Full ADOPT Grant: Round 7 is sponsored by Innovate UK (part of UK Research and Innovation) and Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra). Farming, growing or forestry businesses based in England can apply for a share of up to £5 million for on-farm trial and demonstration projects, to improve adoption of new ideas or solutions in the agricultural sector.

Full ADOPT Grant: Round 7 - GOV-UK Find a grant Full ADOPT Grant: Round 7 Farming, growing or forestry businesses based in England can apply for a share of up to £5 million for on-farm trial and demonstration projects, to improve adoption of new ideas or solutions in the agricultural sector.

Opening date : 9 April 2026, 10:00am Closing date : 3 June 2026, 11:00am Get updates about this grant The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) will invest up to £5 million for on-farm trials and farm experiment projects. This funding is part of Defra’s Farming Innovation Programme , delivered in partnership with Innovate UK.

The aim of this competition is to support innovative, on-farm trials or experiments to test ideas or solutions and demonstrate that they will address major on-farm or immediate post farmgate challenges or opportunities.

Your project must have the potential to significantly improve one or more of the following: sustainability and progression towards net zero farming Your proposal must demonstrate to other English farmers, growers or foresters how the idea or solution will be of benefit to them. If you are unfamiliar with the Innovate UK application process, you may wish to explore the ADOPT Facilitator Support Grant .

The support grant is designed for applicants to engage with an external Project Facilitator to aid in the project scoping and application submission to the ADOPT Full Grant competition. There is also a Support Hub available for applicants needing to request information or general support. In applying to this competition, you are entering into a competitive process.

This competition has a funding limit, so we may not be able to fund all the proposed projects. It may be the case that your project scores highly but we are still unable to fund it. We consider a range of factors when determining whether to provide funding to applicants.

This includes an assessment of prior conduct, such as any outstanding payments owed to Innovate UK or UKRI. Such factors may influence the funding decision, potentially resulting in a refusal of funding or an award subject to additional scrutiny. We also reserve the right to adjust funding allocations for any of our competitions.

This may be in response to changes in policy, portfolio funding considerations or broader government funding decisions. This competition closes at 11am UK time on the deadline stated in this Innovate UK competition brief. We cannot guarantee other government or third party sites will always show the correct competition information.

Your project’s total costs must be between £50,000 and £100,000. Accessibility and Inclusion We welcome and encourage applications from people of all backgrounds and are committed to making our application process accessible to everyone. This includes making reasonable adjustments , for people who have a disability or a long-term condition and face barriers applying to us.

You can contact us at any time to ask for guidance. We recommend you contact us at least 15 working days before this competition’s closing date to allow us to put the most suitable support in place. The support we can provide may be limited if you contact us close to the competition deadline.

You can contact Innovate UK by email or call 0300 321 4357. Our phone lines are open from 9am to 12pm and 2pm to 5pm UK time, Monday to Friday (excluding bank holidays). If you have any enquiries about the ADOPT funding opportunity contact the ADOPT Support HUB , Email adoptsupport@adas.

co. uk or call 0800 987 8006. The Support Hub line is open from 9am to 5pm Monday to Friday.

If your application passes the technical assessment, any awards given to primary agricultural producers are subject to the green box exemption under the WTO Agreement on Agriculture. See further guidance on green box subsidies WTO Guidance for support in Agriculture .

Applicants receiving this type of support must ensure that there is minimal to no distortion of trade and comply with the requirements of Annex 2 of the Agriculture Agreement .

have total costs between £50,000 and £100,000 last between 6 and 24 months embrace open innovation principles and be willing to share results with other farmers, growers or foresters have a Project Facilitator as part of the project team who is listed in the ADOPT Innovate UK Business Connect database collaborate with at least one other UK farmer, grower or forester Any funded organisation needs to carry out their project work in the UK and must intend to exploit the project results from or in the UK.

Projects must always start on the first of the month, even if this is a non-working day. You must not start your project until your Grant Offer Letter has been approved by Innovate UK. Any delays within Project Setup may mean we need to delay your project start date.

You must only include eligible project costs in your application. See our overview of eligible project costs .

be an active farming, growing or forestry business of any size based in England be able to evidence that you are an established commercial business, including sole traders and partnerships have an eligible 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 profit driven or do not have a commercial focus, including Community Interest Companies (CICs) and charities, are not allowed to lead in this competition.

