Applications are now open for the Farming Innovation Pathways (FIP) – Feasibility Studies programme to support the development of novel innovations to develop and support a productive, resilient, and sustainable agricultural sector.

This funding is delivered through the ISCF Transforming Food Production programme, in partnership with the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra).

Priority Areas

Applicants’ 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

Project Size

Applicants’ project must:

• have total eligible costs between £75,000 and £250,000
• start by 1 October 2021
• last between 12 and 18 months

Funding Information

• The programme have allocated up to £5 million to fund innovation projects in this feasibility studies competition.

Eligibility Criteria

• Funding for this competition is from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs’ Future Farming and Countryside Programme. Applicants project can be based anywhere in the UK but must generate benefits to the English farming sector.
• This competition is for collaborative feasibility studies only.
• Proposal should focus on the early-stage 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
• The programme expects project to have clear links to farmers, growers, agri-businesses, and other potential end users.
• Applicants must address problems identified by farmer and industry needs so that their innovative solution can be integrated into the sector with the potential to be widely adopted.
• Any awards given to primary agricultural producers are subject to the green box exemption under the WTO Agreement on Agriculture.
• Lead organisation:
  • To lead a project applicants’ organisation must:
  • be a UK registered business of any size, academic institution, research organisation or a research and technology organisation (RTO)
  • 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
  • Research organisation led projects must collaborate with at least one business.
• Project team:
  • To collaborate with the lead, applicants’ organisation must:
  • be a UK registered business, academic institution, research organisation or research and technology organisation (RTO)
  • carry out its project work in the UK
  • intend to exploit the results from or in the UK
• Subcontractors:
  • Subcontractors are allowed in this competition and must be selected through a participant’s normal procurement process. Subcontractors can be from anywhere in the UK. If an overseas subcontractor is selected, a case must be made as to why no UK-based subcontractor can be used including a detailed rationale, evidence of UK companies that have been approached and reasons why they were unable to do so.
• Number of applications:
  • When a business, leads on an application it can collaborate in a further 2 applications across both competition strands.
  • If a business is not leading any application, it can collaborate in up to 3 applications across both competition strands.
  • An academic institution, research organisation or RTO can collaborate on any number of applications across both competition strands.

For more information, visit GOV.UK.