Farming Innovation Programme – feasibility round 3

Fund details

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.

Innovate UK want to fund various projects across markets, strand, theme, and research categories (a portfolio approach).

Specific themes

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

Innovate UK will not fund 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

Eligibility

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

Projects must always start on the first of the month, which must be stated within your application. Your project start date will be reflected in your grant offer letter if you are successful.

Funding 

The Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (Defra) has allocated up to £4.5 million, working in partnership with Innovate UK Transforming Food Production Challenge. Funding will be in the form of a grant.

For this competition, if any grant is requested by farmers, growers or foresters in your application, a minimum of 50% of that amount must be allocated to farmers, growers or foresters geographically based in England.

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.

For a feasibility study project, you could get funding for your eligible project costs of:

• up to 70% if you are a micro or small organisation
• up to 60% if you are a medium-sized organisation
• up to 50% if you are a large organisation