It is desirable that you also collaborate with other UK registered organisations. More information on the different types of organisation can be found in our Funding rules . Academic institutions cannot lead or work alone.

To collaborate with the lead, your organisation must be a farmer, grower or forester based in the UK You can also collaborate with the lead applicant if you are a UK registered: public sector organisation research and technology organisation (RTO) Each partner organisation must be invited into the Innovation Funding Service (IFS) by the lead to collaborate on a project.

Once partners have accepted the invitation, they will be asked to login or to create an account in IFS. They are responsible for entering their own project costs in the application.

To be an eligible collaboration, the lead and at least one other organisation must: apply for funding when entering their costs into the application include rationale for the collaboration and describe the structure in your application ensure any one partner does not account for more than 70% of the total eligible costs Your project can include organisations who do not claim any funding for their work on the project.

Their costs will be covered from their own resources. These can include UK, EU and other non-UK organisations. Non-UK partners are permitted to carry out project work from within their home countries and exploit the results outside the UK.

Where non-funded partners have been invited to the application on IFS, their costs will count towards the total eligible project costs. Subcontractors are allowed in this competition. Subcontractors can be from anywhere in the UK and you must select them through your usual procurement process.

You can use subcontractors from overseas but must make the case in your application as to why you cannot use subcontractors from the UK. You must provide a detailed rationale, evidence of the potential UK contractors you approached and the reasons why they were unable to work with you. We will not accept a cheaper cost as a sufficient reason to use an overseas subcontractor.

All subcontractor costs must be justified and appropriate to the total project costs. You may include your Project Facilitator under subcontractor costs. A farmer, grower or forester can only lead on one application but can be included as a collaborator in two further applications.

If an organisation is not leading an application it can collaborate in any number of applications. This competition will not fund you, or provide any financial benefit to any individual or entities directly or indirectly involved with you, which would expose Innovate UK or any direct or indirect beneficiary of funding from Innovate UK to UK Sanctions .

For example, through any procurement, commercial, business development or supply chain activity with any entity as lead, partner or subcontractor related to these countries, administrations and terrorist groups . Use of animals in research and innovation Innovate UK expects and supports the provision and safeguarding of welfare standards for animals used in research and innovation, according to best practice and up to date guidance.

Applicants must ensure that all of the proposed work within projects, both in the UK and internationally, will comply with the UKRI guidance on the use of animals in research and innovation . Any projects selected for funding which involve animals will be asked to provide additional information on welfare and ethical considerations, as well as compliance with any relevant legislation as part of the project start-up process.

This information will be reviewed before an award is made. You can use a previously submitted application to apply for this competition. If you have previously submitted an application that reached our assessment stage, you can re-apply once more with the same proposal.

If there are minor differences to the proposal, but it is judged by us to be ‘not materially different’, the same rule applies. We will not award you funding if you have: failed to exploit a previously funded project an overdue independent accountant’s report failed to comply with grant terms and conditions Innovate UK may withhold a grant payment at any time if you have any outstanding sums due to us in relation to other projects.

Subsidy control (and State aid where applicable) This competition provides funding in line with the Subsidy Control Act 2022. Further information about the Subsidy requirements can be found within the Subsidy Control Act 2022 (legislation. gov.uk) .

Innovate UK is unable to award organisations that are considered to be in financial difficulty. We will conduct financial viability and eligibility tests to confirm this is not the case following the application stage. EU State aid rules now only apply in limited circumstances.

See the Windsor Framework to check if these rules apply to your organisation. In the ‘Project details’ section of your application you will be asked questions to indicate if State Aid or Subsidy applies to your organisation. If you are unsure about your obligations under the Subsidy Control Act 2022 or the State aid rules, you should take independent legal advice.

We are unable to advise on individual eligibility or legal obligations. You must not do anything which could cause a breach of Subsidy Control legislation applicable in the United Kingdom. This aims to regulate any advantage granted by a public sector body which threatens to or distorts competition in the United Kingdom or any other country or countries.

This award is classified as a Subsidy which does not form part of your Minimal Financial Assistance or de minimis allowance. The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) has allocated up to £5 million, working in partnership with Innovate UK to fund on-farm trial projects in this competition. This is subject to us receiving a sufficient number of high quality applications.

Funding will be in the form of a grant. A minimum of 50% of the total grant amount requested by farmers, growers and foresters must be allocated to farmers, growers or foresters geographically based in England.

