Deadline Date: December 10, 2025
The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), in partnership with Innovate UK, is offering up to £3.5 million in funding through the Full ADOPT Grant Round 4 to support innovative on-farm trials and demonstration projects in England that aim to improve the adoption of new ideas or solutions in the agricultural sector.
Focus Areas: The funding aims to support projects that will significantly improve one or more of the following: productivity, resilience, sustainability and progression towards net zero farming. Projects must address a significant industry challenge or opportunity in at least one or more of the following sectors: agriculture, horticulture, agro-forestry.
This competition is part of Defra’s Farming Innovation Programme and focuses on supporting on-farm trials or experiments that test ideas or solutions demonstrating clear benefits for English farmers, growers, or foresters. The projects must embrace open innovation principles, ensuring the results are shared widely to encourage broader adoption across the sector. Each proposal must show how the idea or solution can improve major on-farm or immediate post farmgate challenges and demonstrate practical benefits to the wider agricultural community.
Eligible projects must have total costs between £50,000 and £100,000, run for six to twenty-four months, start by 1 May 2026, and conclude by 30 April 2028. Only active farming, growing, or forestry businesses based in England can lead a project, though collaboration with other UK farmers, growers, or foresters is mandatory. Additionally, each project must include a Project Facilitator listed in the ADOPT Innovate UK Business Connect database.
The competition welcomes collaborations with various UK-registered entities such as academic institutions, research and technology organisations, charities, and public sector organisations. At least 50% of the total grant amount requested must be allocated to farmers, growers, or foresters geographically based in England. Innovate UK provides funding for eligible project costs of up to 80% for farming, growing, or forestry businesses in England, Wales, or Scotland, depending on the size and type of the organisation.
Projects under this funding round must focus on testing and trialling ideas that are new or not yet widely used in the sector. They must also outline how project outcomes will be communicated and shared during and after completion. However, projects that do not benefit English farmers, are based on existing demonstration trials, or involve activities such as aquaculture, cultivated meat, or medicinal crop production are not eligible for funding.
The funding competition uses a portfolio approach to ensure a diverse range of projects across technologies, themes, practices, and regions, supporting innovation that strengthens productivity, resilience, and environmental sustainability within UK farming.
For more information, visit Innovate UK.
