Notice

Competition guidance: Agri-tech Catalyst Colombia

Published 20 March 2018

This notice was withdrawn on 28 September 2018

This competition is no longer open for applications. Search current funding opportunities.

1. Dates and deadlines

Competition opens	26 March 2018
Competition briefing event	5 April 2018
Final date for registration	Midday 18 July 2018
Submission of the full application including finance forms, appendices and Je-S forms	Midday 25 July 2018
Decision to applicants	7 September 2018

Please read the full competition scope before you make your application.

2. Funding

The Colombian Prosperity Fund Programme and Innovate UK will invest up to £3 million in innovation projects to address challenges facing the agriculture sector in post-conflict and conflict-affected regions of Colombia. UK business and academic consortia will work with Colombian partners. This competition aims to support inclusive growth in the Colombian and UK agri-tech sector through the development of innovative technologies, products and services.

Funding is available for both academic and business-led research and development to support:

• inclusive economic growth
• poverty reduction
• gender equality
• women’s economic empowerment

Funding through the Agri-tech Catalyst is available to UK and Colombian businesses of any size, as well as not for profit and research organisations. A research base partner is defined as a university, research institute, public sector organisation or research and technology organisation. Funding is also available to partners in Colombia for applications targeting relevant agriculture challenges.

2.1 Grant funding and award categories

Early stage awards

These projects will explore the commercial potential of an early-stage scientific idea through feasibility studies. Projects can:

• be business-led or research-led and last up to 18 months
• have total project costs from £150,000 to £500,000
• include total research base partner costs that do not exceed 50% of total project costs
• have business partner funding of up to 70% of their total project costs for micro- and small-sized companies, 60% for medium-sized companies or 50% for larger companies

Late-stage awards

These experimental development projects will evaluate or trial the commercial potential of an innovative concept in a real-life environment. They will be business-led projects that support UK companies working in collaboration with Colombian business partners. They will test and validate innovative concepts in a commercial environment to demonstrate their economic and technical feasibility ahead of large-scale deployment.

They can:

• last up to 18 months
• have total project costs from £200,000 to £800,000
• have business partner funding of up to 45% of their total project costs for micro and small companies, 35% for medium-sized companies or 25% for larger companies

UK and Colombian research partners may only participate as subcontractors to a business partner.

Please read our funding rules guidance for more information on the different categories of funding and the rules around our state aid framework.

All submitted applications will be checked for ODA compliance and gender equality by the Innovate UK Competition team. Read about ODA compliance and the Gender Equality Act (GEA).

If projects are deemed by Innovate UK to be non-compliant with ODA or GEA, Innovate UK reserves the right not to submit the application for assessment.

3. Requirements and eligibility

Due to the overseas nature of this funding, Innovate UK is imposing additional assurance requirements:

• successful UK applicants need to demonstrate to Innovate UK that they have proper, transparent arrangements for passing any grant monies to Colombian participants
• Innovate UK will carry out initial due diligence and final audit checks on Colombian participants
• successful UK applicants will need to provide Innovate UK with documented evidence that Colombian participants agree to these checks being carried out

Grant funding will be withdrawn if Innovate UK does not receive these additional assurances.

To lead a project you must:

• be a UK based business, not for profit or research organisation for early-stage awards
• be a UK based business for late-stage awards
• involve at least one micro, small or medium-sized enterprise (SME)
• involve at least one Colombian partner, from business, not for profit or research organisation

To be eligible for funding you must:

• be a UK or Colombia based business (of any size), academic organisation, charity, public sector organisation or research and technology organisation (RTO)
• work in collaboration with others (businesses, research base or third sector)
• carry out your project work in the UK, Colombia or both
• collaborate with a Colombian partner
• create an industry-focused application with a clear case for business benefit and alignment with the ODA criteria

The lead organisation must be from the UK and claim funding through this competition. At least one other organisation in the consortium must also claim funding.

Any one business or research organisation may lead on one application and partner in a further 2 applications. If a research organisation is:

• the lead on an application they must have 2 business collaborators (one SME, and one other business of any size)
• not the lead on any application, they can be a partner in any number of applications

UK Academics can lead an application only for the early-stage award category but can be a collaborator in any number of applications.

