Full ADOPT Grant Round 4

Overview

The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), in partnership with Innovate UK, is investing up to £3.5 million to support innovative on-farm trials and experiments. This competition is part of Defra’s Farming Innovation Programme and is designed for farmers, growers, and foresters to test, validate, and demonstrate new ideas or solutions that tackle major on-farm or post-farmgate challenges.

Projects should aim to improve productivity, resilience, and sustainability, and contribute to progress towards net zero farming. Results must be openly shared to help other English farmers and foresters benefit from the findings.

Applicants unfamiliar with Innovate UK processes can access additional help through the ADOPT Facilitator Support Grant or the ADOPT Support Hub.

Scope

The Full ADOPT Grant funds industrial research projects focused on testing and demonstrating on-farm innovation under real conditions. Eligible projects must explore solutions that are new or not yet widely used and show measurable benefits to UK agriculture.

Projects should also show a clear plan for communicating outcomes, ensuring knowledge is shared across the sector.

Key themes and topics

Projects must address a key challenge or opportunity in at least one of the following sectors:

• Agriculture
• Horticulture
• Agro-forestry

Key focus areas:

• On-farm innovation and experimentation
• Collaboration between farmers and researchers
• Sustainable practices and reduced emissions
• Knowledge sharing and open innovation

Not eligible:
‍
Projects that:

• Don’t directly benefit English farmers, growers or foresters
• Are based on existing demonstration or crop variety trials
• Involve medicinal crops, cultivated meat, equine systems, or aquaculture
• Depend on export performance or domestic input requirements

Project duration

Projects must:

• Last 6–24 months
• Start by 1 May 2026
• End by 30 April 2028

Award value

• Total project costs must be between £50,000 and £100,000
• Total funding available: up to £3.5 million

Funding rates

For industrial research projects, eligible funding levels are:

• Up to 80% – active farming, growing or forestry businesses (England, Wales, Scotland)
• Up to 70% – micro or small organisations (including those in Northern Ireland)
• Up to 60% – medium organisations
• Up to 50% – large organisations

Research organisations undertaking non-economic activity can receive:

• Up to 100% of eligible costs (RTOs, charities, not-for-profits, public sector, or research bodies)
• Up to 80% FEC for Je-S registered institutions

At least 50% of total grant funding must go to English-based farmers, growers, or foresters.

Eligibility criteria

To apply, you must:

• Be an active farming, growing, or forestry business based in England
• Have a Project Facilitator registered in the ADOPT Innovate UK Business Connect database
• Collaborate with at least one other UK farmer, grower, or forester
• Carry out and exploit project results in the UK (preferably England)
• Have a UK bank account and operate as a commercial business

You may also collaborate with other UK-registered partners, such as businesses, academic institutions, charities, or RTOs.

Each farmer, grower, or forester can lead one application and join up to two further collaborations.

Community Interest Companies (CICs), charities, and non-commercial organisations cannot lead.