Innovate UK, part of UK Research and Innovation, will work with Digital Dairy Chain for Cumbria, South and West Scotland, led by Scotland’s Rural College (SRUC). They will invest up to £2 million in innovation projects.

These projects will stimulate an uplift in the region’s economy through inclusive and innovation led growth.

The aim of this competition is to support business focussed innovation in Cumbria, South and West Scotland. This is to support the transition to net zero and deliver improved productivity and sustainability in advanced and high value dairy production and manufacturing. Your project should focus on one or more of the following:

• novel and high value products from dairy systems
• decarbonising dairy production and manufacturing
• waste minimisation and resource recirculation
• reduced environmental impact and increased sustainability, for example biodiversity, soil, air and water quality
• sensor development and digitisation to improve productivity, welfare of staff and animals and product quality, including nutritional characteristics
• value addition in the dairy supply chain

In applying to this competition, you are entering into a competitive process. This competition closes at 11am UK time on the deadline stated.

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Eligibility

Any awards given to primary agricultural producers are subject to the green box exemption under the World Trade Organisation (WTO) Agreement on Agriculture. Please see further guidance on green box subsidies here WTO Guidance for support in Agriculture.

Applicants receiving this type of support must ensure that there is minimal to no distortion of trade and comply with the requirements of Annex 2 of the Agriculture Agreement.

Your project

Your project must:

• have a total grant funding request between £50,000 and £350,000
• start from 1 October 2023
• end by 31 December 2025
• last between 6 and 24 months
• carry out at least 75% of its project work in Cumbria, South or West Scotland
• intend to exploit the results in Cumbria, South or West Scotland

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.

If your project’s grant funding request or duration falls outside of our eligibility criteria, you must provide justification by email to support@iuk.ukri.org at least 10 working days before the competition closes. We will decide whether to approve your request.

If you have not requested approval or your application has not been approved by us, you will be made ineligible. Your application will then not be sent for assessment.

Lead organisation

To lead a project your organisation must:

• be either a UK registered business of any size or a UK farming business of any size
• be able to evidence that you are an established business, including sole traders and partnerships
• have a UK bank account
• be based in Cumbria, South or West Scotland or carry out significant economic activity in that region
• collaborate with other UK registered organisations

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

Academic institutions and research and technology organisations (RTOs) cannot lead a project.

Project team

To collaborate with the lead, your organisation must be a UK based farmer or one of the following UK registered:

• business of any size
• academic institution
• charity
• not for profit
• public sector organisation
• research and technology organisation (RTO)

Each partner organisation must be invited into the Innovation Funding Service by the lead to collaborate on a project. Once accepted, partners will be asked to login or to create an account and enter their own project costs into the Innovation Funding Service.

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

Collaborations with Digital Dairy Chain research organisations are encouraged. These organisations are:

• Scotland’s Rural College (SRUC)
• University of Strathclyde
• University of the West of Scotland
• CENSIS, part of the University of Glasgow

Non-funded partners

Your project can include partners that do not receive any of this competition’s funding. Their costs will count towards the total project costs.

Subcontractors

Subcontractors are allowed in this competition.

Subcontractors can be from anywhere in the UK and you must select them through your usual procurement process.

You can use subcontractors from outside Cumbria, South or West Scotland but you must make the case in your application as to why you could not use suppliers from the specified region.

You must provide a detailed rationale and provide evidence of the potential UK subcontractors you approached and the reasons why they were unable to work with you. We will not accept a cheaper cost as a sufficient reason to use a subcontractor from outside the regions specified.

All subcontractor costs must be justified and appropriate to the total project costs.

Number of applications

A business can only lead on two applications within this competition but can be included as a collaborator in a further two applications.

If a business is not leading any application it can collaborate on any number of applications within this competition.

Research organisations, charities, not for profit, public sector organisations and research and technology organisations (RTOs) can collaborate on any number of applications.

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