3.1 Applicants from the UK and Colombia

You may be eligible to receive different rates of funding. This depends on the type and size of your organisation and the activity that you are doing in the project. In your application form, please select the primary type of research that you will be doing in the project and calculate the amount of grant you want to claim. This should be in line with the Innovate UK funding rules.

Research organisations can contribute to projects as collaborators. The level of total research participation is set at a maximum of 50% of total eligible project costs for early stage awards. If your consortium contains more than one research organisation, this maximum will be shared between them. Only UK and Colombia based companies and research organisations are eligible to apply.

If an application is unsuccessful, you can use the feedback received to re-apply for the same project once more only. This can be into another round of this competition if funding is available.

Any one company can only be the lead partner in one application.

If you have been awarded previous grants as the lead or sole company, no new awards will be made if we feel that you have not made a substantial effort to exploit these previous grants. This is detailed in the exploitation section of the application for the previous grants.

The decision will:

• be decided by the sector team concerned using evidence from Monitoring Officer reports and other sources which will be documented
• be made by at least 3 sector team members collectively
• be communicated in writing to the company by the Innovation Lead dealing with the new grant application
• not be contestable, and Innovate UK will not enter into subsequent correspondence

4. Finding partners

Innovate UK and the KTN will undertake some activities to help UK organisations find partners and market information in Colombia. This will include the opportunity to visit Colombia on a funded mission, supported by the KTN. Areas to be visited will be decided based on the interest shown by participants.

26 March 2018	Applications open for partnering mission
5 April 2018	Briefing event for UK applicants
13 April 2018	Applications for partnering mission closes
Week commencing 14 May 2018	Partnering mission

5. Competition process

For this competition, Innovate UK will use a portfolio approach. This is to make sure that the strategic criteria described in the competition brief are met for all projects considered to be above the quality threshold. This will be as a result of independent expert assessment.

1. Submitted applications are reviewed to make sure that they are in scope for the competition.
2. Applications in scope are assessed by up to 5 external assessors who are experts in the area of innovation identified in your application.
3. Assessors score applications consistently and in line with scoring matrices, and provide written feedback for each marked question.
4. Applications are ranked in descending order. Applications are scored over a quality threshold which is reviewed against Innovate UK’s strategy, to build a portfolio of projects that:
   • are high quality
   • reflect a range as described in the scope of early-stage and late-stage awards that fit the funding available
   • target opportunities across a range of challenges relevant to the Colombian agriculture sector
   • demonstrate sufficient innovation, potential return on investment and degree of technical risk
   • demonstrate value for money, include the potential impact of the project relative to its cost, and the cost of other projects under consideration
5. The lead applicant will be notified of the funding decision.
6. All applications in scope for the competition will receive assessor feedback.

5.1 Assessment process

Each application is assessed by up to 5 independent expert assessors against the same gateway questions and criteria. Each assessor completes and submits a score-sheet with comments for each application they assess. A report is compiled to rank all applications by score. All applications are evaluated according to the standard assessment process, full details of which are available in the general guidance for applicants

6. How to apply

Before you apply into an Innovate UK competition, it is important to understand the whole application process. The information contained in this guidance is specific to this competition. In addition, please read our general guidance for applicants to help you submit a good application. It will give generalised information on:

• funding rules
• project costs
• state aid
• how to submit your application
• categories of research and development
• participation in a project

6.1 Multiple project applications

If you wish to apply for funding for more than one project as part of this competition, you must register once by emailing an additional registration request to support@innovateuk.gov.uk. You will then be able to make separate submissions by completing an application form for each project. Make sure you upload each application form under the correct application number.

6.2 Applicants

You will receive an email acknowledgement of your registration followed by a second email up to 48 hours later. The second email will contain a username and password for our secure upload facility along with a unique application number and form.

Application: Once you have received your unique username and password, you can sign into the secure website to access the finance forms for this competition.

Finance form: only finance forms named ’Project Finance Form.xls’ are accepted into this competition. Previous versions of the project finance form will be ineligible. When you register for the competition you will have access to our secure site. You will be able to download the finance form from the public area of this site.

