Deadline Date: November 26, 2025
The ADOPT Facilitator Support Grant: Round 5, offered by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) in partnership with Innovate UK, provides funding to farming, growing, or forestry businesses based in England to engage an external Project Facilitator to support the development of a Full ADOPT Grant application.
The aim of this competition is to provide a £2,500 grant for a farmer, grower, or forester based in England to engage an external Project Facilitator to support with submissions into the Full ADOPT Grant competitions, improve the quality of Full ADOPT Grant applications, make ADOPT funding accessible to a wider range of applicants, and enhance the skills and expertise of the farming eco-system to engage with innovation funding.
The ADOPT programme is part of the Farming Innovation Programme, which consists of three funds: the Industry led R&D Partnerships Fund, Farming Futures R&D Fund, and the ADOPT Fund. This competition focuses specifically on the ADOPT Fund, which provides two types of grants: a small Support Grant to access professional assistance from an industry expert to develop a Full ADOPT Grant application and the Full ADOPT Grant itself to support collaborative, farmer-led, on-farm trials or experiments.
Applicants can request a list of registered Project Facilitators from the Innovate UK Business Connect database. The ADOPT Support Hub, run by ADAS, offers guidance to applicants throughout the process, including advice on project scope, finding partners and expertise, and promoting best practices for on-farm R&D.
Successful applicants will receive a £2,500 grant, covering 100% of eligible project costs, and must provide evidence that their Full ADOPT Grant application has been submitted for assessment. Claims must be submitted within six months of receiving the Grant Offer Letter. Farmers, growers, or foresters can only lead one application per competition round and receive a maximum of two Facilitator Support Grants in total.
To be eligible, applicants must be active farming, growing, or forestry businesses based in England with an established commercial presence and a UK bank account. Non-profit organizations, charities, and Community Interest Companies (CICs) are not eligible. The Project Facilitator must be registered in the Innovate UK Business Connect database, and subcontractors are not allowed.
The competition encourages projects that test and trial new ideas or solutions on-farm, addressing major on-farm or immediate post-farmgate challenges, and improving productivity, resilience, sustainability, or progression towards net zero farming. Projects must demonstrate benefits to other farmers, growers, or foresters in England and focus on innovations that are either new or not yet widely used. Certain project types, including funded crop variety trials, existing demonstration projects, cultivated meat, equine systems, wild-caught fisheries, and some aquaculture or fermentation systems, are not eligible.
Funding for this round is up to £100,000, distributed in grants of £2,500 per successful applicant. All awards comply with the Subsidy Control Act 2022, and projects involving animals must adhere to UKRI guidance on welfare and ethical considerations.
For more information, visit GOV.UK.