We reserve the right to adjust funding allocations for any of our competitions under exceptional circumstances, for example, in response to changes in policy, portfolio funding considerations, or broader government funding decisions. If your organisation’s work on the project is commercial or economic, your funding request must not exceed the limits below.

These limits apply even if your organisation normally acts non-economically but for the purpose of this project will be undertaking commercial or economic activity. The balance between your total eligible project costs and the amount of grant awarded must be funded by the organisation receiving the grant.

For industrial research projects, you can get funding for your eligible project costs of: up to 80% if you are an active farming, growing or forestry business based in England, Wales or Scotland up to 70% if you are a micro or small organisation, including active farming, growing or forestry businesses based in Northern Ireland up to 60% if you are a medium sized organisation up to 50% if you are a large organisation For more information on company sizes, refer to the company accounts guidance .

If you are applying for an award funded under State aid Regulations, the definitions are set out in the European Commission Recommendation of 6 May 2003 . Innovate UK may revoke our decision to provide funding without notice if government commitment for this initiative is withdrawn. The research organisations undertaking non-economic activity as part of the project can share up to 60% of the total eligible project costs.

If your consortium contains more than one research organisation undertaking non-economic activity, this maximum is shared between them.

Of that 60% you can get funding for your eligible project costs of up to: 100% of your eligible project costs if you are an RTO, charity, not for profit organisation, public sector organisation or research organisation 80% of full economic costs (FEC) if you are a Je-S registered institution such as an academic Eligibility criteria for claiming 80% of FEC funding Research organisations using the Je-S system must submit their costs through the Je-S system which calculates the 80% FEC figure.

On IFS, only the 80% FEC output should be entered at 100% funding. Applicants do not need to show the remaining 20% on the finance table. To find out more see our: Cost Guidance for Academics .

The aim of this competition is to support innovative on-farm trials or experiments to test ideas or solutions and demonstrate that they will address major on-farm or immediate post farmgate challenges or opportunities.

Your project must have the potential to significantly improve one or more of: sustainability and progression towards net zero farming Your project must focus on testing and trialling ideas or solutions that are either new or not yet widely used. You must demonstrate to other English farmers, growers or foresters how the project will benefit them.

You must outline how you will communicate and share the outputs from your trial or experiment during and after your project. We want to fund a variety of projects across different technologies, technological maturity, markets, theme, practices and processes, farming sectors and regions. We call this a portfolio approach .

Your project must address a significant industry challenge or opportunity in at least one or more of the following sectors: We will fund industrial research projects as defined in the guidance on categories of research .

Projects we will not fund We are not funding projects that: do not benefit farmers, growers or foresters in England are based on funded crop variety plot trials are based on existing demonstration trials or projects are for the production of crops or plants for medicinal or pharmaceutical use are based on equine systems involve wild caught fisheries involve aquaculture, such as algae and seaweed for human consumption involve fermentation systems for bacteria, yeast or fungi for human consumption We cannot fund projects that are: dependent on export performance: giving a subsidy to an organisation on the condition that it exports a certain quantity of its products to another country dependent on domestic inputs usage: giving a subsidy to an organisation on the condition that it uses a set percentage of UK components in their product Recorded briefing scope and process: watch the scope recording and watch the process recording Note: the recordings are both applicable to this round 7 competition but state round 2 within the context of the recordings.

Briefing slides are available to download from Supporting Information. ADOPT Facilitator Support Grant Rd 8 open date Full ADOPT Grant Rd 8 open date You must read the guidance on applying for a competition on the Innovation Funding Service before you start.

Before submitting, it is the lead applicant’s responsibility to make sure: that all the information provided in the application is correct your proposal meets the eligibility and scope criteria all sections of the application are marked as complete that all partners have completed all assigned sections and accepted the terms and conditions (T&Cs) You can reopen your application once submitted, up until the competition deadline.

You must resubmit the application before the competition deadline. The application is split into three sections: Accessibility and Inclusion We welcome and encourage applications from people of all backgrounds and are committed to making our application process accessible to everyone. This includes making reasonable adjustments , for people who have a disability or a long-term condition and face barriers applying to us.

You can contact us at any time to ask for guidance. We recommend you contact us at least 15 working days before this competition’s closing date to allow us to put the most suitable support in place. The support we can provide may be limited if you contact us close to the competition deadline.

You can contact Innovate UK by email or call 0300 321 4357. Our phone lines are open from 9am to 12pm and 2pm to 5pm UK time, Monday to Friday (excluding bank holidays). This section provides background for your application and is not scored.

