Interface Food DrinkGuidance Notes for Project Activity

January 2016

Contents

Contents

1.Background

2.Funding Products

2.1.Feasibility Funding

2.2.Proof of Principle Projects

2.3.Competitions

2.4.Funding For Agricultural, Aquaculture and Fisheries Companies

2.5.Common Interest Groups

2.6.Industrial Scholarships

3.Company Eligibility

4.Eligible Costs

5.Application Process – All applications

5.1.How to submit an application

5.2.Project Timescales

5.3.Timing of calls

5.4.Project Approval Criteria

5.4.1.Impact

5.4.2.Innovation

5.4.3.Collaboration

5.5.Evaluation

5.5.1.Feasibility Studies and Proof of Principle

5.5.2.Masters and PhD Scholarships

5.5.3.Competition Projects

5.6.Appeals and Changes

5.6.1.Appeals Process

5.6.2.Changes to Approved Projects

5.7.Project Completion

5.7.1.Feasibility/Proof of Principle/Competition

5.7.2.Scholarships

6.Claim Process

7.Financial Information

8.State Aid implications

9.Confidentiality, Data sharing and Intellectual Property

9.1.Template contract

9.2.Joined Up Government and Freedom of Information

Pre-Submission Background Information

Large Companies and Companies not registered in Scotland

Spinouts

Policies

Policy on Genetically Modified (GM) Organism research

Policy on Sustainability

1.Background

Interface Food & Drink (IFD) was established in 2011 by Scottish Funding Council with the overriding vision of improving the performance and global competitiveness of the Scottish food and drink industry and of increasing demand from the sector for the research provision of Scotland’s universities (HEIs). The objectives of Interface Food & Drink (IFD) are to:-

  • Foster an innovation culture within the food and drink industry
  • Create and identify projects which are of sufficient scale in both ambition and size to have economic impact, working with enterprise bodies, trade associations and industry bodies, and in alignment with the sector strategy set out by Scotland Food & Drink.
  • Facilitate a collaborative approach to problem solving for industry
  • Have the Food and Drink sector use Scotland’s HEIs as an essential choice for research and development

IFD, as approved and funded by the Scottish Funding Council (SFC), includes support for a series of collaborative projects for which all 17 partner HEIs are eligible to apply, in partnership with industry. The scheme is broad in nature and encompasses all disciplines of academia, from science and engineering to management and design, and companies from a wide range of sectors can apply as long as projects support the food and drink industry and the eligibility criteria outlined in this document are adhered to. IFD can provide differing levels of funding support for the following activities (see Section 2 for more detail):-

  • Feasibility Studies
  • Proof of Principle projects
  • One-year industry MSc fellowships; and
  • Three-year industry PhD level fellowships/scholarships
  • An annual competition

(NB: Please note that food and drink companies remain eligible to apply for SFC Innovation Vouchers; this process will be handled by the wider Interface team.)

2.Funding Products

Interface Food and Drink operates under an approved General Block Exemption Regulations scheme (as outlined here) as permitted by Commission Regulation (EU) No 651/2014 of 17 June 2014 declaring certain categories of aid compatible with the common market in application of Articles 107 and 108 of the Treaty as published in the Official Journal of the European Union on 26 June 2014. For all IFD funding products the maximum funding intervention rate is normally 50% of total project costs (up to the maximum grant level), but where a project is very close to market or involves late stage experimental development of a product/process/service then the intervention rate may be lower. This is described in more detail in the section on State Aid. Where IFD decide that a project does not meet the requirements of the approved GBER scheme, the project may still be awarded a grant under de minimisaid subject to eligibility and approval by the panel, provided the applicant can demonstrate that this would not cause them to breach the de minimis limits.

Interface Food & Drink reserves the right to refuse any application, for any reason, and is not obliged to enter into a dialogue with the applying HEI to explain its decision. Interface Food & Drink reserves the right to turn down any application should it be deemed not to match the published criteria or overall purposes of the scheme. In some cases applicants may be asked for further information to clarify applications.

2.1.Feasibility Funding

This product can be used for projects aimed at early stage research assessing the potential of planned projects, the prospect for its ultimate success, or the acquiring of new knowledge and skills for the development of new products/processes and identifying the necessary steps to take the project to the next stage of development.

Companies of any size can apply for this funding product, but large companies will be required to submit a proforma, outlining the reasons for requiring the grant, prior to submission of a full application (see Appendix 1Pre-Submission Background Information). Common Interest Groups(CIGs) are eligible to apply for this funding as outlined here, but they shouldalso refer to Section 2.4foradditional guidance. Companies from the Aquaculture and Fisheries sector should also refer to Section2.3.

