Organisations can apply for a share of £1 million, inclusive of VAT. This will be to develop products or services that reduce the volume of harmful pollutants entering the atmosphere as a result of agricultural practices.
Competition opens: Thursday 2nd November 2023
Competition closes: Friday 5th January 2024
Challenge Scope
This is a Small Business Research Initiative (SBRI) competition funded by Welsh Government.
The aim of this competition is to develop products or services that can help reduce harmful pollutants in the atmosphere resulting from agricultural practices that generate ammonia, including from anaerobic digestion.
What is ammonia (NH3) and why is it an issue?
Atmospheric ammonia is a primary pollutant emitted by agricultural activities (93% in Wales) and, to a lesser extent by transport and industry. Most of the ammonia comes from the natural breakdown of manure, dead plants and animals. Agricultural soils in the UK contain little plant-available nitrogen, hence the need for supplementary nitrogen fertilisers and organic manures. Not all the nitrogen is taken up by plants. Large amounts of it (around 50%) are lost to the environment as a pollutant. When NH3 reacts with the atmosphere and is breathed in, it damages the respiratory and cardiovascular systems in people and animals. When NH3 falls on the landscape, it can acidify soils and freshwaters, over-fertilising natural plant communities. Percentage of Welsh land where ammonia concentrations exceed critical levels (way of measuring concentration of ammonia in the air) has grown by 12% in the past 10 years. It means that 69% of Welsh land now doesn’t allow lichens and ancient woodlands to exist healthily.
Ammonia emissions are subject to international and national legal obligations and targets to reduce emissions and regional transboundary pollution. Since 2005 NH3 emissions in Wales have grown by 8%. The trend is for the emissions to keep increasing. Cattle industry in Wales is responsible for about 70% of agricultural ammonia emissions (Clean Air Plan for Wales (2020)) and about 45% is directly from the dairy sector.#
Your Project
This is a phase 2 competition aimed at demonstration therefore applicants are required to have an existing working prototype of their technology which is in operation on preferably more than 1 farm or agricultural business in Wales. Applicants will also need to demonstrate that their technology takes into account potential pollution swapping and cost effectiveness for farmers.
Your solution must either prevent emissions of ammonia, extract it from the air or reduce deposition onto sensitive habitats. This can include demonstrating, piloting, testing and validation of new, emerging or improved products, processes or services in relevant environments. The primary objective is to validate ammonia emissions reductions in products, processes or services that are near-to-market.
Your phase 2 project must:
- Assemble a robust evidence pack that demonstrates ammonia emissions reductions. For example, proposed technology will demonstrate reduction of ammonia emissions by 20% for the duration of the project/experiment at the farm level. Evidence packs are of a standard suitable for consideration by the UK Air Quality and Greenhouse Gas inventories requirements.
- Applications are expected to include sufficient capability and capacity to assemble the testing and validation evidence. Ideally, project applications will include scientific/academic subcontractors who have the required experience and facilities to undertake necessary site and laboratory testing and evaluation.
- Demonstrate that the technology takes into account potential pollution swapping. Pollution swapping should be investigated, described and mitigated. Please include measurable effects on Greenhouse Gas such as carbon and methane emissions, as well as phosphorous.
- Evaluate cost effectiveness for farmers for the implementation of the proposed technology. The costs to farmers and government should be proportionate to the benefit. In other words, if it reduces emissions only marginally it shouldn’t be very expensive. The solution should show significant benefits for farmers. This competition is seeking innovations that would be financially self-sustaining, i.e. the direct on-farm benefit to the farmer is greater than the costs. It will be important for the applicants to set out the expected on-farm benefits as part of their commercialisation road-map.
- List side effects and their mitigation. Account for potential disadvantages of the proposed technology implementation in Wales. For example, floating slurry storage covers tend to be blown to the side due to strong winds in some areas. Some flowing covers are impractical to rearrange back as they cover deep slurry lagoons. This dramatically reduces measure’s effectiveness.
- Comply with current Welsh and UK legislation, particularly with The Water Resources (Control of Agricultural Pollution) (Wales) Regulations 2021
- Work closely with potential users and customers to collect and record their feedback.
