Seed Sourcing Grant

About the Seed Sourcing Grant

TheApplications for the Seed Sourcing Grant (SSG)are is now openclosed. for applications. The SSG is a competitive grant to provide support for activities that enhance the quality, quantity, and diversity of tree seed sources in England.

The Government has renewed commitment to net zero targets, and the SSG will help to ensure the availability of planting stock to meet these targets.

The SSG is looking to support projects that will increase the quality, quantity, and diversity of seed stands and seed orchards on the Forest Reproductive Material (FRM) National Register for Basic Material. See Marketing forest reproductive material for forestry purposes for more details.

What is the deadline for applications?

Applications for the Seed Sourcing Grant are now closed. The final deadline forwas applications is 23.55 Sunday 13 November 2022.

A list of the projects awarded funding in round one can be found here: Seed Sourcing Grant: successful projects 2022.

The Seed Sourcing Grant is reopening soon - please subscribe to our eAlert to get the latest information.

What funding is available?

Through the SSG, £1.2 million will be made available between 2022/23 and 2024/25 to support activities designed to enhance the quality, quantity, and diversity of tree seed sources in England. Up to £400,000 will be made available in each financial year.

Proposals for projects spanning multiple financial years will be accepted and all project activities must be completed and invoiced by March 2025. Projects, whether single or multi-year, must have a minimum total cost of £10,000 to be eligible for funding under the SSG. Applicants may submit more than one bid during each funding round, but each lead applicant may only apply for a maximum of £75,000 per annum, across all their bids.

All activities related to the 23 species seed sourcing strategies will be funded at 100%, and other projects will be funded at 50%.

Eligible activities:

1. Management of existing seed stands, to ensure they are productive for seed collectors. Seed stands must either already be registered on the National Register of Basic Material or should be registered on the National Register of Basic Material as part of the proposed project. This may include bringing current Source Identified (SI) seed sources under management and registering them as a seed stand as part of the project (see guidance note for further information). These must be time-bound rather than ongoing activities.

2. Desk studies and field studies to identify and bring additional seed stands onto the National Register of Basic Material.

3. Planning and planting of new seed stands, and their registration on the National Register of Basic Material.

4. Planning and planting of new seed orchards and their registration on the National Register of Basic Material.

Proposals can include a combination of activities from the list above.

To be eligible for funding:

• the project proposal must be relevant to the production of tree seed from species covered by the UK FRM scheme (including those in the voluntary scheme)
• the seed stand or seed orchard must be in England
• the work to be funded must not have commenced
• activities must be associated with an eligible FRM category as detailed below

All eligibility criteria are fully described in the SSG application form and associated Guidance Notes.

Eligible categories of FRM:

• Source-Identified (SI) Seed Stands
• Selected and Tested Seed Stands
• Qualified and Tested Seed Orchards
• Clones and Clonal Mixtures

Source-Identified (SI) Seed Sources are also eligible for funding under this grant if they meet the criteria to be registered as SI seed stands and are registered as seed stands as part of the proposed project.

Eligible costs that may be claimed for include but are not limited to:

• staff, or contractor, costs for project delivery, including for research and technical advice
• seeds and saplings
• consumables and temporary infrastructure required for management of seed stands, for example fencing
• contribution sought towards costs of equipment required to complete the project
• travel and subsistence specifically for the SSG grant activity, carried out in the most economically and sustainable way possible

The following expenditure is ineligible:

• ongoing maintenance of seed stand and/or seed orchard after the project delivery window
• insurance for capital items or staff
• repairs and ongoing maintenance to existing or purchased equipment
• any other travel and subsistence (inclusive of other grant schemes)
• costs or overheads such as rent, and utilities apportioned to those staff directly or indirectly employed on the project. For equipment over £500, the contribution offered will be at the evaluation panel’s discretion
• costs incurred outside of the project delivery window
• costs involved in preparing your application or work on another grant scheme
• retrospective funding for work that has already been started/carried out before grant agreement

Find out if you are eligible

The SSG is open to any UK-based public, private, or third sector organisation that can demonstrate how the grant will be used to enhance the quality, quantity, and diversity of English seed stands and seed orchards. Individual private landowners may also apply for eligible activities on their own land. Joint applications are also acceptable, and any partners should be listed in the application form.

