Scope

The aim of the Farming Innovation Pathways competition is to develop and support a productive, resilient, and sustainable agricultural sector. Novel solutions are needed to produce healthy food for consumption, where farms can be profitable and economically sustainable without subsidy.

Your project must engage with farmers, growers or producers to explore the potential of early-stage farm-focused solutions. These solutions must solve the short to long-term challenges of productivity, sustainability, and net zero emissions.

Your 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

To meet these challenges, your project must focus on innovative solutions that can be integrated into the sector with the potential to be taken up and widely adopted.

Your project must address at least one of the four industry subsectors:

• livestock (for example: beef, dairy, sheep, pigs, poultry)
• plant (for example: arable, horticulture, vegetable production)
• novel food production systems (insect production for feed, controlled environment agriculture)
• bioeconomy and agroforestry

Projects are expected to have clear links to farmers, growers, agri-businesses, and other potential end users. Proposals must show that you have considered the appropriate business models and routes to adoption and have sought the relevant expertise to enable this.