Funding competition

Full ADOPT Grant: Round 9

Farming, growing or forestry businesses based in England can apply for a share of up to £5 million for on-farm trial and demonstration projects, to improve adoption of new ideas or solutions in the agricultural sector.

Competition opens: Friday 14 August 2026 Competition closes: Wednesday 7 October 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 and Rural Affairs (Defra) will invest up to £5 million for on-farm trials and farm experiment projects. This is subject to a sufficient number of high quality applications being received.

This funding is part of Defra’s [Farming Innovation Programme], delivered in partnership with Innovate UK.

The aim of this competition is to support innovative, on-farm trials or experiments to test ideas or solutions and demonstrate that they will address major on-farm or immediate post farmgate challenges or opportunities.

Your project must have the potential to significantly improve one or more of the following:

• productivity
• resilience
• sustainability and progression towards net zero farming

Your proposal must demonstrate to other English farmers, growers or foresters how the idea or solution will be of benefit to them.

If you are unfamiliar with the Innovate UK application process, you may wish to explore the [ADOPT Facilitator Support Grant]. The support grant is designed for applicants to engage with an external Project Facilitator to aid in the project scoping and application submission to the ADOPT Full Grant competition.

There is also a [Support Hub] available for applicants needing to request information or general support.

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 costs must be between £50,000 and £200,000.

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 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 [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 between £50,000 and £200,000
• last between 6 and 24 months
• start by 1 February 2027
• end by 31 January 2029
• embrace open innovation principles and be willing to share results with other farmers, growers or foresters
• have a Project Facilitator as part of the project team who is listed in the ADOPT [Innovate UK Business Connect database]
• collaborate with at least one other UK farmer, grower or forester that is claiming grant funding

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 you must:

• be an active farming, growing or forestry [business] of any size based in England
• be able to evidence that you are an established commercial business, including sole traders and partnerships
• have an eligible UK bank account
• collaborate with at least one other farming, growing or forestry business of any size, based in the UK

It is desirable that you also collaborate with other UK registered organisations.

If you are part of a farming or growing co-operative, you should apply individually.

Organisations that are not profit driven or do not have a commercial focus, including Community Interest Companies (CICs) and charities, are not allowed to lead in this competition.

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

[Academic institutions] cannot lead or work alone.

Project team To collaborate with the lead, you must be an active commercial farmer, grower or forester based in the UK.

You can also collaborate with the lead applicant if you are a UK registered:

• business of any size
• academic institution
• charity
• not for profit
• public sector organisation
• research organisation
• research and technology organisation (RTO)

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 IFS. They are responsible for entering their own project costs in the application.

To be an eligible collaboration:

• the lead and at least one other organisation must request funding
• you must explain why you’re collaborating and how the collaboration will work
• no single organisation can claim more than 70% of the total 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.

You may include your Project Facilitator under subcontractor costs.

Number of applications An eligible organisation can only lead on one application. Any further applications by the same organisation as lead will be made ineligible.

An eligible organisation that is leading an application can be included as a collaborator in two further applications and if not leading, can collaborate in any number of applications.

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.

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].

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, working in partnership with Innovate UK to fund on-farm trial projects in this competition. This is subject to us receiving a sufficient number of high quality applications. Funding will be in the form of a grant.

A minimum of 50% of the total grant amount requested by farmers, growers and foresters must be allocated to 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 80% if you are an active farming, growing or forestry business based in England, Wales or Scotland
• up to 70% if you are a micro or small organisation, including active farming, growing or forestry businesses based in Northern Ireland
• 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 60% 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 60% 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].

Your proposal

The aim of this competition is to support innovative on-farm trials or experiments to test ideas or solutions and demonstrate that they will address major on-farm or immediate post farmgate challenges or opportunities.

Your project must have the potential to significantly improve one or more of:

• productivity
• resilience
• sustainability and progression towards net zero farming

Your project must focus on testing and trialling ideas or solutions that are either new or not yet widely used.

You must demonstrate to other English farmers, growers or foresters how the project will benefit them.

You must outline how you will communicate and share the outputs from your trial or experiment during and after your project.

Portfolio approach We want to fund a variety of projects across different technologies, technological maturity, markets, theme, practices and processes, farming sectors and regions. We call this a [portfolio approach].

