ADOPT Facilitator Support Grant: Round 12

Key Features

Farming, growing or forestry businesses based in England can apply for a grant of £2,500, to engage an external Project Facilitator to support the development of a Full ADOPT Grant application.

Programme:     Innovate UK

Award:     Share of up to £100,000

Opens: 1st Oct 2026

Closes: 11th Nov 2026

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Grant Overview

Innovate UK alongside Defra will invest up to £100,000 to support the development of applications for on-farm trails and farm experiment projects. Funding is part of Defra’s Farming Innovation Programme.

Grant Scope

The aim of this competition is to provide a £2,500 grant for farmers, growers or foresters based in England to engage an external Project Facilitator with submissions info the Full ADOPT Grant competitions.

Projects must focus on one of the following specific themes:

  • agriculture
  • horticulture
  • agro-forestry

Eligibility Criteria

To be eligible for this competition, you must engage with a Project Facilitator who is registered in the Innovate UK Business Connect database. Working with the facilitator to develop and submit an eligible application for a Full ADOPT Grant competition. £2,500 must be added in the ‘other costs’ column in the finance section of the application form.

Lead Organisations: To apply for this grant your organisation must be an active farming, growing or forestry business of any size based in England with a UK bank account. You must be able to evidence that you are an established commercial business. Operations that are not profit driven or do not have a commercial focus are not allowed in this competition.

Project facilitator: The Project Facilitator is the person who will be working with you to submit a Full ADOPT Grant application. They must be registered in the Innovate UK Business Connect database. You must include their name in question 10 of the ‘how to apply’ section. In the ‘other costs’ section you must only include the name of the Project Facilitator you are working with and the maximum grant amount of £2,500.

Subcontractors: Subcontractors are not allowed in this competition.

Number of applications: A farmer, grower or forester can only submit one application per competition round and receive a maximum of two Facilitator Support Grants in total across all rounds.

Previous applications: Previously submitted applications can be used in this competition.

Grant Exclusions

Innovate UK will not fund the following projects:

  • Projects that do not benefit farmers, growers or foresters in England
  • Projects that are based on funded crop variety plot trails
  • Projects based on existing demonstration trials or projects
  • Projects that are for the production of crops or plants for medicinal or pharmaceutical use
  • Projects for cultivated meat
  • Projects based on equine systems or involving wild caught fisheries
  • Projects involving aquaculture or fermentation systems for bacteria, yeast or fungi for human consumption

Grant Funding

Defra has allocated up to £100,000 to provide support through the ADOPT Facilitator Support Grants. Funding will be in the form of a grant of £2,500 per successful applicant.

You can receive 100% funding for your eligible project costs if you are an active farmer, grower or forester based in England.

For further information on this competition, please see full details.

Full competition details