Deadline: May 18, 2022
Application is open for the Farming Futures R&D Fund: Climate-smart farming – EoI. This funding is part of Defra’s Farming Innovation Programme which is delivered in partnership with UKRI’s Transforming Food Production Challenge. This competition aims to fund industrial research studies developing ambitious new solutions to reducing farming emissions and adapting to a changing climate. These must address major on-farm or immediate post-farmgate challenges or opportunities.
Eligibility
If your application is successful in this EoI stage, you will be invited to apply for a full stage competition. In the full stage you must collaborate with other eligible grant claiming partners.
Your full stage project must:
- address the specific requirements of the Defra key priorities for reducing emissions and adapting to a changing climate
- start by 1 April 2023
- end by 31 March 2027
- last between 24 and 48 months
- have total eligible costs between £3 million and £6 million
- carry out all of its project work in the UK
- intend to exploit the results from or in England
- have a minimum of 50% of any grant awarded to farmers, growers or foresters, allocated to farmers, growers or foresters based in England
Benefits
Your solutions must address the priority areas identified by Defra for reducing emissions and adapting to a changing climate, and significantly improve:
- productivity
- sustainability and environmental impact
- progression towards net zero emissions
- resilience
You must reflect the societal impact of the proposed solution and include clear deliverables in measuring the specific emissions being addressed. You must demonstrate the impact and ability to manage the solution. Your project must be able to demonstrate how the project will benefit farmers, growers or foresters in England. Your project must focus on solutions to reduce emissions in existing agricultural practices or enhance resilience to climate change in one or more of the four industry subsectors:
- livestock
- plants
- novel food production systems
- bioeconomic and agroforestry
