As outlined in the Chancellor’s announcement, we have secured a budget of £2.4 billion for the next financial year. This means we can maintain the momentum of our environmental land management (ELM) schemes, which will rise to the highest funding levels ever by 2025/26.
I’m pleased to say that the Small R&D Partnership Projects competition is now open. Through this competition, we want to enable UK-based businesses to collaboratively develop solutions which improve productivity, sustainability, resilience in farming and realise our net zero ambitions.
We've made some minor changes to the SFI Handbook for the 2023 offer and provided voluntary guidance on how you could do the SFI actions in response to feedback from farmers. In this post, we’ll share an overview and links.
This month, we will open another round of the Small R&D Partnership Projects competition and, in September, another round of the Feasibility Studies competition will follow. In this post, I’ll give you a brief overview of the competitions. I'll also include links to guidance, share details of upcoming webinars and include dates to note.
In this post, we share the next steps of the Animal Health and Welfare Pathway. Through the first round of the Animal Health and Welfare Equipment and Technology grant, over £19 million will be awarded to more than 3,000 pig, cattle, poultry and sheep farmers. A new Animal Health and Welfare Infrastructure grant is also on the way: the Calf Housing for Health and Welfare grant.
We are pleased to say that applications are now open for the £5 million Farming Innovation Investor Partnership competition with Innovate UK. The application window will remain open for 6 weeks until 30 August and there is a briefing session for potential applicants on 25 July. In this post we will give you a recap on the competition and how to apply for funding.
In March, we took another step forward on the Animal Health and Welfare Pathway by launching the first round of the Animal Health and Welfare Equipment and Technology Grant. In this post, we'd like to invite you to help us shape the next round.
In this film, farmers from the Aqualate Mere catchment share their experiences of taking part in Tests and Trials. This test created a land management plan and worked to set priorities for the catchment, incorporating biodiversity, water quality and carbon sequestration.
The window for applications for Countryside Stewardship Higher Tier closed in April. Mid Tier and Wildlife Offer agreements are still open for applications until 18 August 2023. A number of 3-year capital grants are also open to help achieve specific environmental benefits, including a new Higher Tier Capital grant, woodland tree heath grants and Woodland Management Plans. In this post, we’ll set out the process for assessing applications and provide an update on the number of applications being taken forward.
In this film, farming facilitator Danny Teasdale took us to Strickley Farm in Cumbria, to meet dairy farmer James Robinson. Danny and James show us a piece of farmland that has always been unproductive and prone to flooding. James and Danny explain how they re-meandered the stream through the flooded area to create a natural habitat for wildlife that can also be used for grazing livestock.
From 24 July, agri-tech businesses in the UK will be able to apply for a share of £5 million to further their enterprise through the Farming Innovation Investor Partnership competition. The competition documents are available to read now.
On 27 and 28 November, you can come and put your questions to us at the CropTec in Stoneleigh.
Find us at these shows and conferences.
