Project HELIX — Food Innovation Wales

Project HELIX — Welsh Food & Drink In-Kind Support

Provides in-kind technical and product development support for Welsh food and drink companies and makers.

⚠ This may reflect a past cycle — verify the current call on the funder's site.

Project HELIX is a Welsh Government-funded programme delivering free in-kind technical assistance to food and drink businesses operating in Wales. Administered through four regional Food Innovation Wales centres, the programme provides support across new product development, manufacturing process optimisation, food-safety certification, and market intelligence — all delivered as a service rather than a cash payment. The programme replaced earlier European Social Fund-co-funded schemes after Brexit and was funded entirely by the Welsh Government from July 2023. The rolling open-call for the 2023–2026 cycle was extended to 31 January 2026, at which point the cycle closed.

Eligible applicants are Welsh food and drink businesses of any legal form — commercial companies and social enterprises alike qualify; academic institutions and research organisations are excluded. There is no match-funding requirement and support is free at the point of use. Businesses access the programme by contacting any of the four regional centres or via the foodinnovation.wales enquiry form. No competitive scoring panel is described: businesses work with centre specialists to co-develop an Innovation Plan aligned with the Welsh Government Innovation Strategy published in February 2023.

With the 2023–2026 cycle now closed, a continuation programme is subject to the Welsh Government's budget settlement. Businesses monitoring a future cycle should watch the Business Wales portal (businesswales.gov.wales) and the Food Innovation Wales website. Applicants who benefited from HELIX support are encouraged to document outcomes from the in-kind work, as evidence of prior engagement typically strengthens applications under successor schemes. No cash award amount is associated with this instrument — the entire value of participation is the in-kind technical time delivered by the regional centres.