After successful application, a grant of up to £10,000 from SFC can be awarded towards the project costs. The grant must represent a maximum of 50% of the total eligible project costs. The remainder of the project costs must be met through a combination of cash and/or in-kind contributions as follows:

  • Applications from individual companies with no additional industrial collaborative partners are required to include a cash contribution toward the project costs of at least 25% of the value of the grant, with the rest provided in kind. This may be waived where the company is an SME and the risk of failure would prohibit the project being undertaken; or where the project is of clear mutual benefit to thewider sector. Please contact IFD to discuss if this is the case for your project.
  • Applications with two or more collaborating industrial partners (consortia and CIGs) are not subjected to a requirement to provide a cash contribution to the project, but it is strongly advised that they do so, particularly if the wider benefit of the research is limited. Collaborative applications with an industrial cash contribution will score higher during the appraisal process.
  • Where a company has been in receipt of an Innovation Voucher, a cash contribution equal to 30% of the value of the grantis required when applying as a single company, with the rest provided in kind. This may not be waived. The application must represent a recognisably distinct piece of work to that carried out for the Innovation Voucher (but can be related i.e testing feasibility of next steps or investigating other factors arising from IV project).
  • Subsequent applications for a Feasibility Study by the same company/consortia/CIG must make acash contribution towards to project cost equal to50% of the value of the grant with the rest being made in kind. This can be waived for CIGs if the applicants can demonstrate why the previous Feasibility Study did not progress to the next stages and how the new application is different to the previous application.

It is expected that where possible, Feasibility Study applicants will pursue the next phase of study as outlined in the original application, either as a Proof of Principle or funded by another source. In cases where this does not occur, it is unlikely that further applications for IFD funding will be successful unless the applicants can justify why the next stages were not pursued. Please contact IFD to discuss further if your project falls in to this category.

2.2.Proof of Principle Projects

This product is aimed at research projects thatbuild upon factors identified during feasibility investigations and facilitate the acquisition of new knowledge and skills for the development of new products/processes/services or for bringing about significant improvements in existing ones.

This funding product can also be used for late stage developmental research to develop new or improved products, processes or services, including conceptual definition, planning and documentation of these, butthe intensity of the grant offered by IFD may vary depending on the scope of the project (further information given in Section 8 on State Aid). If you think your project falls in to this category please contact IFD to discuss further.

Companies of any size can apply for this funding product, but large companies will be required to submit a proforma outlining the reasons for requiring the grant prior to submission of a full application. See Appendix 1 for more information. Common Interest Groups (CIGs) are eligible to apply for this funding as outlined here, but they should also refer to Section 2.4for additional guidance. Companies from the Aquaculture and Fisheries sector should also refer to Section 2.3.

After successful application, a grant of up to £25,000 from SFC can be awarded towards the project costs.The grant must represent a maximum of 50% of the total eligible project costs. The remainder of the project costs must be met through a combination of cash and in-kind contributions as follows: a cash contribution of 40% of the value of the grant with the rest being made up in kind.

2.3.Competitions

Competitively awarded grants may support feasibility studies, proof of concept/market and collaborative research & development projects.Proposals can be led by either Scottish universities or Scottish businesses (or food and drink trade bodies) but must involve both industry and academic partners. Competitions have requirements that are specific to each competition and these will be outlined in the application for each competitions, but the general requirements relating to the application process, reporting and claiming will apply. Therefore applicants should read both these and the specific competition guidelines in parallel.

2.4.Funding For Agricultural, Aquaculture and Fisheries Companies

Companies from the Agricultural, Aquaculture and Fisheries sector can apply for both Feasibility Funding and Proof of Principle Funding as defined in Sections 2.1and 2.2respectively. As for all other sectors, after successful application, a grant of up to £10,000 for Feasibility Studies and £25,000 for Proof of Concept studies from SFC can be awarded towards the project costs. The grant must represent a maximum of 50% of the total eligible project costs, with the remainder being made up through a combination of cash and/or in-kind as described in Sections 2.1 and 2.2respectively for Feasibility and Proof of Principle projects.

Howeveradditional special rules apply to companies from this sector. The project must be of interest to the sector or subsector of the companies involved. Interface Food & Drink is required to publish on its website the following information before the project starts:

That the aided project will be carried out

  • The goals of the project
  • The approximate date of publication of results and its place of publication on the internet
  • A reference that the results of the aided project shall be made available on the internet at no cost

After project completion, the results of the project need to available on the internet from the end of the project, or when any results are given to the organisations involved, whichever is the sooner. The results shall be available for a period of 5 years.

2.5.Common Interest Groups

IFD has been particularly successful in establishing Common Interest Groups, where groups with a shared purpose can join resources to tackle a specific problem. Group members might be from the same industry sector, they might be from different sectors but share a manufacturing process; the issue might be one common across many sectors, e.g. waste, water, or other energy efficiency; there could be a market opportunity such as export, major multiples or premium markets.

