Farming Innovation Programme driving growth in agriculture industry

By Chris Wright, Partner and ARA specialist

The Government’s £270 million Farming Innovation Programme, which is run in partnership with UK Research and Innovation, is delivering exciting new projects that are driving growth in agriculture and horticulture.

Some of the research and development projects that will receive funding through the programme, include artificial intelligence (AI) software to optimise welfare in pig farms, agri-robots to help speed up vegetable harvests, and automation to increase fruit crop yields.

The Government claims that the £16.5 million of funding which supports the next rounds of the Feasibility Projects and Small R&D Partnership Project competitions due to open shortly, will help farmers and grower to increase food production, encourage sustainable practices and increase productivity.

Farmers, growers, foresters, businesses and researchers are being invited to collaborate and submit applications for two new competitions, which are a £5.5 million competition for Feasibility projects and the Small R&D partnership competition.

Those successful in applying for the Feasibility projects will receive grants for projects worth between £200,000 and £500,000 to support research and development through the testing phase of an idea to see if it is worth investing in further.

Meanwhile, winners of the Small R&D Partnership will receive a share of the £11 million grant funding for industrial research projects worth between £1 million and £3 million.

A spokeswoman for the Transforming Food Production Challenge said that the whole food system can benefit from new ideas, with knowledge-sharing and collaboration at its core.

There is a wide range of funding and grants available to the agriculture industry to support growth and investment. To find out how our Grant Funding services can help you find the finance you need, please speak to us.