In this round of the African agriculture strand of the Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) Innovate UK is investing up to £2 million towards the funding of projects.

The African agriculture strand of the Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) scheme supports a partnership between:

• a UK registered higher education or further education institution, research and technology organisation (RTO) or Catapult (which we will refer to as the ‘UK knowledge base’)
• an African business or not for profit organisation (which we will refer to collectively as the ‘business partner’)
• a knowledge base in Africa (which we will refer to as the ‘African knowledge base’)

The business and African knowledge base must both be based in one of the following countries:

• Republic of Ghana
• Federal Republic of Nigeria
• Republic of Kenya
• Republic of South Africa

The partnership will bring new skills and the latest academic thinking into the business partner to deliver a specific, strategic innovation project. Your project must be in one of the following areas:

• primary crop and livestock production, including aquaculture
• non-food uses of crops, excluding ornamentals
• challenges in food processing, distribution or storage, and value addition (such as through a change in the physical state or form of the product)
• improving the availability and accessibility of safe, healthy and nutritious foods

The knowledge base partners will recruit 1 or 2 graduates (known as ‘associates’) to work on the project.

Each application must be led by a UK registered knowledge base, working with an African business partner and African knowledge base. If you are from a knowledge base that has not yet developed a project, get started by reading the KTP guidance.

If you are from an African business, read the guidance then contact the Knowledge Transfer Network or a knowledge base.

Eligibility

This award is provided on a No subsidy basis. This means the knowledge base partner must publish or make all project outputs openly available on a non-selective basis. If the business partner decides to commercially exploit the project outputs, it can only do so with no selective advantage. Your project must start after 6 April 2023.

Each African agriculture KTP is a partnership between the following:

• a UK registered higher education or further education institution, research and technology organisation (RTO) or Catapult (which we will refer to as the ‘UK knowledge base’)
• an African business or not for profit organisation (which we will refer to collectively as the ‘business partner’)
• a knowledge base in Africa (which we will refer to as the ‘African knowledge base’)

The business and African knowledge base must both be based in one of the following countries:

• Republic of Ghana
• Federal Republic of Nigeria
• Republic of Kenya
• Republic of South Africa

Typically projects last 15 months, depending on the project requirements.

KTP does not support projects where the business partner is in the public sector.

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.

UK knowledge base partner

Each application must be created by a UK knowledge base, with the help of a knowledge transfer adviser.

The UK knowledge base must lead the project and must:

• be a UK registered higher education (HE) or further education (FE) institution, RTO or Catapult
• invite one business or not for profit organisation from Republic of Ghana, Federal Republic of Nigeria, Republic of Kenya or Republic of South Africa to join the application and collaborate with them on the development of the project
• invite one African knowledge base from the same African country as the business partner to join the application and collaborate with them on the development of the project
• invite one knowledge transfer adviser to join the application
• not act in any way to gain selective commercial or economic advantage from the outputs of the project
• allow associates to carry out the majority of the project at the business partner’s premises
• make sure the application is completed and submitted before the competition closes

African Business partner

African Business partners can work with knowledge bases of their choice, one from the UK and one from their own country. We encourage business partners to approach knowledge bases directly.

To collaborate with the knowledge bases, the business partner must:

• be a business, of any size, or a not for profit organisation registered in Republic of Ghana, Federal Republic of Nigeria, Republic of Kenya or Republic of South Africa
• have more than 2 employees
• demonstrate its ability to financially support its contribution to the project
• be invited by the UK knowledge base and complete its parts of the application
• provide business finance information for the past 3 years

We use the term ‘business partner’ for both businesses and not for profit organisations.

The definition KTP uses for ‘not for profit organisation’ includes social enterprises and charities.

The business partner must be invited into the Innovation Funding Service by the UK knowledge base partner to collaborate on a project. When the business partner accepts their invitation, they will need to:

• login or create an account
• provide estimates of their own project costs, which may be updated as part of the final reporting process

African knowledge base partner

The African knowledge base partner must be a registered higher education or further education institution from the same country as the African business partner.

The African knowledge base partner must be invited into the Innovation Funding Service by the UK knowledge base partner to collaborate on a project. When the African knowledge base partner accepts their invitation, they will need to:

• login or create an account
• provide estimates of their own project costs, which may be updated as part of the final reporting process

Joint commitment statement and exploitation plan

Both the UK and African knowledge base partners and the business partner must sign a joint commitment statement. The business partner’s registered name must be used for both the application and the joint commitment statement.

You must deliver an exploitation plan during your project. By completing all sections of the application form you will have completed your initial exploitation plan.

Subcontractors

Subcontractors are not allowed in this competition.