A maximum budget of £1,000,000 (inclusive of VAT) is available to support up to 5 Phase 2 demonstration projects. Successful applicants will be awarded R&D contracts to deliver:
Phase 2: Demonstration and Evaluation – This should result in a real-world demonstrator, tested in conjunction with end users. Phase 2 involves rigorous field testing for up to 12 months inclusive of final reporting and projects must facilitate the assessment of effectiveness in reducing ammonia emissions.
It is the intention that the findings of this challenge will be made available to experts from Defra, NRW, EA and contractors involved in UK and EU inventories in order to support future access to UK inventories and increase opportunities for future implementation.
In applying to this competition, you are entering into a competitive process. The contract is completed at the end of phase 2, and the successful organisation is expected to pursue wide marketing of their solution. Any adoption and implementation of a solution from this competition would be subject of a separate, possible competitive, procurement exercise. This competition does not cover the purchase of any solution although we may choose to investigate and explore innovative procurement routes as part of this challenge.
All co-funding is welcome, but the work described must be wholly completed and reported on in the allowed project duration.
The total funding available for the competition can change. The funders have the right to:
- adjust the provisional funding allocations between the phases
- apply a ‘portfolio’ approach
We will not fund projects that:
- Focus on tackling pollutants other than ammonia. Your projects primary focus should be ammonia reduction in cattle sector in Wales.
- Don’t intend to demonstrate on a Welsh site
- Generate more harmful pollutants than are removed.
- Result in a significant negative overall environmental impact.
- Duplicate other UK government or EU funded initiatives you have already been funded for. If you project has been part of DEFRA’s or DAERA’s Phase 1 agricultural SBRIs you are still eligible to apply for this Phase 2 SBRI.
- Are covered by existing commercial agreements to deliver the proposed solutions
- Duplicate existing innovation that is already part of UK agricultural Inventories.
- Fall under existing ammonia reduction measures in the UK agricultural Inventories without substantial improved differentiation.
Key Dates:
| Open date | 2nd November 2023 |
| Briefing event | 8th November 2023 |
| Close date | 5th January 2024 |
| Assessment | w/c 15th January 2024 |
| Shortlist agreed & Suppliers notified | 19th January 2024 |
| Meet and Greet with Suppliers’ | w/c 22nd January 2024 |
| Decision Release | 26th January 2024 |
| Phase 2 contracts awarded | W/C 29th January 2024 |
| Projects Commence | 7th February 2024 |
| Projects Complete | 7th February 2025 |
| Final Report Submission Deadline | 11th March 2025 |
*All dates may be subject to change
This competition closes at 12pm UK time on the date of the deadline.
Briefing Event
Please follow the link below and register your interest for the virtual Briefing Event held on Wednesday 8th November 2023.
Ammonia SBRI Challenge – Briefing Event Tickets, Wed 8 Nov 2023 at 11:00 | Eventbrite
Commercial plan notice
Please note all funded projects will need to provide a commercialisation plan/strategy as part of your contractual deliverables.
Before you start
By submitting an application, you agree to the terms of the draft contract which is available within the supporting information of the challenge (‘Helpful Links and Docs). The terms of the contract are non-negotiable and are included in the draft contract. We reserve the right to change the terms and conditions if necessary.
The final contract will include any milestones you have agreed with the funding authority and will be sent to you if your application is successful. The contract is binding once it is returned by you and signed by both parties.
As the applicant you are responsible for:
- collecting the information for your application
- representing your organisation in leading the project if your application is successful
Welsh Language Regulations
Any public facing technologies/solutions must comply with the Welsh Language Standards in accordance with the Welsh Language (Wales) Measure 2011, the Welsh Language must be treated no less favourably than the English Language. All proposals for Phase 2 must include provision to do this and may be required prior to any ‘real world’ testing. Any specific advice must be sought from the Welsh Language Standards Compliance Officer.
Further information
For more information on this competition, visit: Reducing pollution resulting from agricultural ammonia emissions in cattle sector.
For any enquiries about this competition e-mail: SBRI.COE@wales.nhs.uk
This competition has ended.