Farming Futures R&D fund: Automation and Robotics Round 2

UK registered businesses can apply for a share of up to £20 million to develop innovative solutions for automation and robotics in agriculture, horticulture and forestry. This funding is from the Farming Futures R&D fund.

Competition opens: Monday 3 August 2026 Competition closes: Wednesday 30 September 2026 11:00am

[Start new application] Or [sign in] to continue an existing application.

Competition sections

• Summary
• Eligibility
• Scope
• Dates
• How to apply
• Supporting information

Description

The Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (Defra) will invest up to £20 million in innovation projects. This is subject to a sufficient number of high quality applications being received. This funding is part of Defra’s Farming Innovation Programme which is delivered in partnership with Innovate UK. The aim of this competition is to fund collaborative projects with ambitious solutions for robotics and automation in agriculture, horticulture and forestry to:

• address key issues affecting the sector, where automation and robotics can mitigate challenges such as productivity, resource use efficiency, food quality and traceability, waste, crop and animal health, animal welfare and sustainability
• reduce the reliance on seasonal labour in agriculture where automation and robotics are seen as the most viable solution
• support the specific recommendations for automation innovation funding from Defra reviews including the [Automation in Horticulture review]
• align with the Government’s Modern Industrial Strategy that identifies Agri-Tech as a Frontier Industry within the [Advanced Manufacturing sector plan] Your proposal must be able to demonstrate how the project will benefit farmers or growers in England. In applying to this competition, you are entering into a competitive process. This competition has a funding limit, so we may not be able to fund all the proposed projects. It may be the case that your project scores highly but we are still unable to fund it. Our experience from similar competitions suggests that you could have 35% chance of success. We consider a range of factors when determining whether to provide funding to applicants. This includes an assessment of prior conduct, such as any outstanding payments owed to Innovate UK or UKRI. Such factors may influence the funding decision, potentially resulting in a refusal of funding or an award subject to additional scrutiny. We also reserve the right to adjust funding allocations for any of our competitions. This may be in response to changes in policy, portfolio funding considerations or broader government funding decisions. This competition closes at 11am UK time on the deadline stated in this [Innovate UK competition brief]. We cannot guarantee other government or third party sites will always show the correct competition information.

Funding type

Grant

Project size

Your project’s total eligible costs must be between £500,000 and £2.5 million.

Accessibility and Inclusion

We welcome and encourage applications from people of all backgrounds and are committed to making our application process accessible to everyone. This includes making [reasonable adjustments] for people who have a disability or a long-term condition and face barriers applying to us. You can contact us at any time to ask for guidance. We recommend you contact us at least 15 working days before this competition’s closing date to allow us to put the most suitable support in place. The support we can provide may be limited if you contact us close to the competition deadline. You can contact Innovate UK by [email] or call 0300 321 4357. Our phone lines are open from 9am to 12pm and 2pm to 5pm UK time, Monday to Friday (excluding bank holidays).

Who can apply

If your application passes the technical assessment, any awards given to primary agricultural producers are subject to the green box exemption under the WTO Agreement on Agriculture. See further guidance on green box subsidies here [WTO Guidance for support in Agriculture.] Applicants receiving this type of support must ensure that there is minimal to no distortion of trade and comply with the requirements of [Annex 2 of the Agriculture Agreement]. Your project Your project must:

