Funding Competition: Farming Futures – Nutrient Management Phase 1 Feasibility (UK)

The Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (Defra) will invest up to £15 million in innovation projects.

This funding is part of Defra’s Farming Innovation Programme, which is a partnership with and delivered by Innovate UK.

The aim of this competition is to fund collaborative development projects with ambitious solutions to address the challenges related to nutrient management in soils and water associated with agricultural livestock and crop production. The solutions provided will enable sustainable and resilient farming.

Nutrient management involves using nutrients, both organic and manufactured, as efficiently as possible to maximise plant uptake, crop growth and yield. It also includes applying nutrients where and when they can be best utilised by plants, thereby combating run-off and soil erosion. Good nutrient management should increase productivity whilst protecting the environment by minimising nutrient loss.

Projects must develop ambitious new solutions that:

• improve soil and water based nitrogen and phosphate nutrient management
• provide a positive impact on air quality and greenhouse gas emissions
• are applicable to manage nutrients from farm crop waste, from farm animal waste, or from commercial chemical and artificial fertilisers
• consider industrial and domestic wastes that are already used in agriculture, but the focus is on farm wastes (new waste streams are not included)
• lead to improvement of ground and river water quality
• reduce nitrogen, phosphate and sediment run-off and pollution

Specific Themes

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

• Livestock
  • monogastric
  • ruminant
• Plant
  • broadacre: cereals, root crops, grassland
  • horticulture: field based and specialist growers
  • fruit: top fruit, stone fruit and soft fruit
  • vineyard
  • protected cropping: glass and polytunnel systems
  • controlled environment and vertical farming systems
• Your project could focus on technologies including, but not limited to the following:
  • automation and machines
  • sensing devices and analysis systems to manage and control a wider process
  • animal and plant breeding including precision breeding of plants
  • soil, water or air treatments
  • waste treatment processes
  • storage methods or treatment of farm waste to enable efficient transport to other regions
  • artificial fertilisers and application methods
  • processes to extract specific nutrients
  • processes to turn farm waste into useful materials
  • processes to turn farm waste to energy

Project Size

• Your project’s total costs must be between £200,000 and £500,000.

Who can apply?

• Your project
  • Your project must:
    • start by 1 January 2025
    • end by 31 December 2025 for 12 month duration projects
    • end by 31 December 2026 for 24 month duration projects
    • last between 12 and 24 months
    • be able to demonstrate how the project will benefit farmers or growers in England
    • carry out all of its project work in the UK
    • intend to exploit the results from or in the UK
  • Projects must always start on the first of the month and this must be stated within your application. Your project start date will be reflected in your grant offer letter if you are successful.
• Lead organisation
  • To lead a project your organisation must:
    • be a UK registered business of any size
    • be a UK registered academic institution
    • be a UK registered research and technology organisation (RTO)
    • collaborate with other UK registered organisations
• 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)
  • Each partner organisation must be invited into the Innovation Funding Service (IFS) by the lead to collaborate on a project.
• Non-funded partners
  • Your project can include partners that do not receive any of this competition’s funding, for example non-UK businesses.
• 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.

For more information, visit Innovate UK.