This competition is open to collaborations only.

To lead a collaborative project you 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
• have an eligible UK bank account
• collaborate with at least one other farming, growing or forestry business of any size, based in the UK

It is desirable that you also collaborate with other UK registered organisations.

If you are part of a farming or growing co-operative, you should apply individually.

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.

To collaborate with the lead, you must be an active commercial farmer, grower or forester based in the UK.

You can also collaborate with the lead applicant if you are a UK registered:

• business of any size
• academic institution
• charity
• not for profit
• public sector organisation
• research organisation
• research and technology organisation (RTO)

If your project is collaborative, you must ensure that no one partner accounts for more than 70% of the total costs.

Your project must:

• have total costs between £50,000 and £200,000
• last between 6 and 24 months
• start by 1 December 2026
• end by 30 November 2028
• 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 that is claiming grant funding

Any organisation receiving funding must carry out its project work in the UK, intend to exploit the results in the UK, and spend most of the funding within the 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:

• productivity
• resilience
• 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.

Your project must address a significant industry challenge or opportunity in at least one or more of the following sectors:

• agriculture
• horticulture
• agro-forestry

Exclusions

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 for cultivated meat
• 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

Note that the maximum project amount has been raised to £200,000 since these recordings were made.

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.