The following groups are identified as potential applicants to the SSG:

• public and private sector tree nurseries and tree seed suppliers
• research institutes including public sector research establishments
• landowners including private and public landowners and NGOs
• NGO’s working on tree improvement and other aspects of seed and tree production

Forestry England (FE) and Forest Research (FR) are not eligible for grant funding under the SSG but may be subcontracted on behalf of eligible organisations to complete SSG related work packages.

Detailed guidance on how to apply can be found in the Guidance to applicants found on the Seed Sourcing Grant Application Form Page.

In the application form you will be asked to provide details about:

• the project and how it fits within the scope of the fund to increase the quality, quantity, and diversity of tree seed available for planting in England
• the activities to be funded
• the species covered by the proposal
• the longevity of the impacts resulting from the proposed activities
• who is in the project team and what their roles are
• how the project will run and be managed effectively
• the main risks for the project, and how these will be mitigated
• the impact that an injection of public funding would have on the project
• the cost of the project and how it represents value for money for the project team and for the taxpayer
• the expected outputs of the project

Applicants must provide costs and organisational details for all parties responsible for project delivery. All costs and financial details should be in £ Sterling.

Applicants submitting proposals spanning multiple financial years should state this on the application form and clearly outline the activities, milestones and outputs that will be delivered by the end of each financial year.

All questions in the application form are mandatory. If any part of your application is incomplete, your application will be returned to you within two working days for you to revise and resubmit before the deadline should you wish. If any part of your application is unclear, the Forestry Commission may contact you – at any time prior to informing you of a funding decision – to request further information.

Consortium applications are welcomed. A lead partner should be identified in the application. The lead applicant will become the sole agreement holder with the Forestry Commission; they will be responsible for the undertakings and obligations detailed in any grant agreement, in line with Terms and Conditions of Funding. If your application is successful, the lead applicant will become the sole agreement holder and will be the sole recipient of grant funding upon receipt of valid claims. The contractual arrangements held between the lead applicant and their co-applicants are not the responsibility of the Forestry Commission and the lead applicant will have sole responsibility for onward disbursal of grant funding to co-applicants, for example.

If you consider the information contained within your application to be commercially sensitive, you must notify the Forestry Commission of this when submitting your application. This will then be considered when requests for clarification are received. If relating information is relevant to all applicants and you have indicated that you consider this commercially sensitive, we will discuss with you before releasing any information and may be unable to support the request due to the competitive bids process.

If you wish to amend your application before the published deadline or withdraw your application at any time, please email ssg@forestrycommission.gov.uk.

All applications will be evaluated by a panel with expertise and experience of tree and seed production in England and funding will be awarded to the highest scoring successful applicants. Any applications deemed to fall outside the scope of the fund will not be evaluated. Your application will be rejected if your project is ineligible for funding (see ‘Is my project eligible?’ above) or if your application scores 0 in response to any question in the application form when the Forestry Commission evaluates it. A minimum overall score of 20/40 is required to be eligible for SSG grant funding.

The Forestry Commission reserves the right to change the deadline for applications or make changes to the Invitation to Apply and the application process at short notice. The Forestry Commission reserves the right to amend, add to or withdraw all or any part of the funding application process at any time during the process. All changes are recorded at the bottom of this page (click ‘show all updates’) and where these are made following the opening date the lead applicant for all applications already received will be contacted directly by email. Material changes (for example to the closing date or eligibility rules) will also be communicated via the Forestry Commission’s Grants and Regulations eAlert.