Decide which organisations will work with you on your project and invite people from those organisations to help complete the application. Give your project’s title, start date and duration. Select the type of research you will undertake.

Describe your project briefly. We use this section to assign the right experts to assess your application so you must be clear about which agricultural, horticultural or agro-forestry area you are working in. Your answer can be up to 400 words long.

Describe your project in detail and in a way that you are happy to see published. Do not include any commercially sensitive information. If we award your project funding, we will publish this description.

This can happen before you start your project. Your answer can be up to 200 words long.

Describe how your project fits the scope of the competition by: indicating which on-farm or immediate post farmgate challenges or opportunities you are addressing summarising how your project will be testing and trialling on-farm or immediate post farmgate solutions that are either new or not yet widely used You must also state the name of the approved ADOPT Project Facilitator who will be supporting you in the project.

If your project is not in scope, it will not be sent for assessment. We will tell you the reason why. Your answer can be up to 400 words long.

The assessors will score all your answers apart from questions 1 to 7. You will receive feedback for each scored question. Find out more about how our assessors assess and how we select applications for funding .

You must answer all questions. You must not include any website addresses or links (URLs) in your answers. If you do, your application will be made ineligible.

Question 1. Applicant location (not scored) You must state the name and full registered address of your organisation, all partners and any subcontractors working on your project. You must also provide a list of any farmers, growers or foresters claiming or receiving grant funding in the project.

Note: you must have a minimum of 50% of any grant requested by farmers, growers or foresters in the project, allocated to farmers, growers or foresters based in England. We are collecting this information to understand more about the geographical location of all applicants. Your answer can be up to 200 words long.

Question 2. Animal testing (not scored) Will your project involve any trials with animals or animal testing? You must select one option: We will only support innovation projects conducted to the highest standards of animal welfare.

Further information for proposals involving animal testing is available at the UKRI Good Research Hub and NC3R’s animal welfare guidance . Question 3. Farmers, growers or foresters details (not scored) The project lead must confirm that they are a farmer, grower or forester based in England and the other farming partners must confirm they are based in the UK.

All farming partners must provide details of their current engagement in English or UK farming, growing or forestry operations, as follows: name and role in the business the trading names of the farming, growing or forestry businesses if different from their registered name which county the main farming, growing or forestry activity is based in what is grown or produced, and the scale of the operation We will use these answers to confirm the eligibility of the project lead and that there is at least one other commercial farming, growing or forestry business deriving income from these agricultural sectors.

Your answer can be up to 400 words long. Question 4. Permits and licences (not scored) Will you have the correct permits and licences in place to carry out your project?

We are unable to fund projects which do not have the correct permits or licences in place by your project start date. You must select one option: In the process of being applied for Question 5. International collaboration (not scored) Does your proposed work involve any international collaboration or engagement?

You must provide details of any expected international collaboration or engagement. You must include a list of the names and the countries, any international project co-leads, project partners, visiting researchers, or other collaborators are based in. You must also include details of any subcontractors or service providers.

If your proposed work does not involve international collaboration or engagement, your answer must confirm this. Your answer can be up to 100 words long. Question 6.

Export licence (not scored) You must indicate whether an export control license is required for this project under the academic export control guidance . You must select one option: Question 7.

Trusted Research and Innovation (not scored) You must explain if your proposed project work relates to UKRI’s Trusted Research and Innovation (TR&I) Principles , including: a list of any dual-use (both military and non-military) applications to your research a list of the areas where your project is relevant to one or more of the 17 areas of the UK National Security and Investment (NSI) Act whether an export control license is required for this project under the academic export control guidance and the status of any applications a list of any items or substances on the UK Strategic Export Control List If your proposed work does not relate to UKRI’s TR&I Principles, your answer must confirm this.

We may ask you to provide additional TR&I information at a later date, in line with UKRI TR&I Principles and funding terms and conditions. Your answer can be up to 400 words long. Question 8.

What is the idea or solution you have identified to trial on-farm? What is the problem that you are trying to fix, and what idea or solution do you wish to test?

what the idea or solution is where did you hear about it what problem you are seeking to address, and how this also affects other farming, growing or forestry businesses why this idea or solution is better than what already exists how it will it solve the problem you have identified Your answer can be up to 400 words long. Question 9. How will you trial and test this idea or solution on-farm?

