Call for Applications: Defra Farming Innovation Investor Partnership (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.

Specific Themes

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

Funding Information

• Your project’s total costs must be between £750,000 and £3 million.
• The Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (Defra) has allocated up to £5 million, working in partnership with UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) Transforming Food Production Challenge, to fund innovation projects in this competition. This competition is delivered by Innovate UK and funding will be in the form of a grant.
• If your organisation’s work on the project is commercial or economic, your funding request must not exceed the limits below. These limits apply even if your organisation normally acts non-economically but for the purpose of this project will be undertaking commercial or economic activity.
• For experimental development projects which are nearer to market, you could get funding for your eligible project costs of:
  • up to 45% if you are a micro or small organisation
  • up to 35% if you are a medium sized organisation.

Who can apply?

• Your project
  • 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.
  • Your project must:
    • 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
  • You must only include eligible project costs in your application.
  • Under current restrictions, this competition will not fund any procurement, commercial, business development or supply chain activity with any Russian and Belarusian entity as lead, partner or subcontractor. This includes any goods or services originating from a Russian and Belarusian source.
• Lead organisation
  • 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
  • Subcontractors are allowed in this competition.
  • Subcontractors can be from anywhere in the UK and you must select them through your usual procurement process.
  • You can use subcontractors from overseas but must make the case in your application as to why you could not use suppliers from the UK.
  • You must provide a detailed rationale, evidence of the potential UK contractors you approached and the reasons why they were unable to work with you. They will not accept a cheaper cost as a sufficient reason to use an overseas subcontractor.
  • All subcontractor costs must be justified and appropriate to the total project costs.
• Number of applications
  • A business can only lead on one application in this competition.

For more information, visit Innovate UK.