Farming Futures R&D Fund: Precision Breeding Competition

Key Features

UK registered businesses can apply for a share of up to £12.5 million for precision breeding of arable and horticultural crops. This funding is from the Farming Futures R&D Fund, a part of the Farming Innovation Programme.

Programme:     Innovate UK

Award:     Share of up to £12.5 million

Opens: 5th May 2025

Closes: 25th Jun 2025

! This scheme is closing soon

Overview

The Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (Defra) will invest up to £12.5 million for mid-stage precision breeding projects.

This funding is part of Defra’s Farming Innovation Programme, delivered in partnership with Innovate UK.

Scope

The aim of this competition is to fund collaborative industrial research projects to unlock the benefits of precision breeding in developing ambitious new solutions leading to more sustainable and productive farming practices.

Projects in this competition should deliver on ambitious new solutions that can help realise a range of improvements to existing crop production, including but not limited to:

  • increased crop yield: quality and quantity
  • increased plant resilience to pests, diseases and pathogens
  • increased plant resilience to climate change, resistance to abiotic stresses
  • enhanced photosynthesis or reduced crop growth cycles
  • improved crop harvesting and storage characteristics
  • improved nutritional value of crops, for example, biofortification
  • reduced allergens and toxins in crops
  • improved palatability and visual appeal of crops
  • increased shelf life of crops

Your project must:

  • demonstrate clear project deliverables that will enable improved resilience, sustainability and productivity for farmers or growers in England
  • ensure concepts are closely aligned with industry priorities to deliver business orientated transformative opportunities
  • encourage dissemination and knowledge exchange of precision breeding technologies and their potential benefit to the wider sector and increase the maturity or market readiness of emerging solutions
  • evidence how precision breeding approaches can help to provide benefit for farmers or growers in England

Portfolio approach

Innovate UK want to fund a variety of projects across different technologies, markets and technological maturities. Innovate UK call this a portfolio approach.

Specific Themes

Your project must focus on one of the following:

  • horticultural crops
  • arable crops

Eligibility

If your application is successful, 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.

Your project must:

  • have total costs of between £1 million and £2.5 million
  • last up to 36 months
  • address the specific requirements of precision breeding as set out in the Genetic Technology (Precision Breeding) Act 2023
  • be able to demonstrate how the project will benefit farmers or growers in England
  • carry out all its project work in the UK
  • intend to exploit the results from or in England
  • start by 1 January 2026
  • end by 31 December 2028

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. For specific guidance, see the eligibility section in this competition.

If your project’s total costs request or duration falls outside of our eligibility criteria, you must provide justification by email to support@iuk.ukri.org at least 10 working days before the competition closes. We will decide whether to approve your request.

If you have not requested approval or your application has not been approved by us, you will be made ineligible. Your application will then not be sent for assessment.

Lead organisation

To lead a project your organisation must:

  • be a UK registered business of any size
  • collaborate with at least one other UK registered organisation

More information on the different types of organisation can be found in our Funding rules.

Academic institutions cannot lead or work alone.

Project team

To collaborate with the lead, your organisation must be one of the following UK registered:

  • business of any size
  • academic institution
  • charity
  • not for profit
  • 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.

Non-funded partners

Your project can include non-UK partners, including partners based in the EU, who bring their own funding. Non-UK partners are permitted to carry out project work from within their home countries and exploit results overseas. Their costs will count towards the total eligible project costs.

Subcontractors

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.

Number of applications

A business can only lead on one application but can be included as a collaborator in two further applications.

All other organisation types and businesses not acting as a lead can collaborate on any number of applications.

Sanctions

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.

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 cannot use a previously submitted application to apply for this competition.

Innovate UK will not award you funding if you have:

Innovate UK may withhold a grant payment at any time if you have any outstanding sums due to us in relation to other projects.

Exclusions

Innovate UK are not funding projects that are:

  • not addressing precision breeding techniques as set out in the Genetic Technology Act 2023
  • duplicating existing projects funded by the Crop Genetic Improvement Platform or any UK public funded body
  • relating to animals
  • forestry specific
  • for the production of crops or plants for medicinal or pharmaceutical use
  • not benefiting farmers or growers in England
  • circular economy or energy production specific

Innovate UK cannot fund projects that are:

  • dependent on export performance, for example, giving a subsidy to a baker on the condition that it exports a certain quantity of bread to another country
  • dependent on domestic inputs usage, for example, giving a subsidy to a baker on the condition that it uses 50% UK flour in their product

Funding Costs

Up to £12.5 million has been allocated to fund innovation projects in this competition. Funding will be in the form of a grant.

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 70% if you are a micro or small organisation
  • 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, please 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.

Research participation

The research organisations undertaking non-economic activity as part of the project can share up to 50% 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 50% you can get funding for your eligible project costs of up to:

  • 80% of full economic costs (FEC) if you are a Je-S registered institution such as an academic
  • 100% of your eligible project costs if you are an RTO, charity, not for profit organisation, public sector organisation or research organisation

Eligibility criteria for claiming 80% of FEC funding

  1. Research organisations using the Je-S system must submit their costs through the Je-S system which calculates the 80% FEC figure.
  2. On IFS, only the 80% FEC output should be entered at 100% funding.
  3. Applicants do not need to show the remaining 20% on the finance table.

To find out more see our: Cost Guidance for Academics.

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.