Green food-sector innovation grant
Grants for Danish businesses and research partners developing and demonstrating food-sector solutions with both green benefits and economic potential.
Ez a lehetőség jelenleg angolul érhető el.
Grønt Udviklings- og Demonstrationsprogram (GUDP) supports innovation in food production, agriculture, fisheries and aquaculture. Projects can develop and test new products, technologies and production methods, including solutions that cut greenhouse-gas emissions or help the sector adapt to climate change. They must also show economic potential, such as income for participating businesses or wider growth and jobs in the sector.
The terms below describe ordinary round 2 of 2026, which is closed. Development and demonstration projects could request DKK 250,000–15 million for activities lasting up to four years. Networks could request DKK 250,000–2 million for up to two years; only the organisation running the network receives support. Networks bring together different parts of a value chain to identify barriers and innovation opportunities, rather than carry out research or development or assess a specific later project.
Grants cover a share of each participant’s eligible costs. Applied research means planned research to gain new knowledge and skills for developing new products, processes or technologies. Experimental development uses existing knowledge to develop and test new or improved solutions, for example prototypes tested in realistic operating conditions. For applied research, maximum company rates were 70%, 60% and 50% for small, medium and large companies respectively; qualifying collaboration increased these to 80%, 75% and 65%. For experimental development, including non-agricultural-product demonstrations, the corresponding rates were 45%, 35% and 25%, or 60%, 50% and 40% in qualifying collaborations. Demonstrating agricultural-product knowledge carries a 70% maximum rate; large-company support must benefit small and medium-sized companies. These demonstrations must share knowledge or practices with all interested parties, without promoting specific products or services or requiring their purchase to use that knowledge. Networks receive up to 50%.
Research and knowledge-dissemination organisations could receive up to 90% for non-commercial research and development when results are made publicly available. Their main purpose must be independent research or sharing its results. Market services such as contract research are economic activities; accounts must separate these from non-economic work. Controlling businesses must not have privileged access to results. Applicants using this category submit the programme’s declaration of research-organisation status.
Eligible costs include project staff, necessary materials, meetings and travel, audit costs and documented overhead. External assistance must add value; research institutions normally cannot receive support for it. PhD salary support normally covers at most 28 months. Equipment must be approved for development or demonstration and its residual value deducted; demonstration equipment support is capped at DKK 750,000. VAT is eligible only when the recipient bears it finally; VAT recoverable through the state refund pool for state-funded self-governing institutions is excluded.
Public funding for company activities normally cannot exceed the relevant aid-rate ceiling; the balance must come from non-public funds. Qualifying research organisations working on agricultural products listed in Annex I of the EU Treaty—primary agricultural products up to and including their first processing—may combine public sources up to 100%: activities must serve the sector’s general interest, be announced online before starting with the purpose and expected result date, and results must be freely available online for at least five years with no early access for organisation members.
Commercial use can require repayment. For each recipient, GUDP calculates net proceeds from the first three years after the approved project end date, using relevant revenue less turnover and production costs. Repayment follows the grant’s share of project costs, capped at the grant received; late-payment interest can be additional. Exemptions cover grants of at most DKK 100,000; an SME at project completion receiving its first or second grant of at most DKK 750,000; and grants for organic activities under section 23. The Board can also waive repayment for trade associations and similar bodies when a wider group commercially uses the results.
Unless GUDP confirms an exemption, submit the net-proceeds form no later than three years and three months after project completion, even if there was no commercial use. Private businesses need auditor attestation; bodies under the State Auditor Act without an internal-audit agreement use management endorsement. Missing the deadline normally triggers full repayment; apply for any individual deadline exemption before it expires.
Eligibility
- Applicants include private companies, business-registered individuals such as farmers and fishers, associations and trade bodies, self-governing institutions, and public or private research institutions. All must be registered in Denmark’s Central Business Register (CVR). Foreign companies with a Danish-CVR branch count as Danish; other foreign firms and research institutions can provide external assistance only when the expertise is unavailable nationally. Municipalities, state authorities and other public institutions apart from research institutions cannot receive grants.
- For development and demonstration projects, explain and quantify at least one primary green effect, explain the expected economic effect and state the year when effects are expected. GUDP prioritises technology development around readiness levels 4–8: work progressing from testing towards use in real conditions, rather than basic research. Pure research and investment projects, general training, company-specific process optimisation, patenting costs and application preparation are excluded. Development support also excludes building innovation skills, marketing or test marketing and generic campaigns. Networks may receive support for outreach that recruits participants and for limited workshops and conferences; their green-effect and economic-effect form sections are optional.
- To qualify for the higher collaboration rate, either at least one business must be an SME and no partner may bear more than 70% of eligible costs, or a business must collaborate with a research and knowledge-dissemination institution bearing at least 10%. In both cases, share results widely so others in the sector can use them; confidential information is exempt.
- Small companies have fewer than 50 employees and annual turnover and/or balance sheet total at most EUR 10 million. Medium companies have fewer than 250 employees and turnover at most EUR 50 million and/or balance sheet total at most EUR 43 million. Include relevant linked and partner-company data under EU rules. Trade associations normally use large-company rates unless they document qualifying SME status.
- The mandatory signature requires applicants to declare that they are not an undertaking in difficulty under the cited EU state-aid definitions and that they have complied with European Commission recovery orders for unlawful Danish state aid.
- Do not start project activities before a grant commitment. Immediately tell the GUDP secretariat about material changes to submitted information and additional financing.
How to apply
- Állapot
- lezárult
- Megnyílik
- Lezárul
- Az adott pályázati kör feltételei
- Ordinary round 2 of 2026; closed. Amounts and rates on this page describe this round.
Round 2 of 2026 is closed. Check GUDP’s official ordinary-grants page for the next call; its expected December 2026 opening is not an open application window. You can email a one-page project idea to the GUDP secretariat at gudp@fvst.dk using its project-description template for feedback on programme fit.
During an open round, submit through the digital application module linked from that page. Upload the protected Excel budget and Gantt chart, applicant signatures and relevant key-person CVs. Networks need signed partner agreements; research projects need a Research form and research CVs; research organisations need their status declaration. The application may be Danish or English, but the public project summary must be Danish and the Research form English. For networks, only the lead applicant signs the applicant declaration; partners sign the separate network agreements. GUDP’s Board decides which projects receive grants.
Recipients submit a status report and interim accounts by 1 July each year, with the first report after at least eight months of project activity. Payment requires an approved report for the same period. Submit final technical reporting, final accounts and the final-payment request within three months of project completion; GUDP retains the last 10% until it approves the final report. Payment requests normally require an auditor’s statement; requests based on costs of DKK 100,000 or less require management endorsement. Explain how you will communicate results, and acknowledge GUDP co-financing in public communication. Record staff hours, document paid costs and retain original accounting records and vouchers for ten years after final payment.
Use GUDP’s change forms when requesting changes. Within each participant’s budget, transfers between cost lines are allowed up to 10% of total eligible costs and at most DKK 200,000. A cost line may exceed its approved budget by at most 10% over the whole project, with matching underspend elsewhere. Request a budget change when these limits would be exceeded. The grant cannot increase, and only one budget-change request is allowed per year. Request project extensions at least two months before the end date. Send requests to gudp@fvst.dk.