Specific themes

Your project must address a significant industry challenge or opportunity in at least one or more of the following sectors:

• agriculture
• horticulture
• agro-forestry

Research categories

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

Projects we will not fund

We are not funding projects that:

• do not benefit farmers, growers or foresters in England
• are based on funded crop variety plot trials
• are based on existing demonstration trials or projects
• are for the production of crops or plants for medicinal or pharmaceutical use
• are for cultivated meat
• are based on equine systems
• involve wild caught fisheries
• involve aquaculture, such as algae and seaweed for human consumption
• involve fermentation systems for bacteria, yeast or fungi for human consumption

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

Dates (dl)

• 14 August 2026: Recorded briefing scope and process: [watch the scope recording] and [watch the process recording] Briefing slides are available to download from Supporting Information.
• 14 August 2026: Competition opens
• 20 August 2026: ADOPT Facilitator Support Grant Rd 11 open date
• 24 September 2026: Full ADOPT Grant Rd 10 open date
• 7 October 2026 11:00am: Competition closes
• 5 November 2026: Applicants notified
• 1 February 2027: Project start by

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
• that all partners have completed all assigned sections and accepted the terms and conditions (T&Cs)

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

What we ask you The application is split into three sections:

1. Project details.
2. Application questions.
3. Finances.

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).

1. Project details

This section provides background for your application and is not scored.

Application team Decide which organisations will work with you on your project and invite people from those organisations to help complete the application.

Application details Give your project’s title, start date and duration.

Research category Select the type of research you will undertake.

Project summary Describe your project briefly. We use this section to assign the right experts to assess your application so you must be clear about which agricultural, horticultural or agro-forestry area you are working in.

Your answer can be up to 400 words long.

Public description Describe your project in detail and in a way that you are happy to see published. Do not include any commercially sensitive information. If we award your project funding, we will publish this description. This can happen before you start your project.

Your answer can be up to 400 words long.

Scope Describe how your project fits the scope of the competition by:

• indicating which on-farm or immediate post farmgate challenges or opportunities you are addressing
• summarising how your project will be testing and trialling on-farm or immediate post farmgate solutions that are either new or not yet widely used

You must also state the name of the approved ADOPT Project Facilitator who will be supporting you in the project.

If your project is not in scope, it will not be sent for assessment. We will tell you the reason why.

Your answer can be up to 400 words long.

2. Application questions

The assessors will score all your answers apart from questions 1 to 7. You will receive feedback for each scored question. Find out more about [how our assessors assess] and [how we select applications for funding].

You must answer all questions.

You must not include any website addresses or links (URLs) in your answers. Any website addresses or URLs included, will not be viewed or opened.

Question 1. Applicant location (not scored) You must state the name and full registered address of your organisation, all partners and any subcontractors working on your project.

You must also provide a list of any farmers, growers or foresters claiming or receiving grant funding in the project.

Note: you must have a minimum of 50% of any grant requested by farmers, growers or foresters in the project, allocated to farmers, growers or foresters based in England.

We are collecting this information to understand more about the geographical location of all applicants.

Your answer can be up to 200 words long.

Question 2. Animal testing (not scored) Will your project involve any trials with animals or animal testing?

• Yes
• No

We will only support innovation projects conducted to the highest standards of animal welfare.

Further information for proposals involving animal testing is available at the [UKRI Good Research Hub] and [NC3R’s animal welfare guidance].

Question 3. Farmers, growers or foresters details (not scored) The project lead must confirm that they are a farmer, grower or forester based in England and the other farming partners must confirm they are based in the UK.

All farming partners must provide details of their current engagement in English or UK farming, growing or forestry operations, as follows:

• name and role in the business
• the trading names of the farming, growing or forestry businesses if different from their registered name
• which county the main farming, growing or forestry activity is based in
• what is grown or produced, and the scale of the operation

We will use these answers to confirm the eligibility of the project lead and that there is at least one other commercial farming, growing or forestry business deriving income from these agricultural sectors.

Your answer can be up to 400 words long.

Question 4. Permits and licences (not scored) Will you have the correct permits and licences in place to carry out your project? We are unable to fund projects which do not have the correct permits or licences in place by your project start date.

You must select one option:

• Yes
• No
• In the process of being applied for
• Not applicable

Question 5. International collaboration (not scored) Does your proposed work involve any international collaboration or engagement? You must provide details of any expected international collaboration or engagement. You must include a list of the names and the countries, any international project co-leads, project partners, visiting researchers, or other collaborators are based in.

You must also include details of any subcontractors or service providers.

If your proposed work does not involve international collaboration or engagement, your answer must confirm this.

Your answer can be up to 100 words long.

Question 6. Export licence (not scored) You must indicate whether an export control license is req