Request for Proposals: Full ADOPT Grant Program in UK

This funding forms part of Defra’s Farming Innovation Programme and is being delivered in partnership with Innovate UK, with the aim of accelerating practical innovation in agriculture.

The competition is designed to support farmers, growers, and foresters who want to test new ideas or solutions directly on farms. Funded projects should demonstrate clear potential to address major on-farm or immediate post-farmgate challenges, or to seize new opportunities that can strengthen the agricultural sector.

Projects supported through this programme must show the potential to significantly improve productivity, resilience, or sustainability, including progress towards net-zero farming. The focus is on practical, real-world experimentation that can deliver measurable benefits and be adopted more widely across the sector.

Eligible projects must have total costs between £50,000 and £100,000 and run for a period of between six and twenty-four months. All projects are expected to embrace open innovation principles and commit to sharing their results with other farmers, growers, or foresters to encourage learning and wider uptake of successful approaches.

Each project team must include a Project Facilitator who is listed in the ADOPT Innovate UK Business Connect database and must collaborate with at least one other UK farmer, grower, or forester. This collaborative approach is intended to strengthen knowledge exchange and ensure that solutions are relevant and transferable.

All funded project activities must take place in the UK, and projects must intend to exploit their results from or within England. Where funding is awarded to primary agricultural producers, support is provided under the green box exemption of the World Trade Organization Agreement on Agriculture, requiring minimal distortion of trade and full compliance with international subsidy rules.

For more information, visit GOV.UK.