• have total costs between £500,000 and £2.5 million
• last between 12 and 36 months
• start by 1 March 2027
• end by 28 February 2030
• be collaborative Any organisation receiving funding must carry out its project work in the UK, intend to exploit the results in the UK, and spend most of the funding within the UK. Projects must always start on the first of the month, even if this is a non-working day. You must not start your project until your Grant Offer Letter has been approved by Innovate UK. Any delays within Project Setup may mean we need to delay your project start date. You must only include eligible project costs in your application. See our overview of [eligible project costs]. Lead organisation To lead a collaborative project your organisation must:
• be a UK registered business of any size
• collaborate with at least one other eligible UK organisation More information on the different types of organisation can be found in our [Funding rules]. Project team To collaborate with the lead, your organisation must be a UK based farmer, forester or grower, or a UK registered:
• business of any size
• academic institution
• charity
• not for profit
• public sector organisation
• research and technology organisation (RTO) If you are not UK registered you must be able to evidence that you are an established commercial business, including [sole traders] and partnerships. Each partner organisation must be invited into the Innovation Funding Service (IFS) by the lead to collaborate on a project. Once partners have accepted the invitation, they will be asked to login or to create an account in the IFS. They are responsible for entering their own project costs and completing their Project Impact questions in the application. To be an eligible collaboration:
• the lead and at least one other organisation must apply for funding when entering their costs into the application
• you must include the rationale for the collaboration and describe the structure in your application
• you must ensure any one organisation does not account for more than 70% of the total eligible costs Non-funded partners Your project can include organisations who do not claim any funding for their work on the project. Their costs will be covered from their own resources. These can include UK, EU and other non-UK organisations. Non-UK partners are permitted to carry out project work from within their home countries and exploit the results outside the UK. Where non-funded partners have been invited to the application on IFS, their costs will count towards the total eligible project costs. Subcontractors Subcontractors are allowed in this competition. Subcontractors can be from anywhere in the UK and you must select them through your usual procurement process. You can use subcontractors from overseas but must make the case in your application as to why you cannot use subcontractors from the UK. You must provide a detailed rationale, evidence of the potential UK contractors you approached and the reasons why they were unable to work with you. We will not accept a cheaper cost as a sufficient reason to use an overseas subcontractor. All subcontractor costs must be justified and appropriate to the total project costs. Number of applications A registered business can only lead on one application. Any further applications by the same organisation as lead will be made ineligible. A registered business that is leading an application can be included as a collaborator in a further two applications and if not leading, can collaborate in any number of applications. Any other eligible organisations can collaborate on any number of applications. Sanctions This competition will not fund you, or provide any financial benefit to any individual or entities directly or indirectly involved with you, which would expose Innovate UK or any direct or indirect beneficiary of funding from Innovate UK to [UK Sanctions]. For example, through any procurement, commercial, business development or supply chain activity with any entity as lead, partner or subcontractor related to [these countries, administrations and terrorist groups]. Use of animals in research and innovation Innovate UK expects and supports the provision and safeguarding of welfare standards for animals used in research and innovation, according to best practice and up to date guidance. Applicants must ensure that all of the proposed work within projects, both in the UK and internationally, will comply with the [UKRI guidance on the use of animals in research and innovation]. Any projects selected for funding which involve animals will be asked to provide additional information on welfare and ethical considerations, as well as compliance with any relevant legislation as part of the project start-up process. This information will be reviewed before an award is made.

Previous applications

You can use a previously submitted application to apply for this competition. If you have previously submitted an application that reached our assessment stage, you can re-apply once more with the same proposal. If there are minor differences to the proposal, but it is judged by us to be ‘not materially different’, the same rule applies. We will not award you funding if you have:

• [failed to exploit] a previously funded project
• an overdue [independent accountant’s report]
• failed to comply with grant terms and conditions Innovate UK may withhold a grant payment at any time if you have any outstanding sums due to us in relation to other projects.

Subsidy control (and State aid where applicable)

This competition provides funding in line with the Subsidy Control Act 2022. Further information about the Subsidy requirements can be found within the [Subsidy Control Act 2022 (legislation.gov.uk)]. Innovate UK is unable to award organisations that are considered to be in financial difficulty. We will conduct financial viability and eligibility tests to confirm this is not the case following the application stage. EU State aid rules now only apply in limited circumstances. See [the Windsor Framework] to check if these rules apply to your organisation. In the ‘Project details’ section of your application you will be asked questions to indicate if State Aid or Subsidy applies to your organisation. Further Information If you are unsure about your obligations under the Subsidy Control Act 2022 or the State aid rules, you should take independent legal advice. We are unable to advise on individual eligibility or legal obligations. You must not do anything which could cause a breach of Subsidy Control legislation applicable in the United Kingdom. This aims to regulate any advantage granted by a public sector body which threatens to, or distorts competition in the United Kingdom or any other country or countries. This award is classified as a Subsidy which does not form part of your Minimal Financial Assistance or de minimis allowance.

Funding

The Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (Defra) has allocated up to £20 million to fund innovation projects in this competition. Defra will be working in partnership with Innovate UK to deliver this competition. This is subject to us receiving a sufficient number of high quality applications. Funding will be in the form of a grant. If your project has farmers, growers or foresters requesting grant funding, a minimum of 50% of the total grant amount requested by those organisations, must come from farmers, growers or foresters geographically based in England. We reserve the right to adjust funding allocations for any of our competitions under exceptional circumstances, for example, in response to changes in policy, portfolio funding considerations, or broader government funding decisions. If your organisation’s work on the project is commercial or economic, your funding request must not exceed the limits below. These limits apply even if your organisation normally acts non-economically but for the purpose of this project will be undertaking commercial or economic activity. The balance between your total eligible project costs and the amount of grant awarded must be funded by the organisation receiving the grant. For industrial research projects, you can get funding for your eligible project costs of:

