Form

How to complete your TPIF application

Updated 24 April 2025

Applies to England

• Publication for Northern Ireland
• Publication for Scotland
• Publication for Wales

This page will help you apply to the Tree Production Innovation Fund (TPIF).

You can find the application forms and further details on the TPIF forms page.

What to do before applying

Before completing your application, you should:

• read this guide and the main TPIF guide thoroughly
• check that the items you wish to purchase and activities you wish to carry out are eligible
• ensure you have the funds available to purchase items and/or pay for work up front as the grant is paid in arrears
• get quotes so you’re confident in the estimates you provide in your finance spreadsheet and to ensure good value for money

Funding beyond 27 March 2026 is subject to the next government spending review. If future funding is not secured (for financial years 2026/27 and 2027/28) we will terminate multi-year agreements at the end of 2025/26 by providing at least 1 months’ notice to agreement holders, as outlined in paragraph 26 of the terms and conditions.

You should consider this when planning your project activities.

Overview of the application process

To apply, you must submit:

• a TPIF application form
• a TPIF finance spreadsheet
• a project timeline
• evidence of financial viability if applicable

All application documents should be submitted to tpif@forestrycommission.gov.uk by 11:55pm Wednesday 9 July 2025.

We will notify applicants of their TPIF funding decision by Thursday 21 August 2025.

How to complete your application form

All sections of the application form and finance spreadsheet are mandatory, and you must complete the forms in English. Do not make any alterations to the layout or format of the forms.

If any part of your application is incomplete, we will return your application to you within 3 working days for you to revise and resubmit before the deadline. If any part of your application is unclear, we may contact you to request further information.

If you need to amend your application before the published deadline or withdraw your application at any time, email: tpif@forestrycommission.gov.uk 

Part 1: Applicant details

The ‘applicant organisation’ is the organisation that will be named on the ‘grant agreement’, if successful, and to whom grant payments will be paid. The applicant organisation will be responsible for the undertakings and obligations detailed in any grant agreement, in line with the terms and conditions of funding.

Give the organisation’s legal name. If this is different to how you are known publicly, include the public-facing name in brackets.

Include the name and contact details of the ‘lead applicant’. The person included in this section must also sign the form in Part 10.

Enter one of the following:

• a company registration number (preferred)
• charity number (preferred)
• VAT registration number
• Unique Taxpayer Reference

Let us know whether you wish to be included in the TPIF directory. The directory will only be shared via email with other TPIF grant recipients, whether they opted to be included or not.

Description of project

The public description of the project should be a brief non-confidential description of the project that we can use online or in printed publications. Describe the project objectives, key deliverables, and the expected benefits.

Make it clear which financial year(s) the proposed project will take place by ticking the relevant box(es).

Eligibility criteria

Read the eligibility criteria in this section carefully and respond to each question by completing the Yes/No/N/A column.

All projects will be assessed against these eligibility criteria before they are scored by the evaluation panel. If you answer ‘No’ or do not answer any questions, your application will be rejected.

Part 2: Assessment questions

The questions in this section will be scored by the evaluation panel. The weighting of the scores is given in brackets next to each question. Read ‘How applications are assessed’ for more information on how applications are scored.

You must answer all questions in this section. Each question has a word limit and any information significantly exceeding this will not be evaluated.

You may append documents to your application to support your answers (for example, risk registers, quotes or CVs). If you do, you must clearly refer to these in the relevant question.

If any of the expected outcomes outlined in your answers are dependent on external factors (for example, hiring a research assistant), make these clear.

Part 3: Work packages and outputs/outcomes

If successful, the information in this section will form part of your grant agreement and will be used to help monitor project progress.

You will need to provide:

• a numbered list of work packages
• planned activities for each financial year the project covers
• expected outputs for each financial year the project covers
• long term outcomes
• any knowledge transfer and exchange activities you are planning for your project: this can include online or in person events, publications, or any media such as videos

The work packages and activities should also be outlined in your timeline.

Part 4: Finances

You must complete and submit a finance spreadsheet with your application form. This forms part of your answer to Question 8: Costs and Value for Money.

See ‘How to complete your Finance Spreadsheet’ for more information.

Parts 5-9

Read through the information in these sections carefully.

In Part 8: Declarations, tick each box to show that you have read, understood, and agree to each declaration. If you fail to comply with any obligations, your application may be rejected.

Part 10: Authorisation

Once you have completed your application form and finance spreadsheet, sign the form.

You must either add a

• digital e-signature: click/tap on the signature box and follow the instructions
• printed signature: print the form, sign it by hand and scan it back in

We cannot accept typed signatures.

