Deadline: 24 October 2018

Applications are open for the “Productive and sustainable crop and ruminant agricultural systems” to improve productivity and sustainability across UK crop and ruminant production systems.

UK Research and Innovation, through the Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund, will invest up to £20 million in innovation projects. These must improve productivity and sustainability by developing enhanced decisions support, precision agriculture technology solutions and systems for crop and ruminant agriculture. Projects can include:

• combining digital technologies and engineering solutions with biological, environmental and/or social science
• developing technologies and solutions that connect farms and supply chains
• transferring technology from another sector into agriculture, providing this requires

Themes

Project must fall into one of the following themes:

• driving productivity and improved environmental outcomes in crop and ruminant production systems
• developing new, highly efficient, high-value production systems that maximise productivity and improve environmental performance.
• innovation

Funding Information

UK Research and Innovation has allocated up to £20 million to fund innovation projects in this competition. The aim is to allocate:

• £10 million to productivity solutions
• £10 million to supply chain solutions

Eligibility Criteria

• To be eligible for funding applicants must:
  • be a UK based business, academic organisation, charity, public sector organisation or research and technology organisation (RTO)
  • carry out their project work in the UK
  • exploit the results of their project anywhere in the world.
• Collaborations must include at least one SME.
• Single applicants must claim funding. If the project is collaborative, the lead and at least one other organisation must claim funding.
• All the research organisations on their project combined cannot claim more than 30% of total eligible project costs. This is in any capacity, whether they are contributing as collaborators or subcontractors. If applicant’s consortium contains more than one research organisation, this maximum will be shared between them.
• To lead a project yapplicants must:
  • be a UK based SME if their project costs are under £100,000
  • be a UK based business of any size if their project costs are over £100,000
  • involve at least one micro, small or medium-sized enterprise (SME)
• Any one business may lead on one application and collaborate in a further 2 applications. If a business is not leading an application, they can be a collaborator in up to 3 applications.
• An academic institution or RTO cannot lead on an application but can be a collaborator in any number of applications.
• Projects may include partners that do not receive any funding (for example, non-UK businesses). Their costs will count towards the total project costs but they will not count as collaborators.

How to Apply

Interested applicants can apply online via given website.

For more information, please visit Productive and Sustainable Crop.