organisation (RTO)
A business can only lead on one application but can be included as a collaborator in a further 2 applications.
If a business (or other organisation) is not leading any application, it can collaborate in any number of applications.
Subcontractors are allowed in this competition.
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Your project must:
- have total costs between £200,000 and £500,000
- start by 1 May 2024
- end by 30 April 2026
- last between 12 months and 24 months
- carry out all of its project work in the UK
- intend to exploit the results from or in the UK
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 fund feasibility studies investigating new solutions that will address major on-farm or immediate post farmgate challenges or opportunities.
Your solutions must significantly improve:
- productivity
- sustainability and 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 four industry subsectors below:
- farmed animals
- plants
- novel food production systems
- bioeconomy and agroforestry
We are not funding projects that:
- 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 expression of proteins or cultivated meat or acellular production systems
- are for the production of crops or plants for medicinal or pharmaceutical use
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An online briefing event was held on 2nd August: click here to view the recording.
Innovate UK KTN will hold an online Q&A and consortium building session on Monday 20th August, 10am-noon: click here to register for a place.
Join Innovate UK KTN’s Farming Innovation Programme: Finding Information and Partners Group on LinkedIn here.
If you would like additional help in finding a partner, contact our Agrifood team.