What is your approach to carry out this trial or experiment and what will be the focus of this project?

how you plan to test this on-farm how you will create a robust trial design to maximise the potential impact of the research how you will improve on any similar trials or experiments that have already been conducted on this topic how you will manage the trial and capture data to allow meaningful analysis of the results the nature of the outputs you expect from the project, for example, reports, data records, videos Your answer can be up to 400 words long.

You can submit one appendix to support your answer. It can include diagrams and charts. It must be a PDF no larger than 10MB.

It can be up to two A4 pages and must be legible at 100% zoom. Question 10. Team and resources for the trial Who is in the project team and what are their roles?

the role of the ADOPT Project Facilitator within the project: include their skills and experience, and their business relationship, if any, to your project or partners the roles, skills and experience of all members of the project team that are relevant to the approach you will be taking the resources, equipment and facilities needed for the project and how you will access them the details of any vital external parties, including subcontractors, who you will need to work with to successfully carry out the project the current relationships between project partners and how the project will maintain a farmer or grower-led focus Your answer can be up to 400 words long.

You can submit one appendix, with a short summary of the main people working on the project to support your answer. It must be a PDF no larger than 10MB. It can be up to two A4 pages and must be legible at 100% zoom.

Question 11. Outcomes and impacts What improvements will this idea or solution offer you and other farmers, growers or foresters like you?

Explain how your idea or solution will impact: sustainability and progression towards net zero emissions Explain how you have determined whether the proposed idea or solution has any negative impacts, and how you have mitigated against them How could the idea or solution be adopted by other farmers, growers or foresters?

the applicable farming or forestry business sectors the ease of integration or adoption into existing systems Your answer can be up to 400 words long. Question 12. Adoption and communication of results How are you going to communicate and share the outputs from the trial or experiment during and after your project to help with adoption?

who the target audience is or applicable farming sector for your communication what other organisations you will collaborate with to share your project idea and results with the wider farming community how you expect to use the results generated from the project to be used by your project team and other farmers Your answer can be up to 400 words long. Question 13.

Project management and risks How will you and your Project Facilitator manage the project effectively?

the main work packages of the project, indicating the responsible lead person assigned to each and the total cost of each one your approach to project management, identifying any major tools and mechanisms you will use to get a successful and innovative project outcome a risk register identifying the key risks including, but not limited to, technical, commercial, managerial, and environmental your project plan in enough detail to identify any links or dependencies between work packages or milestones Your answer can be up to 600 words long.

You must submit a project plan or Gantt chart as an appendix to support your answer. It must be a PDF and can be up to two A4 pages long and no larger than 10MB in size. The font must be legible at 100% zoom.

You must also submit a risk register, indicating the main risks for your project, including, but not limited to, technical, commercial, managerial, and environmental. You must include any identified interdependencies between these risks and the likely impact. It must be a PDF, up to two A4 pages long and no larger than 10MB in size.

The font must be legible at 100% zoom. Question 14. Costs and value for money How much will the project cost and how does it represent value for money for the team and the taxpayer?

In terms of your project goals, explain: your total eligible project costs the grant you are requesting how each partner will finance their contributions to your project how this project represents value for money for you and the taxpayer how it compares to what you would spend your money on otherwise the balance of costs and grant across the project partners any subcontractor costs and why they are critical to your project Your answer can be up to 400 words long.

Each organisation in your project must complete their own project costs, organisation details and funding details in the application. Academic institutions must complete and upload a Je-S form .

farmers are able to calculate their trial expenses based upon labour day rate or rate per Hectare all applicable trial expenses can be entered in the other costs category which is validated during the set up stage and will be accepted at claims stage For an overview on what costs you can claim, see our project costs guidance . Note this is general guidance, for specific guidance see the eligibility section in this competition.

You can also view our application finances video . Your application will be reviewed by three independent assessors based on the content of your application and their skills or expertise relevant to your project. All of the scores awarded will count towards the total score used to make the funding decision unless you are notified otherwise.

You can find out more about our assessment process in the General Guidance . Your submitted application will be assessed against these criteria: Assessor guidance ADOPT FULL Grant Rd 7. pdf Background and further information This funding is from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) Farming Innovation Programme and is being delivered in partnership with Innovate UK.

The Farming Innovation Programme is made up of three funds: the Industry led R&D Partnerships Fund, Farming Futures R&D Fund and the ADOPT Fund. This competition