Novel low-emission food production systems: Investor Partnership

Innovate UK, as part of UK Research and Innovation, will invest up to £3 million to fund innovation projects in this competition. We will be working with a selected pool of investor partners, who have demonstrated that they have the credibility, capability, capacity, and appetite to invest in innovative, technology-led businesses. The Novel Low Emission Food Production systems competition is part of Innovate UK’s funding support for growing the future economy, as outlined in Innovate UK’s Plan for Action.

The aim of this competition is to support UK registered micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to develop novel food production systems. These will be to create new sources of resource efficient, low-emission foods, particularly proteins, while delivering healthy and sustainable diets. Your project must progress emerging novel food production systems towards commercial viability with the ability to supply mainstream consumer markets.

This competition opens Monday 8th May 2023, and closes 11am on Wednesday 5th July 2023.

Your proposal must:

• have the potential to significantly shift the current state of the art in at least one of seven priority areas (plant based products or production systems; acellular food production; cellular food production; novel aquaculture systems; new food production systems; Total Controlled Environment Agriculture (TCEA) systems; improvements to semi-controlled environment production systems such as glasshouses or polytunnels)
• leverage UK strengths and expertise to create new production systems and technologies

To be offered grant funding your project must:

• be assessed as eligible for grant funding
• have secured aligned investment with a lead investor from the pool

You can apply for this competition before you speak to an investor but initiating dialogue with investors is encouraged. In addition to investment, the lead investors in the pool can provide you with commercial acumen in, for example:

• leadership
• market access
• skills
• resources

Successful UK registered SME’s will receive:

• grant funding from Innovate UK
• aligned investment funding with one of the programme’s pool of investors acting as the lead investor

In applying to this competition, you are entering into a competitive process. Full information can be found here.