Appendices must conform to the guidance for this specific competition. Appendices which do not follow the guidance will result in ineligible applications that will not be sent for assessment.

Submit your documents: You or your lead partner should submit:

• your application form with your unique application number for this competition
• project appendices as pdf documents, labelled with your application number
• project finance forms for every non-academic partner in your project
• Je-S submission pdf output document for every academic partner in your project, if any

Assessment: Once the competition submission deadline is reached, your application is sent for assessment.

Notification: We will notify you or your lead partner of the outcome of your application on the date stated in the timeline.

Feedback: We will give feedback to successful and unsuccessful applicants approximately 4 weeks after you have been notified of the decision. The lead applicant can access the feedback by signing into the secure website where you uploaded your application documents. It is the responsibility of the lead to communicate the feedback with the rest of the consortium. No additional feedback can be provided and there will be no further discussion on the application.

7. The application form

This section explains the structure of the application form and offers guidance on what to answer in each question.

The structure is as follows:

• application details
• summary of proposed project
• public description of the project
• gateway question: scope
• Section 1: The business proposition, including ODA eligibility and GEA compliance (4 questions)
• Section 2: Project details (4 questions)
• Section 3: Funding and added value (2 questions)
• other funding from public sector bodies
• finance summary table

Please make sure that you upload the final version of your application by the deadline. It is your responsibility to ensure that you do not upload a blank or incomplete application form.

• you can only use the application form provided. It contains specific information including a unique reference number for your project
• the application form contains specific fields. It is important that you complete each field and submit a fully completed form. Incomplete forms will be rejected
• the application form must not be altered, converted or saved as a different version of Microsoft Word
• the space provided in each field of the form is fixed. You must restrict your responses in each of the fields to the space provided. The typeface, font size and colour are predetermined and cannot be changed. Illustrations and graphics cannot be included in the application form. Please check your completed application form in print layout as any text that can’t be seen in this view or when the form is printed will not be assessed
• the light grey shaded fields are completed automatically from other information entered on the form, eg the total columns of a table. These cannot be overwritten

Field	Guidance
Competition name	This field will show the full name of the Innovate UK competition to which the form applies. You do not need to enter anything here.
Document ID	This field is completed automatically
Applicant number	This field is completed automatically and is the reference that you should use on all correspondence (this is the 5 or 6 digit number after the dash)
Application details
Project title	Enter the full title of the project
Theme	Please select from the drop down list
Research category	Please select from the drop down list
Project timescales	Enter the estimated start date and its planned duration. These are indicative at this stage and are not guaranteed
(Lead ) organisation name	Enter the full registered name of the (lead) organisation for the project. If you are not in a consortium application, these will be your organisation details. Please note that the lead organisation will be the main point of contact between Innovate UK and the project team
(Lead) organisation contact details	Enter the full name, postcode, email address and telephone number of the main point of contact between Innovate UK and the project

Summary of proposed project (not scored)

Please provide a short summary of the content and objectives of the project including what is innovative about it.

This summary is not scored, but provides an introduction to your proposal for the benefit of Innovate UK staff and assessors only. It will not be used for any public dissemination. It should cover, in brief:

• need or challenge. The business need, technological challenge or market opportunity to be addressed
• approach and innovation. The approach to be taken and how this will improve on current state-of-the-art
• outcomes. The difference the project will make to the competitiveness and productivity of the partners involved

Public description of the project (not scored)

To comply with government practice on openness and transparency of public-funded activities, Innovate UK has to publish information relating to funded projects. Please provide a short description of your proposal in a way that will be understandable to the general public. Do not include any commercially confidential information, for example intellectual property or patent details.

Please describe your project. Funding is not provided to successful projects without this.

Gateway question: scope

How does this application align with the specific competition scope?

• all applications must align with the specific competition scope criteria as described in the relevant competition brief
• to demonstrate alignment, you need to show that a clear majority of the project’s objectives and activities are aligned with the specific competition

8. Competition questions

All questions apply to all project partners and are scored out of 10 marks. Please answer using Arial font size 10.

