ADOPT Facilitator Support Grant: Round 8

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:     Defra

Award:     Share of up to £100,000

Opens: 15th Apr 2026

Closes: 27th May 2026

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Grant Overview

The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs will invest up to £100,000 to support development of applications for on-farm trials and farm experiment projects.

Grant Scope

The aim of this competition is to help farmers, growers or foresters based in England to test and trial new ideas or solutions on-farm and provide support to develop a Full ADOPT Grant application.

Projects must address a significant industry challenge or opportunity in one or more of the following sectors:

  • Agriculture
  • Horticulture
  • Agro-forestry

Eligibility Criteria

To be eligible to apply for this competition, you must need to engage with an external Project Facilitator that 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 and add £2500 in the ‘other costs’ column in the finance section of the application form.

Lead: To lead a project, organisations must 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 and have a UK bank account. Organisations that are not for profit driven or do not have commercial focus, including CICs and charities are not allowed to participate in this competition.

Project facilitator:

The Project Facilitator is the person working with you to submit a Full ADOPT Grant application. They must also be registered in the Innovate UK Business Connect database. You are required to include there name alongside the £2,500 in the ‘other costs’ line of the finance section and ‘how to apply’ section.

Non-funded partners:

Projects can include organisations that do not claim any funding for their work on the project. These costs will be covered from their own resources and can include UK, EU and other non-UK organisations. Non-UK partners are allowed to carry out project work from within their home countries and exploit the results outside of the UK.

Subcontractors:

Subcontractors are not allowed to be used in this competition.

Number of applications:

A farmer, grower or forester can only lead on one application per competition round and receive a maximum of two Facilitator Support Grants in total.

Previous applications:

Previous applications can be used in this competition.

Grant Exclusions

The following projects cannot be funded:

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

Grant Funding

The Department for Environment, Food or Rural Affairs has been allocated up to £100,000 to provide support from the ADOPT facilitator Support Grants. Funding will be in the form of a grant of £2,500 per successful applicant. If you are an active farmer, grower or forester based in England you can receive 100% funding for your eligible project costs.

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

Interested in applying for this competition?

Book an appointment to speak to one of our advisors to discuss your eligibility to apply for this Grant Funding opportunity.