Funding Competition: Agri-tech and Food Technology, Eastern England (Round 2 CR&D) – UK

Innovate UK, part of UK Research and Innovation, will work with Norfolk County Council, Suffolk County Council, Greater Lincolnshire LEP and the Greater Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined Authority to invest up to £4.5 million in innovation projects.

This funding is from Innovate UK’s Launchpad programme. The Launchpad programme supports the UK government’s goals in the Levelling Up White Paper.

The funding will support projects across two Launchpad competition strands that target the innovation cluster in Eastern England.

The businesses will use the funding to grow their innovation activities in the agri-tech and food technology cluster in Eastern England, both during and after the project.

Specific Themes

Your project can focus on one or more of the following:

• enhancing the productivity of primary crops, livestock, aquaculture or ornamental crops
• biotechnologies related to agriculture, aquaculture, food processing and nutrition
• food that promotes safe, lower carbon or more sustainable healthy and nutritious diets
• resource efficient production and processing methods for low emission foods

Project Size

• Your project’s total grant funding request must be between £150,000 and £300,000.

Projects they will not fund

They are not funding projects that:

• do not meet the competition eligibility or scope requirements
• are aimed solely at equine markets
• involve wild caught fisheries
• involve primary production in fishery and aquaculture, or in agriculture; meaning the project must be undertaking research and development, the solution must be for exploitation by the wider business community and the funding cannot be used for capital asset acquisition
• have activities relating to the purchase of road freight transport
• do not evidence value for money

Who can apply?

• Your project
  • Your project must:
    • last between 6 and 18 months
    • carry out all of its project work in the UK
    • intend to exploit the results from or in the UK
    • start between 1 November 2024 and 1 April 2025
    • end by 30 September 2026
  • Under current restrictions, this competition will not fund any procurement, commercial, business development or supply chain activity with any Russian or Belarusian entity as lead, partner or subcontractor. This includes any goods or services originating from a Russian or Belarusian source.
• Lead organisation
  • To lead a project your organisation must:
    • be a UK registered business of any size
    • be or involve at least one grant claiming micro, small or medium-sized enterprise (SME)
    • collaborate with other UK registered organisations
    • be growing your innovation activities in the agri-tech and food technology cluster in Eastern England
    • have a demonstrable ambition for business growth
• Project team
  • To collaborate with the lead, your organisation must be one of the following UK registered:
    • business of any size
    • academic institution
    • charity
    • not for profit
    • public sector organisation
    • research and technology organisation (RTO)
• Non-funded partners
  • Your project can include partners that do not receive any of this competition’s funding, for example non-UK businesses. Their costs will count towards the total project costs.
• 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.
  • All subcontractor costs must be justified and appropriate to the total project costs.
• Number of applications
  • A business can only lead on one CR&D application but can be included as a collaborator in any number of applications. Any subsequent applications submitted with the same project lead will be ineligible and will not be forwarded for assessment.
  • If an organisation is not leading any application, it can collaborate in any number of applications.

For more information, visit Innovate UK.