Funding competition Defra Farming Innovation Investor Partnership

UK registered micro, small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) can apply for a share of up to £5 million to develop innovative farming solutions. This must align with private investment from selected investor partners.

Competition opens: Monday 11 May 2026
Competition closes: Wednesday 17 June 2026 11:00am

This competition is now closed.

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Competition sections

Summary
Eligibility
Scope
Dates
How to apply
Supporting information

Description

Text update 21 May 2026: we have updated the links for the investor pool in this section.

Innovate UK, part of UK Research and Innovation, will work with the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) to invest up to £5 million in innovation projects.

This funding is linked to Defra's Farming Innovation Programme delivered by Innovate UK.

The aim of this competition is to:

develop ambitious late stage innovative solutions, technologies, systems or approaches that will make significant steps towards improving productivity, profitability, increasing sustainability and resilience
help the agriculture sector move towards achieving net zero emissions by 2050
support commercialisation of late stage experimental development projects that are close to market and ultimately their adoption by farmers

Your proposal must be able to demonstrate how the project will benefit farmers, growers or foresters in England.

To be offered grant funding your project must be assessed as eligible for grant funding and you must have secured aligned investment with a lead investor. In the investor pool you can view the areas of expertise and investment preferences for the investors.

You can apply for this competition before you speak to an investor but initiating dialogue with investors is strongly encouraged.

In addition to investment, the lead investors in the pool can provide you with commercial acumen in, for example:

leadership
market access
skills
resources

Successful UK registered SME’s will receive:

grant funding from Innovate UK
aligned investment funding with one of the programme’s pool of investors acting as the lead investor

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.

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 £750,000 and £3 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

Your project

If you are successful, 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 must:

have total costs of between £750,000 and £3 million
last 18 months
carry out all of its project work in the UK
intend to exploit the results from or in the UK
not start before 1 April 2027
be able to demonstrate how it will benefit farmers, growers or foresters in England

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.

If your project’s duration falls outside of our eligibility criteria, you must provide justification by email to support@iuk.ukri.org at least 10 working days before the competition closes. We will then decide whether to approve your request.

If you project does not meet our criteria and you have not requested justification approval, your application will be made ineligible and it will not be sent for assessment.

Lead organisation

To lead a project your organisation must:

be a UK registered micro, small or medium sized enterprise (SME)
be prepared to negotiate heads of terms for an aligned private investment
be seeking private financing of at least twice the amount of the grant requested

More information on the different types of organisation can be found in our Funding rules.

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

An SME can only lead on one application.

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 award 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 and Rural Affairs (Defra) has allocated up to £5 million to fund innovation projects in this competition. This competition is delivered by Innovate UK and funding will be in the form of a grant.

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 experimental development projects which are nearer to market, you can get funding for your eligible project costs of:

up to 45% if you are a micro or small organisation
up to 35% if you are a medium sized 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.

Aligned private investment

You must agree the private investment through a lead investor and reach heads of terms by 2 December 2026.

The aligned private investment:

must provide you with suitable capital at least twice the amount of the grant requested to complete your project, support company growth and scale ambitions
can be directed for use in your company, whereas the grant is to support the project only
can be used to fund additional costs typically ineligible for support by Innovate UK
must be provided under commercial terms negotiated with the lead investor and not Innovate UK

The investment can be in the form of either direct equity investment or a convertible loan. It must come from a lead investor from the pool of investors associated with this programme. The lead investor may decide to syndicate with other investors from within or outside of the pool.

Your proposal

The aim of this competition is to:

develop ambitious late stage innovative solutions, technologies, systems or approaches that will make significant steps towards improving productivity, profitability, increasing sustainability and resilience
help the agriculture sector move towards achieving net zero emissions by 2050
support commercialisation of late stage experimental development projects that are close to market and ultimately their adoption by farmers

Your project must:

demonstrate your ambition to finalise a late stage innovation
show your potential to grow and scale your business through successful negotiation of investment from a lead investor associated with the competition
provide a coherent project plan which integrates into your business strategy

Your solutions must significantly improve farm focused:

productivity
sustainability and environmental impact
progression towards net zero emissions
resilience

Your project must be able to demonstrate how the project will benefit farmers, growers or foresters in England.

Portfolio approach

We want to fund a variety of projects across different technologies and themes. We will show preference to applications and investments that demonstrate greater added value and reduced risk alongside those with a higher ratio of investment to grant. We call this a portfolio approach.

Specific themes

Your project must address a significant industry challenge or opportunity in at least one of the industry subsectors below:

livestock
plants
novel food production systems
bioeconomy and agroforestry

Research categories

We will fund experimental development projects only as defined in the guidance on categories of research.

Projects we will not fund

We are not funding projects that:

are not carried out by single micro, small or medium sized enterprises (SMEs)
are collaborative research and development (R&D) projects
are not part of a company’s growth plan
are unable to prove there is potential for return on investment and growth
are equine specific
involve wild caught fisheries
involve aquaculture for fish production or human consumption
involve cellular expression of proteins or cultivated meat
involve cellular or 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

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

Timeline

11 May 2026: Competition opens
18 May 2026: Online briefing event: watch the recording; Briefing slides are available to download from Supporting Information
17 June 2026 11:00am: Competition closes
24 July 2026: Notification of Innovate UK grant eligibility
2 December 2026: Deadline to reach heads of terms with lead investor
16 December 2026: Applicants notified
1 April 2027: Project start from

Before you start

You must read the guidance on applying for a competition on the Innovation Funding Service before you start.

Before submitting, it is the lead applicant’s responsibility to make sure:

that all the information provided in the application is correct
your proposal meets the eligibility and scope criteria
all sections of the application are marked as complete

You can reopen your application once submitted, up until the competition deadline. You must resubmit the application before the competition deadline.

Projects will be notified of their eligibility following the Innovate UK assessment and their potential opportunity to receive grant funding. This will be conditional on reaching heads of terms with an eligible investor partner and the availability of Innovate UK funding.

What we ask you

The application is split into three sections:

Project details.
Application questions.
Finances.

Accessibility and Inclusion