The person signing the form must be the lead applicant named in Part 1.

How to complete your finance spreadsheet

Read the Instructions tab of the finance spreadsheet before commencing.

Your finance spreadsheet outlines how you propose to spend the grant funding and will form your budget for the project if you are successful.

You must list all proposed project costs. Be as specific as possible, listing each item or piece of work to be completed.

If successful, you will need to link each cost you claim for to the relevant item reference in your finance spreadsheet, so ensure the information you include is comprehensive and all anticipated costs are included.

If you’re VAT registered, all items should be exclusive of any VAT that can be recovered from HMRC. If you are unable to recover VAT on a cost, include the VAT in the total amount you provide. If you can recover VAT on a cost, provide the cost exclusive of VAT.

Get quotes before applying and ensure all costs are deliverable in the funding period and in the financial year stated on your finance spreadsheet. Agreements are likely to be issued in August/ September 2025. Items must be received, and work completed between the start and end of your agreement.

Any costs incurred outside of your funding period will not be eligible to claim back.

Personnel costs

You must list all personnel who would work on the project, whether internal or external, in this tab.

Overheads that directly impact and support the project, but cannot be identified as direct costs should be incorporated into personnel rates.

Equipment depreciation costs

Complete this tab if you are applying for depreciation costs on equipment that will have a usable lifetime beyond the end of the project or that will only partially be used on the project.

Depreciation costs can only be claimed for the period the equipment is used on the project and must be claimed for in arrears in each financial year.

Equipment purchased before the start of your funding agreement will not be eligible to claim depreciation costs on.

Example of how to complete the Equipment Depreciation Costs tab: 

• you plan to purchase a piece of equipment costing £5,000
• it has an estimated lifespan of 5 years, and you plan to buy it on 1 April 2026
• it will be used 50% of the time on your TPIF project and 50% on other work

You will be able to claim a maximum of £500 per financial year in 2026/27 and a further £500 in 2027/28.

You do not need to apply depreciation to items that form part of your project outputs (for example, robotic components). These should be listed in the Other Non-Personnel Costs tab as ‘Equipment (not depreciated)’.

Other non-personnel costs

Include all other project costs in this section and choose a ‘cost type’ (materials and supplies, works and services, equipment (not depreciated) and travel and subsistence) for each item applied for.

Where many small costs are likely to be incurred, group these into a single line.

For example, ‘Lab consumables’, ‘Travel and subsistence for site visits’, ‘Robotic components’, or ‘Software development’.

Summary of costs

Check the details in the ‘grant funding summary’ table in this tab. The table is auto filled based on the information you entered in the previous tabs.

Before submitting, check that:

• all costs are correct
• you are only applying for eligible items and activities
• you have applied for costs in the correct financial year
• the ‘summary of costs’ tab is correct
• the total funding applied for is no less than £20,000
• the total funding applied for in each financial year is no more than £200,000

Financial viability evidence

If you are a local authority, public body or university and the value of the capital items you are applying for exceeds £50,000, you must submit a departmental letter of authority to spend on capital items in the agreement. You must submit this with your application.

Departmental letters must:

• come from someone with decision making capacity, such as a member of the finance department, or the head of the department through which the project will be delivered
• acknowledge the total cost of capital items
• confirm that the department has sufficient funds to deliver the capital costs of the project up front and they understand that claims will be paid in arrears

You can find the total value of capital costs for your application in the ‘summary of costs’ tab of your finance spreadsheet.

If you have applied for or been awarded funding for multiple projects under the Tree Production Innovation Fund, Tree Production Capital Grant and Seed Sourcing Grant, the £50,000 threshold is cumulative. This means that we will use the total of all unpaid agreements and pending applications to determine whether we require this additional evidence.

If you are not a local authority, public body or university we may be in contact to request evidence of financial viability if your application exceeds a certain threshold.

How to submit your application

Check all sections of your application form and finance spreadsheet are complete before submitting.

Submit your completed application form, finance spreadsheet and Gantt chart or timeline by email to tpif@forestrycommission.gov.uk.

The deadline for applications is 11:55pm Wednesday 9 July 2025.

How applications are assessed

All applications will be evaluated and scored by a panel with expertise and experience of tree production methods used in England. If the grant is oversubscribed, funding will be awarded to the highest scoring applications.

