ADOPT: Accelerating Development of Practices and Technologies
Round 6 of the ADOPT facilitator grant will be open until 25 February 2026. Round 6 of the full ADOPT Grant will be open from 5 February until 8 April 2026. Future rounds are expected to be announced in due course.
Stay up to date with all of the deadlines and information on our ADOPT essential information page.
ADOPT aims to support farmer-led trials that focus on collaboration to generate innovative solutions for farming challenges.
This will be achieved through trials or experiments to generate, test and, ultimately, demonstrate the capability of these solutions in a practical context.
The outcome of these projects will include providing knowledge of new practices which can be shared to the wider sector to encourage adoption more widely.
ADOPT works through two different grants, depending on the applicants’ individual needs.
The first is a small support grant, which would allow an applicant to access professional assistance from an industry expert to support them in developing an application for a full grant.
These grants are designed to support those less familiar with Innovate UK and the process for submitting an application. This is an optional grant, and is not compulsory for those wanting to submit a full ADOPT application.
The second is the full ADOPT grant. This will support the on-farm trials or experiments.
Find out more about ADOPT on our essential information page.
About the Farming Innovation Programme
In October 2021, Defra launched the first of a series of funding competitions to invest in R&D for the farming industry under the Farming Innovation Programme.
The aim of the programme is to help farmers, growers and foresters increase their sustainability and resilience through harnessing science to develop practical solutions for the industry.
The NFU has argued for increased funding in this area for many years and it is vital that investment leads to all farmers and growers being supported to get involved at some level with R&D.
It is essential robust evidence is accessible to everyone to improve decision-making and provide feedback on what works on farm.
The NFU has also joined a consortium of over 20 industry and research partners to form CHCx3 (The Centre for High Carbon Capture Cropping), a four-year, £5.9 million project led by crop science organisation NIAB (National Institute of Agricultural Botany).
Find out more at: NFU joins research partners to help UK farmers increase carbon capture.
Following NFU Conference in 2025, a number of announcements were made concerning the Farming Innovation Programme. Part of a £110m funding commitment also included the launch of a further round in 2025 of the FETF (Farming Equipment and Technology Fund).
There will be a number of additional competitions available for farmers to engage with in 2025 with a combined value of £42.5 million to contribute to various themes.
Past competitions
Farming Futures R&D
Defra announced a number of successful applicants for the precision breeding and low emission projects who have now been awarded funding.
£21.5 million has been allocated to 15 projects covering both competition themes. As a reminder, these competitions were a part of the Farming Futures R&D competition which was open in 2025 for applications.
Seven projects under the precision breeding competition have been funded, with projects focusing on various crops including tomatoes, oilseed rape and sugar beet. Other projects are also looking into hemp and latex production from dandelions.
A further eight projects are being funded under the reducing emissions competition. These projects cover a wide breadth of innovations to try and reduce emissions from agriculture, including the utilisation of biochar based fertilisers, working with rewetted peatlands, and innovations to livestock production as well.
A full breakdown of the successful applicants, and further details about their individual projects can be found at: First precision breeding and low emissions projects awarded funding – Farming
You can read more about the successful applications from the first round of the Small R&D partnership projects funding at: UKRI | £11m funding announced to further support food sector innovation.
UKRI announced a further fifty successful projects across four FIP competitions, which you can read about at: UKRI | 50 winning projects showcase the latest farming innovations.
We want to hear from you
We would like to hear from any of our members who looked at these opportunities about their experiences, good or bad. Whether you applied, or even just considered applying, this feedback will help with future NFU discussions with Defra and UKRI. We hope this can lead to improvements in the programme and application process.
If you have feedback please email us on [email protected].
Further information
If you are interested in the Farming Innovation Programme please visit: UKRI | Farming Innovation: find out about funding.
You can also read Defra’s blogs at: GOV.UK | Future Farming
