Funding

Potentially we will support any new research that promises to improve the seafood value chain. Seafood Innovations Ltd (SIL) was set up to assist seafood industry stakeholders to undertake exciting new research and development projects that will add value to your business and to the industry as a whole.

SIL aims to underpin growth of the New Zealand seafood export industry by helping companies to optimise returns on the current seafood harvest through developing innovative, value-added seafood and marine products that utilise, and extract optimum value from, every part of the fish.

In line with SIL's business mission, assistance is aimed at:

• increasing the value of existing harvests; or
• reducing harvesting and processing costs; or
• enhancing consumer-driven product attributes.

We expect to see a significant element of novelty and technical/scientific risk in the research - with outcomes that provide the potential for a significant step forward for the industry. We do not fund "business as usual" projects or compliance issues such as resource consents or management plans. We usually expect to see a partnership between a research provider and one or more industry stakeholder companies.

We ask applicants to consider any genuine benefits to Maori that may result from their project and SIL can help facilitate engagement with iwi as required (see VM Guidelines and SIL proposal template for more information, or contact SIL's General Manager with any questions).

In order to pitch your project at the right level, we suggest project budgets in the range $50,000 to $500,000 per annum - although projects outside this range may also be considered.

All research projects must have one or more project sponsors who contribute a minimum of 50% of the total project budget (excluding administration fee - refer below). SIL will contribute up to 50% of the actual project budget. Of the funding provided by the project sponsor(s), at least half must come from seafood industry commercial stakeholders, but may also include individuals or organisations deemed by the SIL Board to be an industry participant.

In addition to this, project sponsors must pay an administration fee to SIL. This fee is currently set at 4.5% of the total project budget. It should be noted that, as part of the SIL agreement with the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment, sponsor contributions to the project costs must be cash. In-kind contributions are not eligible for matching funding.

Once a project is approved, as part of the contracting process, applicants are required to complete these Contract Tables containing milestones of the project, a payment schedule and the contributions split. It is preferable that each payment in the schedule is in line with completing a milestone, however this is not a requirement. Although further clarification may be sought if there are no links between the two.