Launchpad: Agri-tech and food tech in Eastern England – R1 CR&D

Source: Gov.uk

UK registered organisations can apply for a share of up to £2 million for business led projects that grow activities in the agri-tech and food technology cluster in Eastern England. This funding is from Innovate UK.

Eligibility

This competition is open to collaborations only. You must be or involve at least one grant claiming micro, small or medium-sized enterprise (SME). be a UK registered business of any size be active or growing your work activities in the agri-tech and food technology innovation cluster in Eastern England have a demonstrable ambition for business growth

Open now
Opens: 23 October 2023
Closes: 6 December 2023

Description

Innovate UK, part of UK Research and Innovation, is to invest up to £2 million in innovation projects.
The funding will support projects across the three Launchpad competition strands that target the innovation cluster in Eastern England. The aim of this competition is to support outstanding innovation projects led by businesses. Your business must be active or growing work activities in the agri-tech and food technology innovation cluster in Eastern England.
Eastern England is defined as the Greater Lincolnshire Local Enterprise Partnership area, Cambridgeshire, Peterborough, Norfolk and Suffolk.
This Launchpad competition supports the Government’s goals in the Levelling Up White Paper.
The projects will contribute to Eastern England’s innovation ambitions for the agrifood cluster.
Your proposal must align to the scope criteria for this competition.

This competition is split into three strands:

Launchpad: Agri-tech and food technology, Eastern England – Round 1 Collaborative Research and Development (CR&D) (this strand)
Launchpad: Agri-tech and food technology, Eastern England – Round 1 Minimal Financial Assistance (MFA)
Launchpad: Eastern England, Cluster Management

It is your responsibility to ensure you submit your application to the correct strand for your project. You will not be able to transfer your application and it will not be sent for assessment if it is out of scope.
In applying to this competition, you are entering into a competitive process. This competition closes at 11am UK time on the deadline stated.

Project size

Your project’s total grant funding request must be between £150,000 and £300,000.

Who can apply

Your project must:

have a total grant funding request of between £150,000 and £300,000
last between 6 and 18 months
intend to exploit the results from or in the UK
start at the earliest on 1 April 2024
end by 31 March 2026

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

You must only include eligible project costs in your application.

Under current restrictions, this competition will not fund any procurement, commercial, business development or supply chain activity with any Russian or Belarusian entity as lead, partner or subcontractor. This includes any goods or services originating from a Russian or Belarusian source.

Lead organisation

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 active or growing your work activities in the agri-tech and food technology innovation cluster in Eastern England
have a demonstrable ambition for business growth

More information on the different types of organisation can be found in our Funding rules.

Academic institutions cannot lead or work alone.
Project team
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)

The contribution of project partners must add to the innovation led growth of the cluster.

Each partner organisation must be invited into the Innovation Funding Service by the lead to collaborate on a project. Once partners have accepted the invitation, they will be asked to login or to create an account in the Innovation Funding Service. They are responsible for entering their own project costs and completing their Project Impact questions in the application.

To be an eligible collaboration, the lead and at least one other organisation must apply for funding when entering their costs into the application.

Non-funded partners
Your project can include partners that do not receive any of this competition’s funding, for example non-UK businesses. Their costs will count towards the total project costs.

Subcontractors
Subcontractors are allowed in this competition. Their contribution must add to the innovation led growth of the cluster.
Subcontractors can be from anywhere in the UK and you must select them through your usual procurement process.
All subcontractor costs must be justified and appropriate to the total project costs.
Number of applications
A business can lead on only one CR&D strand application for this competition, 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 MFA 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.

Previous applications

You can use a previously submitted application to apply for this competition.
We will not award you funding if you have:

failed to exploit a previously funded project
an overdue independent accountant’s report
failed to comply with grant terms and conditions

Subsidy control (and State aid where applicable)

This competition provides funding in line with the Subsidy Control Act 2022. Further information about the Subsidy requirements can be found within the Subsidy Control Act 2022 (legislation.gov.uk).
Innovate UK is unable to award organisations that are considered to be in financial difficulty. We will conduct financial viability and eligibility tests to confirm this is not the case following the application stage.

EU State aid rules now only apply in limited circumstances. Please see our general guidance to check if these rules apply to your organisation.
Further Information

If you are unsure about your obligations under the Subsidy Control Act 2022 or the State aid rules, you should take independent legal advice. We are unable to advise on individual eligibility or legal obligations.

You must always make sure that the funding awarded to you is compliant with all current Subsidy Control legislation applicable in the United Kingdom.
This aims to regulate any advantage granted by a public sector body which threatens to, or actually distorts competition in the United Kingdom or any other country or countries.

Funding

Up to £2 million has been allocated to fund innovation projects across the three strands of this Launchpad competition for the agri-tech and food technology innovation cluster in Eastern England.
The total funding available for this Launchpad competition can change. The funders have the right to:

adjust the funding allocations between all Launchpad competitions and strands
apply a ‘portfolio’ approach

Funding will be in the form of a grant.
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 but for the purpose of this project will be undertaking commercial or economic activity.

For industrial research projects, 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

For experimental development projects which are nearer to market, you could get funding for your eligible project costs of:

up to 45% if you are a micro or small organisation
up to 35% if you are a medium sized organisation
up to 25% if you are a large organisation

For more information on company sizes, please refer to the company accounts guidance.

If you are applying for an award funded under State aid Regulations, the definitions are set out in the European Commission Recommendation of 6 May 2003.

Research participation

The research organisations undertaking non-economic activity as part of the project can share up to 30% of the total eligible project costs. If your consortium contains more than one research organisation undertaking non-economic activity, this maximum is shared between them. Of that 30% you could get funding for your eligible project costs of up to:

80% of full economic costs (FEC) if you are a Je-S registered institution such as an academic
100% of your project costs if you are an RTO, charity, not for profit organisation, public sector organisation or research organisation