If you wish to clarify any application requirements or the application process, please email ssg@forestrycommission.gov.uk. We will aim to respond to all requests for clarification within two working days of receipt. If we consider information requests relevant to any applicant, we will provide additional guidance to all applicants (via point of contact provided) by email to ensure fair and openness. We may be unable to respond to other support requests due to the competitive bid process. The Forestry Commission reserves the right not to answer clarifications where it considers that the answer to that clarification would or would be likely to prejudice commercial interests.

The Forestry Commission will aim to notify applicants of the outcome of their application by 16 December 2022. Projects must not begin before the start date of any grant agreement offered by the Forestry Commission.

Further information

The Forestry Commission reserves the right to not award all the funding available if insufficient bids of an appropriate quality are received. The Forestry Commission will regard all eligible applications as remaining valid for 6 months after the initial closing date. If the funds are oversubscribed and additional funds become available, valid applications may be reconsidered for funding.

Applicants who canvass FC or Defra employees associated with the SSG may have their applications rejected from the process.

Applicants who are unable to accept standard terms and conditions may have their application eliminated from the application process.

The Forestry Commission may carry out checks on each application using a variety of government tools including the Cabinet Office’s automated grants due diligence tool called ‘Spotlight’ and Bank Account Verification software. As part of due diligence process, the Forestry Commission may share details of the organisations involved in applications to this Innovation Fund with other parts of government.

At the end of their project, successful applicants will be required to complete a final report, detailing achievement against stated outcome and outputs, lessons learnt, a complete cost breakdown outlining how the grant funding has been spent and any need for further development. A final report template will be provided to successful applicants. Should the project run across multiple years, a progress report will be required at the end of each financial year. Payments may be withheld or reclaimed if reports are not submitted on time.

Payments will be made by BACS transfer following receipt of claim forms. In any given financial year, applicants will be able to submit claims at the final reporting stage, and on one other date of their choosing. All claims must be supported by evidence of eligible expenditure (i.e. invoices/ timesheets). and, where not accompanied by a final/annual report, a progress update must be provided to demonstrate that works have been carried out as per the grant agreement.

Where applicants are failing to deliver against agreed outputs and objectives, or it becomes clear that avenues of work are no longer worth pursuing, multi-year agreements may be terminated at the discretion of the FC.

Intellectual Property Rights and rights to genetic resources

Intellectual property and rights to genetic resources shall remain with the grant recipients. Grant recipients should have appropriate Material Supply Agreements in place with the landowners and other interested parties involved in sourcing and final planting locations of material to cover ownership of the resulting genetic resources and intellectual property rights.

Long term use of the seed stands and seed orchards

As stated in the eligibility criteria, all seed stands and orchards resulting from the SSG funding must be registered on the National Register of Basic Material and will therefore be subject to the usual FRM inspections (see Marketing forest reproductive material for forestry purposes for more detail). Should these inspections show that the seed stand or orchard is not being properly maintained during the period of grant award, the FC reserves the right to claw back funds.

Applicants must declare if they have received, have applied for, or intend to apply for any other government funds. The Forestry Commission will carry out checks on each application using a variety of government tools including the Cabinet Office’s automated grants due diligence tool.

The Forestry Commission is not responsible for any losses, breakages or injuries incurred by the applicant whilst engaged in activities associated with the SSG.

Neither the Forestry Commission nor its respective advisers, directors, officers, members, partners, employees, other staff, or agents:

1. Makes any representation or warranty (express or implied) as to the accuracy, reasonableness, or completeness of this guidance; or
2. Accepts any responsibility for the information contained in this guidance or for the fairness, accuracy or completeness of that information nor shall any of them be liable for any loss or damage (other than in respect of fraudulent misrepresentation) arising as a result of reliance on such information or any subsequent communication.

Enquiries

You can get further help from the Forestry Commission by emailing your enquiry to ssg@forestrycommission.gov.uk. Find out how to make a complaint or appeal.

Contact the Forestry Commission

For more information or enquiries, please contact ssg@forestrycommission.gov.uk.