Full ADOPT Grant: Round 5

Overview

The Full ADOPT Grant: Round 5 is part of Defra’s Farming Innovation Programme and is delivered in partnership with Innovate UK through the ADOPT Fund. It supports farmer-led, on-farm trials and farm experiments that test and demonstrate innovative ideas or solutions addressing on-farm and immediate post-farmgate challenges.

Projects must show clear potential to significantly improve one or more of:

• agricultural productivity
• business resilience
• environmental sustainability and progress towards net zero farming

Funded projects are expected to share their results with other farmers, growers and foresters, helping to encourage wider adoption of innovative practices across England.

Scope

This competition focuses on practical, on-farm trials and experiments rather than early-stage research. Projects must:

• Test ideas or solutions that are new or not yet widely adopted in the sector.
• Address major on-farm or immediate post-farmgate challenges or opportunities.
• Demonstrate benefits and relevance to farmers, growers or foresters in England.
• Embrace open innovation, sharing learning and results to support wider adoption.

Eligible sectors include agriculture, horticulture and agro-forestry. Projects must be carried out in the UK, with the intention to exploit the results from or in England.

Projects will not be funded if they:

• Do not benefit farmers, growers or foresters in England.
• Are based solely on existing crop variety plot trials or demonstration projects.
• Focus on crops or plants for medicinal or pharmaceutical use, cultivated meat, equine systems, wild-caught fisheries, aquaculture for human consumption (including algae and seaweed), or fermentation systems for human food (bacteria, yeast or fungi).
• Are dependent on export performance or domestic input usage as a condition of support.

Innovate UK will fund a portfolio of projects across different technologies, farming systems, regions and themes to ensure a balanced spread of innovation activity.

Key themes and topics

Projects must tackle significant industry challenges or opportunities in at least one of the following sectors:

• Agriculture
• Horticulture
• Agro-forestry

Within these sectors, proposals should clearly show how the trial or experiment will:

• Improve productivity, such as yield, efficiency or resource use.
• Strengthen resilience, including business robustness, risk management or adaptation to shocks.
• Enhance sustainability and support progress towards net zero emissions, for example through reduced inputs, emissions reduction, soil health or biodiversity gains.

Projects should also contribute to wider ADOPT Fund objectives by:

• Supporting farmer-led on-farm R&D and robust practical trials.
• Generating and sharing evidence that other farmers can trust and apply.
• Creating peer-to-peer learning and knowledge exchange opportunities, including events or other communication activities.
• Building farmers’ skills and confidence in innovation and on-farm research.

Project duration

Projects must:

• Have total project durations between 6 and 24 months.
• Start by 1 June 2026.
• End by 31 May 2028 at the latest.
• Start on the first day of a month, even if it is not a working day.

Projects must not begin before the Grant Offer Letter is issued and all project set-up steps have been completed with Innovate UK. Any delays in project set-up may require a revised start date.

Competition timetable (for context):

• 11 December 2025 – Competition opens
• 4 February 2026, 11:00am – Competition closes
• 6 March 2026 – Applicants notified
• 1 June 2026 – Latest project start date

Award value

Defra has allocated up to £4.5 million for this round of the Full ADOPT Grant, subject to receiving a sufficient number of high-quality applications.

At project level:

• Total eligible project costs must be between £50,000 and £100,000.
• Funding is provided as a grant.
• At least 50% of the total grant requested by farmers, growers and foresters in the project must be allocated to those geographically based in England.

The competition is competitive and not all applications that meet the quality threshold will be funded. Funding decisions may also consider prior conduct (for example any outstanding payments owed to Innovate UK or UKRI) and portfolio balance.

Funding rates

This competition funds industrial research as defined in Innovate UK’s research categories.

For organisations carrying out commercial or economic activity, the maximum intervention rates are:

• Up to 80% of eligible costs for active farming, growing or forestry businesses based in England, Wales or Scotland.
• Up to 70% for micro or small organisations, including active farming, growing or forestry businesses based in Northern Ireland.
• Up to 60% for medium-sized organisations.
• Up to 50% for large organisations.

For research organisations undertaking non-economic activity, up to 60% of total eligible project costs can be shared between all research organisations in the consortium, with:

• Up to 100% of eligible costs for RTOs, charities, not-for-profit organisations, public sector bodies and research organisations.
• Up to 80% of full economic costs (FEC) for Je-S registered academic institutions, entered in IFS as 100% of the 80% FEC figure.

The balance between total eligible project costs and the grant awarded must be met by the organisation(s) receiving the funding. All funding must comply with the Subsidy Control Act 2022 (and State aid rules where still applicable). Innovate UK will carry out financial viability and eligibility checks and will not support organisations in financial difficulty or those in breach of subsidy control rules.

Eligibility criteria

Project requirements

Projects must:

• Have total eligible costs of £50,000–£100,000.
• Last 6–24 months, starting by 1 June 2026 and ending by 31 May 2028.
• Be farmer-led and designed as on-farm trials or experiments.
• Embrace open innovation and commit to sharing methods, learning and results with other farmers.
• Include an ADOPT Project Facilitator as part of the team, selected from the ADOPT Innovate UK Business Connect database.
• Involve collaboration with at least one other UK farmer, grower or forester.
• Carry out all project work in the UK and intend to exploit results from or in England.

Projects must only include eligible project costs and comply with Innovate UK cost guidance.

Lead organisation

To lead a project, applicants must:

• Be an active farming, growing or forestry business of any size based in England.
• Be able to show they are an established commercial business (including sole traders and partnerships).
• Have a UK bank account.
• Collaborate with at least one other farming, growing or forestry business of any size based in the UK.

Organisations that are not primarily profit-driven or do not have a commercial focus (e.g. charities, CICs) cannot lead but may join as partners where eligible. Academic institutions cannot lead.

Project team and collaborators

In addition to the farmer partners, eligible collaborators can include:

• UK-registered businesses of any size.
• Academic institutions.
• Charities and not-for-profit organisations.
• Public sector organisations.
• Research organisations and RTOs.

To form an eligible collaboration:

• The lead and at least one other organisation must request funding and show a clear rationale for collaborating.
• No single partner can claim more than 70% of total eligible project costs.
• Partners must be invited into the Innovation Funding Service to enter their own costs.

Non-funded partners and subcontractors

• Non-funded partners (UK, EU or non-UK) can join and contribute at their own cost; their costs still count towards total eligible project costs.
• Subcontractors are allowed and can be based in the UK or overseas. Overseas subcontracting must be justified with evidence that suitable UK options were explored; lower cost alone is not sufficient justification.
• The Project Facilitator can be costed as a subcontractor.

Other conditions

• Applicants must comply with sanctions regulations, and Innovate UK will not fund projects that could expose them or beneficiaries to UK sanctions risks.
• Any use of animals in research must comply with UKRI animal welfare guidance and relevant legislation.
• Applicants must meet Innovate UK rules on previous applications, exploitation of past projects, and compliance with grant terms.
• Projects must respect Trusted Research and Innovation and export control requirements where applicable.