The Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (Defra) will invest up to £20 million in innovation projects. This is subject to a sufficient number of high quality applications being received. This funding is part of Defra's Farming Innovation Programme which is delivered in partnership with Innovate UK. The aim of this competition is to fund collaborative projects with ambitious solutions for robotics and automation in agriculture, horticulture and forestry to: address key issues affecting the sector, where automation and robotics can mitigate challenges such as productivity, resource use efficiency, food quality and traceability, waste, crop and animal health, animal welfare and sustainability reduce the reliance on seasonal labour in agriculture where automation and robotics are seen as the most viable solution support the specific recommendations for automation innovation funding from Defra reviews including the Automation in Horticulture review align with the Government's Modern Industrial Strategy that identifies Agri-Tech as a Frontier Industry within the Advanced Manufacturing sector plan Your proposal must be able to demonstrate how the project will benefit farmers or growers in England. In applying to this competition, you are entering into a competitive process. This competition has a funding limit, so we may not be able to fund all the proposed projects. It may be the case that your project scores highly but we are still unable to fund it. Our experience from similar competitions suggests that you could have 35% chance of success. We consider a range of factors when determining whether to provide funding to applicants. This includes an assessment of prior conduct, such as any outstanding payments owed to Innovate UK or UKRI. Such factors may influence the funding decision, potentially resulting in a refusal of funding or an award subject to additional scrutiny. We also reserve the right to adjust funding allocations for any of our competitions. This may be in response to changes in policy, portfolio funding considerations or broader government funding decisions. This competition closes at 11am UK time on the deadline stated in this Innovate UK competition brief . We cannot guarantee other government or third party sites will always show the correct competition information.