The evaluation panel will apply the following evaluation system to each of the assessment questions:

Score	Description
0	Unacceptable - Nil or inadequate response. Fails to demonstrate how the assessment criteria are met.
1	Poor - Response is partially relevant and/or poor. The response contains insufficient/limited detail or explanation to demonstrate evidence of meeting the assessment criteria.
2	Acceptable - Response is relevant and acceptable. The response provides sufficient evidence of meeting the assessment criteria and covers the majority of points expected for a given criterion.
3	Good - Response is relevant and good. The response provides full details of how the assessment criteria will be fulfilled covering all of the points expected for a given criterion.
4	Excellent - Response is completely relevant and excellent overall, possibly exceeding requirements. A well thought through project with all elements of question fully addressed and detail provided that exceeds some or all of the requirements. The response is comprehensive and provides a high level of detail on how the assessment criteria are met.

Question 1 ‘challenge’ is weighted at 20%, and all other questions are equally weighted at 10%. In the event of a tie and there being insufficient funds to support all projects, responses to ‘challenge’ will be used to break the tie, with the highest score winning.

In addition, the overall level of innovation will be assessed by the evaluation panel as follows:

Degree of innovation (10%)

0 – None: proposals are not innovative.

1 – Limited: use of existing technologies in novel ways/settings.

2 – Moderate: proposals demonstrate a novel approach, drawing on both new and existing forest nursery technologies and/or working practices. 

3 – High: development or application of a technology, product or working practice that is entirely new to English forest nursery production.

4 – Very high: development or application of an entirely new technology or product.

TPIF is not a capital grant. Proposals must be innovative in order to be eligible for funding.

An application that scores 0 in response to any question will be rejected. Proposals must score a minimum of 20/40 to be eligible for funding.

Example

For an application scored as follows:

Question	Score (out of 4)
1. Challenge	3
2. Approach and Innovation	2
3. Team, Resources and Track Record	4
4. Market Awareness	2
5. Deliverability	2
6. Risks	3
7. Additionality	3
8. Costs and Value for Money	3
Degree of innovation	3
Total	28 out of 40

The score for ‘challenge’ would be doubled (3 x 2 = 6) and added to the remaining 8 scores giving a total score of 28/40.

Any applications deemed to fall outside the scope of the fund or that do not meet the TPIF eligibility criteria will not be evaluated and will be rejected.

The evaluation panel will have access to information about the delivery of previous TPIF grant agreements you may have held and may use this to help score your application.

Application outcomes

Refer to the TPIF ‘process diagram’ for an overview of the application process.

Once the evaluation panel convene and each application’s outcome is decided, the TPIF team will send out all outcome letters by 21 August 2025.

We will issue you with one of the following:

1. Successful outcome letter: your application was successful. You will also receive an offer letter, and a grant agreement.

2. Unsuccessful outcome letter: your application was unsuccessful.

3. ‘Offer in principle letter’ and ‘offer in principle form’: the evaluation panel requires further information before deciding whether to award funding.

The ‘offer in principle form’ outlines the evaluation panel’s comments and requests. You must complete the relevant sections in the form and provide the necessary information, clarification and/or documents requested. You must email your response within 2 weeks or request an extension if you are unable to make the deadline. If you do not submit a response or request an extension by the deadline, your application will be unsuccessful.

If successful, you must sign and return the grant agreement by email before beginning any project activities. Items purchased or activities conducted prior to the start of your grant agreement will not be eligible to claim for.

You will be provided with a TPIF information pack, explaining TPIF processes and answering common grant holder queries.

Reporting

All successful applicants will be required to complete a full report of the project, 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.

Templates for interim, end of year and end of project reports will be provided to successful applicants.

For multi-year agreements the following due dates have been set for interim and end of year reports. You must consider these dates when planning project activities.

Financial year	Report for submission	Deadline
2025/2026	End of year claim and report	Friday 27 March 2026
2026/2027	Interim claim and report	Wednesday 7 October 2026
2026/2027	End of year claim and report	Saturday 27 March 2027
2027/2028	Interim claim and report	Thursday 7 October 2027
2027/2028	End of year claim and report	Monday 27 March 2028

Further information

If you need to clarify any application requirements or the application process, email  tpif@forestrycommission.gov.uk.

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 a fair and open process. We may be unable to respond to some requests due to the competitive bid process. We reserve the right not to answer clarifications where we consider that the answer to that clarification would or would be likely to prejudice commercial interests.

Applicants who canvass Forestry Commission or Defra employees associated with the TPIF may have their applications rejected from the process. 

Terms and conditions

The terms and conditions that will apply to this grant are available on the TPIF application form page.

Confidentiality

If you consider the information contained within your application to be commercially sensitive, you must notify us of this when submitting your application. This will then be considered when requests for clarification are received.

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.