8.1 Section 1: The business proposition

Question 1: What is the business opportunity that this project addresses?

Outline the business opportunity and what the project team needs to do to successfully address it within the preferred timeframe and cost.

Describe the nature of the problems or issues facing you and/or your potential customers. How will the intended outputs of the project respond to these problems and issues?

Question 2: What is the size of the market opportunity that this project might open up?

Describe the size of the market opportunities that this project might open up, including details of:

• the current nature of the specific market or markets at which the project is targeted, including whether it is characterised by price competition among commoditised suppliers or dominated by a single leading firm
• the dynamics of the market, including measuring its current size, and actual and predicted growth rates
• the projected market share for the project outcome, with justification in the light of any potential competitors
• the potential to add value to the economy of Colombia and/or the UK or European Economic Area (EEA)

Describe and clearly measure the return on investment that the project could achieve. Provide relevant source data references.

Where possible provide evidence for your statements about the target market for project outcomes. Outline your strategy for developing market share.

For highly innovative projects (see question 6) where the market may be unexplored, explain:

• what the route to market could or might be
• what its size might be
• how the project will explore the market potential

Question 3: How will the results of the project be exploited and disseminated?

List or describe the potential exploitable outputs of the project such as:

• products or services
• processes
• applications

Then describe how these outputs will be exploited including, where applicable:

• the route to market
• protection of intellectual property rights
• reconfiguration of the value system
• changes to business models and business processes
• other methods of exploitation and protection

Where helpful to the exchange of best practice, and not damaging to commercial interests, the results from this work should be made public on a voluntary basis. A plan for the distribution of generic outputs from the funded project should be included.

Research organisations who are involved in a project and funded for undertaking non-economic activity should provide evidence in their answer of plans to distribute their project outputs over a reasonable timescale. The requirement for dissemination of research results is to secure wider benefit from the higher level of public support given to research organisations. For further information, please see the Innovate UK funding rules

Question 4: Why is the project eligible for Official Development Assistance (ODA) funding and compliant with the International Development (Gender Equality) Act 2014?

To be eligible for a Prosperity Fund grant, applicants must clearly explain and give evidence for why and how their project fits within scope for Official Development Assistance (ODA) and the Gender Equality Act (GEA).

What beneficial outputs is the project expected to deliver to those inside and outside of the consortium, including economic and social welfare development and gender equality in Colombia, and over what timescale?

Proposals will be considered out of scope if they do not:

• show how they aim to ensure sustainable development, and thereby contribute to a reduction in poverty, or
• improve the welfare of people in Colombia, including considering the impact on gender issues

You must explain how the project has the potential to collect wider socio-economic and gender equality benefits to wider Colombian society outside of the consortium in a short-to-medium timeframe. Explain what those benefits are and to whom.

State, and give evidence, for how your project will:

• create outputs in Colombia
• create outputs with clear and widespread socio-economic and gender equality benefits in Colombia

Describe the benefits to those inside (project partners) and outside (wider Colombian society) the consortium and make a clear distinction between the two.

Learn more about Official Development Assistance and ODA compliance and the International Development (Gender Equality) Act.

8.2 Section 2: Project details

Question 5: What technical approach will be adopted and how will the project be managed?

Provide an overview of the technical approach including the main objectives of the work. Describe the main areas of work together with their resource and management requirements.

In evaluating this the assessors will consider whether:

• the technical approach and methodology are appropriate to the needs of the project
• the innovative steps are achievable through the proposed approach
• the project plan is sufficient for the complexity of the project, including whether there is detail to understand the tasks involved and the resources required
• the main milestones are realistic
• it demonstrates sufficient resource commitment and capability to undertake the project
• clear management reporting lines are identified

Describe rival technologies and alternative research and development (R&D) strategies and describe why your proposed approach will offer a better outcome.

You may submit a project plan or Gantt chart as an appendix in PDF format and up to 2 A4 pages long to support your answer.

Question 6: What is innovative about this project?

Identify the extent to which the project is innovative, both commercially and technically.