• up to 70% if you are a micro or small organisation
• up to 60% if you are a medium sized organisation
• up to 50% if you are a large organisation For more information on company sizes, refer to the [company accounts guidance]. If you are applying for an award funded under State aid Regulations, the definitions are set out in the [European Commission Recommendation of 6 May 2003]. Innovate UK may revoke our decision to provide funding without notice if government commitment for this initiative is withdrawn. Research participation The research organisations undertaking non-economic activity as part of the project can share up to 30% of the total eligible project costs. If your consortium contains more than one research organisation undertaking non-economic activity, this maximum is shared between them. Of that 30% you can get funding for your eligible project costs of up to:
• 100% of your eligible project costs if you are an RTO, charity, not for profit organisation, public sector organisation or research organisation
• 80% of full economic costs (FEC) if you are an academic institution Eligibility criteria for claiming 80% of FEC funding
• Research organisations must use the [Transparent Approach to Costing (TRAC) method] as the Je-S form has now been decommissioned.
• We pay 100% of the 80% Full Economic Cost (FEC). On IFS only enter the 80% being claimed. To find out more see our: [Cost Guidance for Academics].

Research categories

We will fund industrial research projects, as defined in the [guidance on categories of research].

Your proposal

The aim of this competition is to fund collaborative projects with ambitious solutions for robotics and automation in agriculture, horticulture and forestry to:

• address key issues affecting the sector, where automation and robotics can mitigate challenges such as productivity, resource use efficiency, food quality and traceability, waste, crop and animal health, animal welfare and sustainability
• reduce the reliance on seasonal labour in agriculture where automation and robotics are seen as the most viable solution
• support the specific recommendations for automation innovation funding from Defra reviews including the [Automation in Horticulture review]
• align with the Government’s Modern Industrial Strategy that identifies Agri-Tech as a Frontier Industry within the [Advanced Manufacturing sector plan] The innovative technologies in your proposal must focus on one or more of the following and be applicable to agriculture, horticulture and forestry:
• robotic and intelligent automated machines and systems for static or mobile operation
• imaging, sensing, and monitoring devices and systems to collect and store data and associated intelligent systems to process data for management records and to drive management decisions and automated actions
• post harvest automation for on farm and immediate post farm gate operations only, including horticultural and field crop preparation, packing and supply chain systems
• intelligent systems for on farm food storage management and monitoring
• intelligent systems for on farm energy management and monitoring

Your project must seek to significantly improve:

• productivity
• sustainability and environmental impact of farming
• progression towards net zero emissions
• longer term resilience

You must be able to demonstrate how the solution and output will benefit farmers, or growers in England.

Your project must:

• demonstrate environmental benefits and societal impact
• include clear project deliverables for measuring the sustainability of your solutions, and how they are preventing negative impact upon the sector
• ensure your solutions are closely aligned with industry priorities to deliver business orientated and transformative opportunities
• consider how it will encourage dissemination and knowledge exchange to the wider sector

Portfolio approach We want to fund a variety of projects across different technologies, markets and technological maturities. We call this a [portfolio approach].

Specific themes

Your project must focus on one or more of the following agricultural, horticultural and forestry production sectors:

Farmed animals

• monogastric
• ruminant

Plant

• broadacre: cereals, root crops, grassland, forage crops
• horticulture: field based and specialist nursery growers
• fruit: top fruit, stone fruit and soft fruit
• orchard
• vineyard
• protected cropping: glass and polytunnel systems
• controlled environment and vertical farming systems
• ornamental plant propagation, growing and monitoring where technology can also be applied to food production
• forestry for tree nursery and planting operations, and for woodland monitoring and management, heavy equipment and harvesting operations are excluded

Projects we will not fund

We are not funding projects that:

• are equine specific
• involve wild caught fisheries
• involve aquaculture for fish production or human consumption
• involve cellular expression of proteins for human consumption or cultivated meat
• involve acellular production systems, fermentation systems for bacteria, yeast or fungi for human consumption
• are for the production of crops or plants for medicinal or pharmaceutical use
• do not benefit farmers, growers or foresters in England
• are relevant to non-food or ornamental plants only
• involve forestry harvesting operations and associated heavy equipment
• involve food processing and manufacturing
• that are primarily to develop another product or technology that have automation only to support the key product or technology

We cannot fund projects that are:

• dependent on export performance: giving a subsidy to an organisation on the condition that it exports a certain quantity of its products to another country
• dependent on domestic inputs usage: giving a subsidy to an organisation on the condition that it uses a set percentage of UK components in their product

Key dates

• 3 August 2026: Competition opens
• 6 August 2026: Online briefing event: [watch the recording] (Briefing slides are available to download from Supporting Information.)
• 13 August 2026: Online Q&A session and consortium building event: [register to attend]
• 30 September 2026 11:00am: Competition closes
• 30 October 2026: Invite to interview
• 18 November 2026: Interview panel starts
• 25 November 2026: Interview panel ends
• 1 December 2026: Applicants notified
• 1 March 2027: Project start by