AgriFood
Innovate UK Business Connect helps organisations interested in AgriFood innovation access the expert information, funding and connections needed to drive change. Our experts work with businesses of all sizes; locally, nationally and globally.
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Our team includes experts in livestock, aquaculture, food, and crops. We work with organisations 1-1 and through our events and activities.
Make connections to fast track your ideas
We can help you meet the right people to collaborate with to explore ideas or find new solutions.
If you need to connect with another organisation to help you achieve your goals we can help you to find partners best suited to your needs.
Maximise your chances for success when applying for funding
We share information on funding opportunities. We are often first to find out about new funding for AgriFood innovation from organisations including Innovate UK.
We host events that both provide in-depth information about funding and enable innovators to meet collaborators.
If you are looking to apply for funding to explore a new idea or find new solutions to a challenge we can help guide you towards the most appropriate funding. We can also offer guidance on how to write a successful application.
Access information to help you meet your goals
We run a range of events and activities to bring together the AgriFood sector. We can help you to explore new topic areas or challenges.
If you are looking to learn more about a topic area, we can share our knowledge and insights on events or activities you might be interested in.
Get in touch
Book a 1-1 meeting with the AgriFood team.
Learn about how we’ve helped the AgriFood community
- Start-up Adamo Foods route to developing alternative meat projects
- Dunbia’s journey towards low carbon beef
- SPG Innovation’s production of plant-based protein
- ARRevolution’s rapid progress in building robots to support crop systems
- BioMara’s sustainable biorefinery to manufacture products from seaweed processing
- Funki drink’s mission to increase fibre consumption
Our current focus in this area
Related Opportunities
Farmed animals and aquaculture SPARK Awards
Opens: 20/10/2025 Closes: 26/11/2025
UK-registered academic institutions or Research and Technology Organisations (RTOs) can apply for up to £20,000 to collaborate with a UK-registered SME to accelerate the development of innovative products, processes or services to drive sustainable production within the UK farmed animal or aquacult
More Information
Full ADOPT Grant: Round 3
Opens: 21/08/2025 Closes: 15/10/2025
Farming, growing or forestry businesses based in England can apply for a share of up to £2 million for on-farm trial and demonstration projects, to improve adoption of new ideas or solutions in the agricultural sector.
More Information
Farming Innovation Programme: Small R&D Partnership Projects Rd 4
Opens: 15/09/2025 Closes: 05/11/2025
UK businesses can apply for a share of up to £7.8 million for small R&D partnership projects. This funding is from the industry led R&D Partnerships Fund, a part of the Defra Farming Innovation Programme.
More Information
ADOPT Facilitator Support Grant: Round 4
Opens: 04/09/2025 Closes: 15/10/2025
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.
More Information
Resource efficiency for resilience and sustainability: feasibility studies
Opens: 22/09/2025 Closes: 03/11/2025
Up to £25k per project for innovative feasibility studies in novel, sustainable, low carbon materials and manufacturing, including seaweed processing.
More Information
Innovate UK Innovation Loans Round 23
Opens: 04/09/2025 Closes: 22/10/2025
UK registered businesses can apply for loans for close to market innovative projects with strong commercial potential. They must significantly improve the UK economy and drive societal benefit.
More Information
Farming Innovation Programme: Feasibility Round 4
Opens: 13/10/2025 Closes: 03/12/2025
UK registered businesses can apply for a share of up to £4.8m for feasibility projects to address on-farm or post-farmgate challenges or opportunities.
More Information
Related Events and Recordings
Thu
18
Sep
2025
Farming Innovation Programme: Small R&D Round 4 Consortia Building Webinar
09.00 - 11.00 | Online
Watch now
Thu
25
Sep
2025
BridgeAI Agriculture and Food Processing Collaboration Event
09.15 - 15.00 | London
Recording coming soon
Fri
26
Sep
2025
UK Seaweed and Biomass/Biotech: Unlocking collaboration opportunities in UK processing
10.00 - 12.00 | Online
Recording coming soon
Tue
14
Oct
2025
Farming Innovation Programme: Feasibility Studies Round 4 Consortia Building Webinar
10.00 - 12.00 | Online
Register for this event
Our Experts
Related News
02/09/2025
Announcing the Engineering Biology SPARK Award winners
The Engineering Biology Innovation Network has funded 15 SPARK Awards designed to tackle real-world challenges faced by UK SMEs or to accelerate their journey towards developing new products, processes, or services.
Read more
13/08/2025
Trilateral partnerships to drive innovation in climate-smart agriculture
Innovate UK has awarded funding to 30 projects promoting climate-smart agriculture for sustainable food production systems. The projects are all collaborations between the UK, Brazil and Ghana or Nigeria.
Read more
23/07/2025
Healthy Living and Agriculture Review 2025 – A focus on AgriFood Systems
Delivering resilient and sustainable agricultural systems that provide healthy, affordable and tasty food for all.
Read more
Related programmes
Climate-Smart Agriculture Partnership
Innovate UK Climate-Smart Agriculture Partnership: UK-Brazil-Africa brings together innovative people and organisations to promote climate-smart agriculture in Africa.
Engineering Biology Innovation Network
Driving the development of a joined-up UK innovation ecosystem to ensure synthetic biology tools, technologies and processes can be more easily developed and adopted by a variety of industries.
Farming Innovation Programme: ADOPT
Supporting collaborative farmer-led, on-farm innovation to explore and demonstrate innovative sustainable solutions to farming challenges, improving the adoption of new ideas in the rural sector.
BridgeAI
Empowering UK organisations to harness the power of AI through support and funding, bridging the AI divide for a more productive UK.
AgriFood Investment Readiness Programme
For UK SMEs working on AgriFood innovations and looking for private investment.
AgriFood Africa Connect
Innovate UK AgriFood Africa Connect brought innovative people and organisations across the UK and Africa together to develop solutions for the sustainable management of AgriFood systems in Africa.