Deadline: 25-Jun-25
UK registered organisations can apply for a share of up to £12.5 million for Industrial research projects from the Farming Futures R&D Fund, a part of the Farming Innovation Programme.
Aims
- 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.
Specific Themes
- Your project must address at least one of the following five key areas:
- Regenerative farming: for example, integration of regenerative techniques into productive systems for improved soil health, water quality and biodiversity.
- Energy: for example, increasing efficiency in controlled environment agriculture, improved materials for glasshouses, or energy efficient machinery.
- Methanisation: (or biomethanisation) is a process based on the natural fermentation of organic matter to produce biogas. Methanisation provides a use for organic waste, producing renewable energy and organic fertiliser. The biogas obtained from methanisation can be used directly to produce heat and electricity and consideration must be provided for the handling of any CH4 and CO2 bi-products, with a focus on on-farm utilisation.
- Reducing GHG emission in livestock production: for example, methane inhibiting feed additives, novel housing systems or enhanced breeding.
- Innovations to support land management: including productive paludicultural systems; agroforestry, energy crops and biomass production, deployment of biochar for carbon sequestration through application to land.
Research Categories
- Innovate UK supports the following R&D categories:
- fundamental research
- feasibility studies
- industrial research
- experimental development
Funding Information
- The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) has allocated up to £12.5 million to fund innovation projects. This competition is in partnership with and delivered by Innovate UK. Funding will be in the form of a grant.
- Your project’s total eligible costs must be between £1 million and £2.5 million.
- For industrial research projects, you can get funding for your eligible project costs of:
- up to 70% if you are a micro or small organisation
- up to 60% if you are a medium sized organisation
- up to 50% if you are a large organisation
- A minimum of 50% of any grant requested by farmers, growers or foresters in the project, must be allocated to farmers, growers or foresters based in England.
Ineligible Projects
- 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
- They cannot fund projects that are:
- dependent on export performance, for example, giving a subsidy to a baker on the condition that it exports a certain quantity of bread to another country
- dependent on domestic inputs usage, for example, giving a subsidy to a baker on the condition that it uses 50% UK flour in their product
Eligibility Criteria
- Your project must:
- 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
- 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 organizations
- involve at least one grant claiming business of any size
- 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
- research and technology organisation (RTO)
For more information, visit GOV.UK.