In evaluating this section assessors will consider whether:

• it pushes boundaries over and beyond current leading-edge world science and technology
• it is looking to apply existing technologies in new areas

Highlight and explain the timeliness and novelty of the research aspects of the project in an industrial and/or academic context.

Describe any evidence you have to back up your belief that the intended work is innovative. This could include the results of patent searches, competitor analyses, literature surveys and so on. If applicable, you should also outline your own background intellectual property rights, as related to the project.

Question 7: What are the risks (technical, commercial and environmental) to project success? What is the project’s risk management strategy?

Innovate UK recognises that projects of this type are inherently risky, but we look for assurance that the projects we fund have adequate arrangements for managing this risk. Focus, therefore, on the arrangements for managing and mitigating risk by:

• identifying the main risks and uncertainties of the project and providing a detailed risk analysis for the project content and approach. Include the technical, commercial, managerial and environmental risks as well as other uncertainties (for example ethical issues) associated with the project. The main risks should then be rated as high/medium/low (H/M/L)
• stating how the project would avoid these main risks. You should tackle all significant and relevant risks and their mitigation
• identifying vital project management tools and mechanisms that will be used to help minimise operational risk and promote a successful project outcome. This should include arrangements for managing the project team and its partners

You may submit a risk register as an appendix in PDF format up to 2 A4 pages long to support your answer.

Question 8: Do the project team have the right skills, experience and access to facilities to deliver the identified benefits?

Describe the track record of the project team members in undertaking and exploiting the results of R&D projects. This should highlight your capability to develop and exploit the technology.

In evaluating this, the assessors will consider whether the project team:

• has the right mix of skills and experience to deliver the project successfully
• has clear formation objectives
• would have been formed without Innovate UK investment

If you have formed a consortium, provide evidence of the additional benefits that will come from the collaboration, such as increased knowledge transfer. How is the consortium greater than the sum of its parts? How will the organisations achieve more working together than if they were working individually?

You may submit a single appendix in PDF format up to 2 A4 pages long to support your answer.

9. Section 3: Funding and added value

(10 points per question = 20 points in total)

Question 9: What is the financial commitment required for the project?

Detail the estimated project cost, making clear the level of contribution from any project participants and the level of funding required from Innovate UK. This information should be provided in the financial summary table in the application form.

Provide supporting information and an explanation of project costs. These must be consistent with the category of R&D being undertaken within each work package. Please see the guidance section of our website for further details on our funding rules

If the project spans more than one type of funding (for example because significant work packages are in both feasibility studies and experimental development), you must describe and justify the breakdown of costs between them within the answer to this question.

In evaluating this the assessors will consider whether:

• the budget is realistic for the scale and complexity of the project
• the financial support required from Innovate UK fits within the limits set by the specific competition
• a financial commitment from other sources is demonstrated for the balance of the project costs
• a realistic budget breakdown has been provided
• any work package breakdowns have been described and justified adequately

Find out more about eligible and ineligible project costs.

For collaborations involving research organisations, the costs of PhD research students are no longer eligible to be included in project costs. This is in line with current research council guidelines. Please refer to the guidance through the above link for further details.

Make sure that all vital finance project points you wish the assessors to consider are included in the main body of your application form, or in the relevant appendix. These are the main documents used within the assessment process.

Question 10: How does financial support from Innovate UK and its funding collaborators add value?

Provide evidence that successful delivery of your project will increase the total amount of money the project team spends on R&D in the UK.

And either:

• why the funding is required for the project to be able to proceed or
• how Innovate UK funding would allow you to undertake the project differently (more quickly, on a larger scale and so on) and why this would be beneficial to the UK?

10. Finance summary

This table lists the total eligible project costs by contributor. Note that only certain project costs are eligible for grant funding under UK State Aid rules. See our project costs guidance for information on eligible project costs and how to complete the finance forms.

