Innovate UK: Funding Opportunities

Innovate UK is inviting businesses to apply for a share of £15 million to support a range of innovative projects across food production, health and biosciences. A growing, ageing and increasingly wealthy global population is placing more and more demand on health services and on food production. This is creating new opportunities for UK businesses to develop new medicines and therapies and for improved food production.

The competition will support projects in the following areas, increasing yield, quality and sustainability in agriculture and food production; supporting advanced therapies (cell and gene therapies), precision medicine or pre-clinical technologies; developing bioscience techniques and capabilities that have the potential to improve healthcare and/or agriculture and food production in the future.

The competition opens on 6 February 2017 and the deadline for registration is at midday on 5 April 2017. Projects should usually be led by a business and include at least one SME, although research and technology organisations may lead in certain circumstances. The competition will support a range of small and large projects, from feasibility studies to experimental development, with projects expected to range in size from £50,000 to £2 million and to last from 6 months to 3 years. Businesses could attract up to 70% of their project costs. Further details from www.gov.uk/government/organisations/innovate-uk