How to apply
What you need to do to apply for a Water Management Grant
You won’t automatically get a grant. When you apply for a grant, you are competing with other applicants.
You first need to complete and submit an online application for the scheme through the online checker. You can use the online checker to see if you are eligible to apply and how well your project fits the funding priorities. If you then wish to proceed you can submit your interest through the checker.
The online checker will open for applications on 16 November 2021 and close on 12 January 2022.
Projects with the best fit with the priorities will then be invited to submit a full application.
All full applications will be assessed to see how well they fit the priorities for funding and which projects provide best value for taxpayers’ money. The highest-scoring applications will be successful.
The deadline for full applications is 30 June 2022.
Do not start work, incur costs (including paying deposits), enter into any legal contracts, or place an order before the project start date in your Grant Funding Agreement. Any expenditure incurred before that date is at your own risk and may make your whole project ineligible.
Stage 1: Online Checker
You must first use the online checker to check if you can apply for a Farming Transformation Fund Water Management grant and to check how well your project fits the funding priorities. (This will take about 10 minutes if you have all the project details.)
You will need to answer questions about your business so that we can check you are eligible to apply, including:
- the project location
- what crops you will be growing as a result of the project
- whether the planned project is on land the farm business owns, or if there is a tenancy agreement
- details of any required planning permission and/or abstraction licence
We will also ask you for the following:
- what grant funded items your project will need
- the estimated cost of the items
We will tell you if your project is not eligible and you cannot continue to complete an online application. If your project is eligible, you will be asked further questions to determine how well your project meets the scheme priorities.
We will ask you questions about your project, including:
- what impact will the project have?
- what main crops will be irrigated?
- will the area of irrigated land change?
- will your water source change?
- will your irrigation system change?
- how will the project improve productivity?
- will water be supplied to other farms?
- if your project directly impacts a SSSI?
If you wish to proceed, you can submit your project details and register your interest. At this stage, you will be asked for your contact and business details. You should only submit one online application for your project.
You will get an email with your score and answers, and a reference number.
We will review the information you have provided using the online checker. When the full application window opens, if your project scores well enough against the funding priorities, we will invite you to submit a full application. We will send you a full application form and guidance about how to fill it in.
Only projects that have submitted an online application through the online checker and have been given a reference number will be able to submit a full application.
If your project does not score highly enough, we will inform you shortly after the checker closes and you will not be able to submit a full application.
Do not start work, incur costs (including paying deposits), enter into any legal contracts, or place an order before the project start date in your Grant Funding Agreement. Any expenditure incurred before that date is at your own risk and may make your whole project ineligible.
At any time throughout the process, if you do not want to proceed and wish to withdraw your application, please let us know so that we can update our records.
Stage 2: Full application
If your online application scores highly enough, we will invite you to submit a full application. You will need to complete a full application form and send this with your supporting documents to us by email. Successful projects will be provided with details as how to do this via email from the RPA.
If your application is successful, we will send you a Grant Funding Agreement and you can begin work on your project.
Value for money
We will score how well the project costs represent value for money. This includes the amount of grant required to deliver the outcomes and outputs.
Your project will also be assessed to make sure that it is viable.
Financial viability
We will assess:
- the current financial viability of your business
- how the project may impact on your existing business operations
- how you will fund the project until the grant is claimed
- how the business will benefit from the project financially
Delivery and sustainability
We will assess:
- how the project will be delivered within budget and on time
- that risks to project delivery have been identified and how they will be mitigated