Agri-tech and food technology, Eastern England – Round 3 CR&D

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

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)

A business can only lead on one application but can be included as a collaborator in any number of applications. If an organisation is not leading any application, it can collaborate in any number of applications.

If you apply to the Minimal Financial Assistance strand of this competition, as well as this CR&D strand, each project must be clearly distinctive and separate. We will monitor closely for this separation if you are awarded funding in both competition strands.

Your project must:

• have a grant funding request of between £150,000 and £300,000
• 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
• help to grow your innovation activities during and after the project in the innovation cluster described in the Scope section
• not start before 1 April 2025
• end by 31 December 2026

The aim of this competition is to support outstanding innovation projects led by businesses. Your business must be growing your innovation activities in the agri-tech and food technology cluster in Eastern England.

Your project must contribute to growing your innovation activities in the cluster, both during and after the project. Your application may be considered ineligible if you do not describe this clearly. If you do not describe how your activities in the cluster will continue after your project then you are unlikely to be offered funding in this competition.

For this competition, Eastern England consists of the Greater Lincolnshire Local Enterprise Partnership area, Cambridgeshire, Peterborough, Norfolk and Suffolk. The geographical requirement is set to align this competition to the UK Government’s goals for local economic growth.

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

This list is not exhaustive. Where you can show your proposal fits within the scope of this competition you can focus on other themes.

We 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

Innovate UK expects and supports the provision and safeguarding of welfare standards for animals used in research and innovation, according to best practice and up to date guidance.

Applicants must ensure that all of the proposed work within projects, both that in the UK and internationally, will comply with the UKRI guidance on the use of animals in research and innovation.

Any projects selected for funding which involve animals will be asked to provide additional information on welfare and ethical considerations, as well as compliance with any relevant legislation as part of the project start-up process. This information will be reviewed before an award is made.

An online briefing event will be held at 2pm on Thursday 3 October: click here to register for a place.

Briefing slides will be available to download from supporting information after the event.

If you would like advice on which strand to apply for, would like help in finding a collaboration partner, or have queries about the competition generally, contact Innovate UK Business Connect’s Agrifood team.