ADOPT Facilitator Support Grant: Round 6

Overview

The ADOPT Facilitator Support Grant (Round 6) offers £2,500 to farming, growing and forestry businesses in England to engage an external Project Facilitator. The facilitator supports the development and submission of a Full ADOPT Grant application, helping applicants turn innovative on-farm ideas into strong, fundable proposals.

This grant forms part of Defra’s Farming Innovation Programme and is delivered by Innovate UK to strengthen farmer-led innovation and improve access to research and development funding.

Scope

The competition is aimed at farmers, growers and foresters who want to test and trial new ideas or solutions on-farm but require professional support to prepare a Full ADOPT Grant application.

The proposed Full ADOPT project must focus on on-farm or immediate post-farmgate trials or experiments that address real-world challenges and demonstrate benefits under practical farming conditions. Projects should have clear relevance to other farmers, growers or foresters in England and show strong potential for wider adoption.

Key themes and topics

Proposed Full ADOPT projects supported by this grant must demonstrate potential to significantly improve one or more of the following:

• Farm productivity
• Business resilience
• Environmental sustainability and progression towards net zero farming

Projects must relate to at least one of the following sectors:

• Agriculture
• Horticulture
• Agro-forestry

Project duration

The Facilitator Support Grant must be used within a six-month period. Applicants must submit evidence within this timeframe that their Full ADOPT Grant application has been sent for assessment in order to receive payment.

Award value

• £2,500 per successful applicant
• A total of up to £100,000 is available across all Round 6 awards

Funding is released only after evidence of submission of a Full ADOPT Grant application and a valid facilitator invoice are provided.

Funding rates

• 100% of eligible costs covered
• Funding may only be used to pay for an external Project Facilitator registered with Innovate UK Business Connect
• Subcontractors are not permitted

Eligibility criteria

To be eligible, applicants must:

• Be an active farming, growing or forestry business based in England
• Be a commercially operating business (including sole traders and partnerships)
• Hold a UK bank account
• Engage a Project Facilitator registered on the Innovate UK Business Connect database
• Submit only one application per competition round
• Have received no more than two ADOPT Facilitator Support Grants in total

Not eligible:

• Charities, CICs or non-commercial organisations
• Projects outside England
• Projects involving excluded activities such as aquaculture, equine systems, cultivated meat or medicinal crop production