IFD can support such groups by facilitating start-up, organising learning journeys to or from relevant academics, co-ordinating project applications and advising on relevant calls, such as TSB and Horizon 2020. The funding mechanisms detailed below are all appropriate for Common Interest Groups. Additionally there is funding for events and speakers.

Common Interest Groups are eligible to apply for either Feasibility Funding and/or Proof of Principle funding as described in Section 2.1and 2.2respectively. For either funding product, the grant award must at least be matched 100% by the Common Interest Group members collaborating on the project through cash and/or in-kind contributions, which should be shared amongst all industrial partners as appropriate. Companies of any size are eligible to be included in a CIG, but where a funding application from a CIG includes a company from the fisheries/aquaculture sector then the additional funding conditions outlined in Section 2.3apply.

2.6.Industrial Scholarships

For the scholarships, preference will be given to applications that demonstrate cross-disciplinary approaches and/or programme of activity for a number of different companies in a particular region or sector across Scotland, such as those led by trade associations working on behalf of a number of companies or those that are cross-disciplinary in nature.

  • Masters (one year)

Up to £10k, matched in cash by industry. Aimed at, but not restricted to, collaborative groups with a relatively short term problem to solve.

NB: Scholarships are not regarded as State Aid and therefore do not affect de minimis levels and do not come under GBER.

3.Company Eligibility

The scheme is targeted at Small to Medium sized Enterprises (SMEs) registered in Scotland, but companies of any size and those out-with Scotland can be involved in applications for grant funding. Consortia/Common Interest Groups may include companies and HEIs from outwith Scotland. While the costs associated with HEIs out-with Scotland contribute towards the total project eligible costs, they are not eligible to receive funding from SFC/IFD to cover those costs. All projects, regardless of the location of consortia members, must be able to demonstrate that impact will be felt in Scotland, with clear impact and outcomes for both the HEI sector and for the Scottish economy.

Businesses that are solely engaged in primary production, the cultivation of crops and husbandry of livestock, are not eligible for support under de minimis regulations (please see Section 6.4for further information regarding de minimis) unless they are able to show that they have the capacity to undertake R&D activity that will have a wider impact within the Agrifood sector, for example by selling the product/service to other businesses, not just for use on an individual farm. Applications from this sector must clearly demonstrate how the project outputs will be used in this wider way.

Large Companies, Companies not registered in Scotland and spin outs

Larger companies, companies not registered in Scotland and University Spin Outs must submit a Pre-submission pro forma prior to submitting an application to justify the application for grant funding. For further information,see Appendix1Pre-Submission Background Information.

4.Eligible Costs

Costs that are eligible to be counted as research and development projects costs are:

  • Personnel costs to the extent employed on the project
  • Instruments and equipment to the extent used in the project. Where equipment is not used for its full life, only the depreciation costs for the life of the project are eligible
  • Costs of contractual research, knowledge, consultancy and equivalent services used exclusively for the project
  • Additional overheads and operating expenses (including materials, supplies and similar products directly incurred as part of the project).

While the above are all counted as eligible project costs, the IFD/SFC grant can only be used to offset the eligible project costsincurred by the HEI partner. The grant is paid directly to the HEI partner upon completion of the project. Grant funds may not be used to cover the costs of:-

  • Standard training courses.
  • Software purchases.
  • Aid that would subsidise the cost of exports.
  • Internships for students of knowledge institutions.
  • Sales and marketing materials, whether hard or digital

Industrial cash contributions are counted as any cash expenditure by the industrial partner as part of the project. It does not include company staff time, overheads or salaries. These should be counted as in kind costs. Generally cash contributions should be paid to the HEI partner as part of the project, but costs paid to external parties as part of the project can be counted as cash contributions. A distinction between cash paid directly to the HEI and those to external parties should be made on the application form.

5.Application Process – All applications

5.1.How to submit an application

Completed paperwork must be sent electronically to by the HEI and not the industrial partner.

5.2.Project Timescales

Feasibility Studies are expected to last between 3 and 6 months. Proof of Principle projects are expected to last between 6 and 12 months.

  • When selecting project start and end dates, take the following points into consideration:
  • You should allow for 4 weeks from submission to approval by IFD’s evaluation panel when determining your timescales. Please note that during holiday periods (especially July/August and Christmas) this process may take longer.
  • Consider the length of time to obtain internal sign off of paperwork and contracts within the university once the project has been approved.
  • Consider the length of time to obtain to obtain the necessary HR processes/recruitment of project staff should also be taken in to account when choosing dates.
  • Please ensure that the timescales for revisions, approvals and holidays have been taken into account in nominating start and finish dates.

5.3.Timing of calls

It is understood that industry preference is for open calls. All schemes are therefore open over the course of the year from the 1st June with a final submission date of 30th May the following year.