Column 1 Organisation name	Provide the full names of the (lead) organisation and any contributors in the project consortium (organisation names as noted in Companies House)
Column 2 Organisation registration Number	Companies should provide the Company Registration Number (as noted in Companies House). Universities/HEIs should enter their RC number/charitable status/legal entity registration number etc
Column 3 Enterprise category	Select your enterprise category. SME definition is based on the EU definition Medium sized: Headcount less than 250: Turnover less than 50 million euros or balance sheet total less than 43 million euros Small: Headcount less than 50: Turnover less than 10 million euros or balance sheet total less than 10 million euros Micro: Headcount less than 10: Turnover less than 2 million euros or balance sheet total less than 2 million euros
Column 4 Postcode where majority of work will be done	Provide the postcode of each organisation participating in the project.
Column 5 Contribution to the project by each organisation (£)	List the total contribution to be made to the project by each organisation.
Column 6 Funding sought from Innovate UK	Enter the funding sought from Innovate UK for each contributing organisation for this competition.
Column 7 Other funding from public sector bodies	Include any funding applied for separately for the project from any other public sector bodies and not as part of this competition. Funding from other public sector bodies might include other applications to research councils, other government departments, devolved administrations, other public sector organisations and some charities. The purpose of this column is to provide Innovate UK with information on the total public funding for the project.
Column 8 Total (£)	The total cost of the project for each contributor. This is the sum of columns 5, 6 and 7 and will be entered automatically.
Bottom Row Total (£)	The total of each column will be entered automatically.

10.1 Finance form for all applicants

Each non-academic contributor in your project must provide a project finance form using the template ‘Project finance form’, which is available on the FTP site. This must be submitted with the application form by the lead applicant. Each finance form provides a detailed breakdown on each contributor’s total eligible project costs listed in your finance summary table.

11. Project appendices

You can include appendices to support your responses to the application questions as described in the guidance for those questions. Any additional appendices submitted are not sent for assessment. Applications submitted with incorrect appendices will be ineligible and the applications will not be sent for assessment.

You can attach appendices to questions 5 ,7 and 8. You must also submit 2 more appendices, D and E.

Appendix D

This demonstrates how the project as a whole complies with the Official Development Assistance (ODA) and the International Development (Gender Equality) Act criteria.

If we do not think that your project is not compliant with the ODA and GEA criteria, it cannot be funded. You should use a maximum of 2 sides of A4

Appendix E

This must be an up-to-date working draft of your collaboration agreement (CA), signed by all consortium members in Colombia and the UK. If your application is successful, the final Collaboration Agreement must be signed by all consortium members in Colombia and the UK before the grant is confirmed. Please see the Lambert Toolkit, the example collaboration agreement template and the guidance notes provided in the public area of the FTP site for example formats. Do note that UK and Colombian partners are free to develop alternative formats for their CA, as long as they include clauses on IP management, dispute resolution and governing law.

So that assessors can open and read the appendices, each appendix must:

• conform to the maximum length specifications stated for each question
• use Arial font size 10
• be submitted in portable document format (PDF)
• be legible at 100% zoom/magnification
• display prominently the ‘application number’ as in the filename of the application form

Please do not submit appendices longer than the specified lengths. Assessors are instructed to only read appendices to the lengths specified in the guidance.

11.1 Project plan

Innovate UK application form and process

In addition to your response to question 5 on the application form, you are required to submit a Gantt chart that shows the project plan.

If you are successful and offered funding, you will be required to develop a more detailed project plan that will be used to monitor project progress.

The project plan should consist of:

1. A chronological schedule of project activities presented in graphical form (such as a Gantt chart on one page). You should clearly indicate the estimated time required for the completion of each main task in addition to milestones. Specific participant assignments for each task should be identified in the project plan even if this information was provided elsewhere. Task assignments for subcontractors and consultants should be separately identified and described with location of work.
2. A work breakdown structure (WBS) detailing the planned time commitment for each task, covering the same project duration (see example in Table 1).

Table 1: Example work breakdown structure and estimated effort

Task	Title	Task description	Start date	End date	Effort days
1000	Phase 1
1100	Project management

Additional information for UK applicants Customer Support Services Innovate UK Polaris House North Star Avenue Swindon SN2 1FL Wiltshire

Competition helpline: 0300 321 4357 (Mon-Fri, 9:00am to 5:30pm)

Email: support@innovateuk.gov.uk