Growing Kent and Medway

Fund details

The competition focuses on:

• horticultural production including the production of novel, high-value compounds from plants
• fresh produce packaging
• food and drink processing and manufacturing

Your proposal must focus on innovative technology development and:

• design, develop, test and deploy a technology
• conduct a technical and economic assessment

Your proposal must demonstrate the potential to positively impact the economy of the Kent and Medway (K&M) area.

Your project must:

• provide solutions that tackle new or emerging needs
• demonstrate a realistic potential to support business growth, scale-up, and job creation
• deliver benefits to the region as well as further afield
• underpin a full commercial and operational technology deployment after September 2025, by delivering a meaningful operational demonstration in real-world conditions for at least two weeks before 30 November 2025
• achieve market potential through a clear strategy for commercialising the technology and the product

Specific themes

• moving towards net zero carbon emissions targets
• minimising waste and maximising recycling
• improving resource use efficiency and sustainability
• increasing productivity
• resilient food production, for example: supply chain resilience, nutritional security
• addressing current and future labour or skills shortages, supply or demand-driven, within the K&M agri-food sector

Eligibility

Your project must:

• have a total grant funding request between £50,000 and £150,000
• start from 1 May 2024
• end by 30 September 2025
• last up to 12 months
• carry out at least 60% of its project work in the Kent and Medway (K&M) area
• intend to exploit the results from or in the K&M area

The lead organisation may be based outside of the Kent and Medway (K&M) area but you must collaborate with at least one organisation in the K&M area.