Deadline: 25-Jun-25
UK registered organisations can now apply for industrial research projects from the Farming Futures R&D Fund.
The aim of this competition is to fund collaborative projects that will develop new solutions to support UK farming working towards achieving low emissions. These must address major on-farm or immediate post farmgate challenges or opportunities.
Scopes
- Your project must:
- develop ambitious solutions that will reduce emissions in existing farming practices
- carry out a life cycle assessment (LCA) for the solution developed
- demonstrate impact and measure of carbon as a number to facilitate foot printing and potential trading, but other emissions must not be ignored
- demonstrate and measure wider environmental benefits, as contributors to low emission farming
- encourage dissemination and knowledge exchange to the wider sector and increase the maturity or market readiness of emerging solutions
- ensure concepts are closely aligned with industry priorities to deliver business orientated, transformative opportunities
- Your project must also demonstrate how the solution will significantly improve on-farm:
- productivity
- resilience
- sustainability and progression towards low emission farming
- Projects must evidence how the solution will benefit farmers, growers or foresters in England.
Themes
- Your project must address at least one of the following five key areas:
- Regenerative farming
- Energy
- Methanisation
- Reducing GHG emission in livestock production
- Innovations to support land management
Funding Information
- The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) has allocated up to £12.5 million to fund innovation projects
Eligible Projects
- Your project must:
- have total costs between £1 million and £2.5 million
- last between 30 and 36 months
- start by 1 January 2026
- end by 31 December 2028
- carry out all of its project work in the UK
- intend to exploit the results from or in England
Eligibility Criteria
- To lead a project your organisation must:
- be a UK registered business of any size, an academic institution or a research and technology organisation (RTO)
- collaborate with other UK registered organisations
- involve at least one grant claiming business of any size
- If the lead organisation is an academic institution or an RTO, it must collaborate with two businesses of any size.
- More information on the different types of organisation can be found in their Funding rules.
- 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
- To collaborate with the lead, your organisation must be one of the following UK registered:
- research and technology organisation (RTO)
- A business, academic institution or research and technology organisation (RTO) can only lead on one application but can be included as a collaborator in two further applications.
- If an organisation is not leading any application, it can collaborate in any number of applications.
Ineligibility Criteria
- They are not funding projects that:
- are not addressing low emission farming priorities as listed in the scope section
- are not measuring the GHG emissions impact from their innovation
- are equine specific
- involve wild caught fisheries
- involve aquaculture for fish production or human consumption
- are for the production of crops or plants for medicinal or pharmaceutical use
- do not benefit farmers, growers or foresters in England
For more information, visit Innovate UK Business Connect.