To lead a collaborative project you must:

• be an active farming, growing or forestry business of any size based in England (if you are part of a farming or growing co-operative, you should apply individually)
• 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.

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)

No single organisation can claim more than 70% of the total project costs.

An eligible organisation can only lead on one application. Any further applications by the same organisation as lead will be made ineligible.

An eligible organisation that is leading an application can be included as a collaborator in two further applications and if not leading, can collaborate in any number of applications.

Your project must:

• have total costs between £50,000 and £200,000
• last between 6 and 24 months
• start by 1 February 2027
• end by 31 January 2029
• 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.

You can get funding for your eligible project costs of:

• up to 80% if you are an active farming, growing or forestry business based in England, Wales or Scotland
• up to 70% if you are a micro or small organisation, including active farming, growing or forestry businesses based in Northern Ireland
• up to 60% if you are a medium sized organisation
• up to 50% if you are a large organisation

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

Innovate UK have provided a pre-recorded briefing scope and process: watch the scope recording and watch the process recording. Briefing slides are also available to download: Applicant Briefing ADOPT scope slides and Applicant Briefing ADOPT process slides.

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.