SBRI: Reducing pollution from domestic burning or agricultural practices

Apply for a share of £2 million to develop products or services that reduce pollution caused by domestic burning or agricultural practices

The Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) is funding a Small Business Research Initiative (SBRI) competition to develop new products or services that can help reduce:

• harmful pollutants in the atmosphere resulting from domestic burning
• the production and impact of ammonia from agricultural practices, including from anaerobic digestion

Domestic combustion is a major source of particulate matter emissions. Your solution must reduce emissions by introducing a new fuel type, improving wood burning stoves and fires or by post-burning emissions capture and filtration.

The agriculture sector accounts for 87% of UK emissions of ammonia. Ammonia reacts with nitrogen oxides and sulphur dioxide to form secondary particulate matter which significantly impacts on human health in rural and urban areas. Your solution must either prevent emissions of ammonia, extract it from the air or reduce deposition onto sensitive habitats.

This is phase 1 of a potential 2 phase competition. Your phase 1 project must:

• demonstrate the technical feasibility of the proposed innovation, developing minimum viable products or early prototypes as appropriate
• develop the plan and lay the foundations to deliver potential phase 2 projects
• establish collaborations and agreements which will enable testing of the innovation in a real-world setting as part of potential phase 2 projects

Contracts will be given to successful applicants for phase 1 only. Only the successful applicants from phase 1 will be invited to apply to take part in phase 2.

Find out more about this SBRI competition.

For more information, you can watch a recording of an online briefing event that took place on 24 April 2023.

First published 18 April 2023