Guidance

Check how applications will be prioritised in Round 2

Updated 10 April 2024

Applies to England

Applications for the Slurry Infrastructure grant are scored based on their location. RPA expect to be able to fund more than double the number of projects in Round 2 compared to Round 1. The priority areas are much larger to reflect this. 

You can view the priority areas using MAGIC. MAGIC is an interactive mapping tool that provides information on rural, urban, coastal and marine areas across Great Britain.

From the table of contents you should select: 

• Land-Based Schemes 

• Other Schemes 

• Slurry Infrastructure grant - Round 2 Areas (England) 

The darker areas show the highest priority areas. Applications in these areas will receive higher scores. The lighter areas show moderate priority areas. Applications in these areas will receive lower scores. 

The final scoring depends on how many farms submit an online application. 

If there are more applications than we can fund, RPA will give priority to the highest scoring projects. If fewer projects apply inside these areas than we can fund, RPA will expand the priority areas further.   

All farms interested in upgrading their slurry infrastructure should submit an online application. In Round 1, 30% of prioritised projects were outside the published map layer. 

If your project is not chosen in Round 2, or you are not ready to apply yet, there will be a further round in 2024. 

How priority areas were chosen for Round 2 

The Slurry Infrastructure grant aims to help farmers make improvements that benefit the environment by reducing water and air pollution. These are the key environmental risks from poor slurry management. 

The Round 2 priority areas on MAGIC reflect this. The mapping layer uses multiple datasets to show locations where action is most urgently needed to reduce the impact of farming on protected sites. These protected sites contain some of our most precious habitats, species and biodiversity. They include: 

• sites of special scientific interest (SSSIs) 

• special areas of conservation (SACs) 

• special protection areas (SPAs) 

• wetlands designated to be of international importance under the Ramsar Convention (or Ramsar sites) 

The Slurry Infrastructure grant - Round 2 (England) layer shows where the priority areas identified for air quality and water quality overlap. 

Water quality priority areas 

The water quality priority areas cover land that drains into rivers and water catchments with known pollution issues. These have been significantly expanded for Round 2 by identifying more sites with diffuse water pollution issues and accounting for pressures on bathing water and shellfish. 

Air quality priority areas 

The air quality priority areas comprise a buffer around protected sites that both: 

• contain a known feature sensitive to atmospheric ammonia 

• currently exceed their atmospheric ammonia critical level (the threshold at which adverse effects are known to occur for the sensitive feature) 

Exceedance of a site’s ammonia critical level is more likely to occur where ammonia emissions are high near the site. Covering slurry stores within 2km of sensitive sites currently exceeding their critical level will help achieve a larger impact to reduce the negative effects of ammonia  pollution on sensitive sites. A 2km buffer has been applied to all sites exceeding their ammonia critical level, except for a small number of sites with a Shared Nitrogen Action Plan (SNAP) pilot project in place. These sites have instead been buffered by 5km to align with the boundaries of those projects. 

These sites have been updated from Round 1 to reflect the latest available data. Some sites that featured in Round 1 of the scheme no longer exceed but are very close to their critical ammonia level. As these would still benefit from improvements to air quality, they have been retained for Round 2, but given a lower priority score. 

How the areas are shown in MAGIC  

The water and air priority areas are combined to produce the Slurry Infrastructure grant - Round 2 (England) mapping layer. The darker areas show protected sites in water quality areas with the highest exceedance scores. The lighter areas show protected sites in water quality areas with moderate exceedance scores. 

The map also includes urban areas. Slurry stores are less likely to be in these areas. However, they have been kept in the targeting layer to ensure farms on the edge of urban boundaries are not excluded. 

How RPA shortlisting will work 

Applicants must give an Ordnance Survey grid reference for the proposed slurry store in the online checker. 

When the online checker closes, RPA will plot project Ordnance Survey grid references against the priority areas. RPA will produce a shortlist based on the demand and funding available. 

If demand is very high, RPA will only invite forward projects in the highest scoring areas, followed by very high, high etc. 

If demand is moderate, RPA will invite forward everyone inside a published layer. 

If demand is low, RPA will expand the published layer to capture more projects. 

If fewer projects apply than the budget available, everyone will be invited forward. 

Defra and RPA will explain how this is done on the Future Farming blog once the online checker closes. 

RPA will tell all applicants if their project has been shortlisted or not. 

RPA will support as many farmers as possible by adapting the approach for Round 3 in 2024.