Nutrition for Life Webinar Report

On Tuesday the 31st of May, This Little Piggy arranged for a room in the Catalyst to screen a Technology Strategy Board webinar on their call entitled Nutrition for Life.

The webinar covered aspects of the application and the call that are useful to know for filling in the documentation and getting your proposals favourably considered. The presentation they showed can be accessed as a pdf here.

Some of the handy tips and tricks are:

• Make sure that your project fits the scope;
• Print off the application form to verify that it's readable - copy and pasting often doesn't wrap the text into the boxes on the forms properly!
• Number sections and questions in any additional material;
• Do not use capitals to stress words or phrases;
• Avoid cliches and hyperbole;
• Give data/quantification not descriptions/qualification;
• Submit early to avoid unpredictable problems;
• A business case for the work is important!

Some facts on the Nutrition for Life call:

• There are two scope topics: Novel, healthier foods and processes and Safety, authenticity and traceability;
• It's split into Feasibility and Collaborative R&D sections;
• Feasibility: Single application process, up to £25k grant, not more than two partners, 3-6 months duration, registration deadline 22th June, application deadline 29th June;
• Collaborative R&D: Two stage application process, £100-500k project cost (expect average 50% grant), at least two partners, registration deadline 8th June, application deadline 15th June;
• Applications are business led and the research does not have to be made public.

You'll find more information in the pdf above and on the TSB website. There's not a lot of time so be quick!

Some other information that could be useful:

Existing technologies used in novel markets or ways that require technological innovation to make them fit will be considered and have precedence.

Facilities that are needed specifically for the project can be considered valid project costs so long as a case can be made and the assessor convinced.

Capital costs can be factored in usually on the basis of expected life, cost and use.