Farming Innovation Pathways (FIP) – industrial research

The aim of this competition is to support the development of novel innovations to develop and support a productive, resilient, and sustainable agricultural sector. This funding is from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra).

This development is achieved through the investment of up to £7 million in industrial research in the agricultural sector.

Your project must address one or more high priority areas in at least one of these four industry subsectors:

• Livestock.
• Plant.
• Novel food production systems.
• Bioeconomy and agroforestry.

Your proposal must engage with farmers, growers or producers to develop farm-focused solutions. These solutions must solve the short to long-term challenges of productivity, sustainability, and net zero emissions.

This competition is split into 2 strands:

• feasibility studies
• industrial research (this competition)

Funding for this competition is from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs’ Future Farming and Countryside Programme. Your project can be based anywhere in the UK but must generate benefits to the English farming sector.

This competition is for collaborative industrial research only.

Your proposal should focus on the development of technologies, systems or approaches that will make significant steps towards improving productivity, increasing sustainability and resilience. It must:

• demonstrate or deliver outcomes or benefits for farmers
• help the agriculture sector to move towards achieving net zero emissions by 2040

We expect your project to have clear links to farmers, growers, agri-businesses, and other potential end users. Your proposal must show that you have considered the appropriate business models and routes to adoption and have sought the relevant expertise to enable this.

You must address problems identified by farmer and industry needs so that your innovative solution can be integrated into the sector with the potential to be widely adopted.

Your project must:

• have total eligible costs between £250,000 and £750,000
• start by 1 October 2021
• last up from 18 to 24 months

Lead organisation

To lead a project your organisation must:

• be a UK registered business of any size
• collaborate with other UK registered businesses, research organisations or RTOs
• carry out its project work in the UK
• intend to exploit the results from or in the UK

3 March 2021: Applicant briefing event: register to join

11 March 2021: KTN consortium building event: register to join

If you want help to find a project partner, contact KTN’s Agrifood team.