Funding rounds eight and nine of the ADOPT (Accelerating Development of Practices and Technologies) project are now open, with the maximum eligible project costs increasing from £100,000 to £200,000.
The change has been introduced due to feedback from the farming community, enabling more ambitious on-farm trials that can involve a greater number of farmers and partners, generate more robust evidence and deliver wider benefits across the sector.
Defra has announced two further funding rounds beyond those previously scheduled. While dates for Rounds 11 and 12 are yet to be confirmed. Delivered by Innovate UK, ADOPT supports practical, farmer-led projects that test new approaches, ideas and technologies to address on-farm challenges and improve farm productivity, sustainability and resilience.
While the maximum project size has increased, the core principles of the programme remain unchanged. Projects must continue to be farmer-led, collaborative and focused on practical, on-farm testing. The minimum eligible project cost remains £50,000 and projects of all sizes will continue to be assessed against the same criteria.
Farmers, growers and foresters whose ideas may previously have been constrained by the £100,000 limit can now revisit those proposals, while applicants who were unsuccessful in earlier rounds are welcome to refine their projects using the feedback received and submit a new application.
Commenting on the latest funding round, Thomas Slattery, engagement lead at the UK Agri-Tech Centre, said: “ADOPT was designed to help farmers test practical ideas that could make a real difference to their businesses and the wider industry. As the programme has developed, we’ve heard from farmers that some of the challenges they want to tackle require larger-scale trials involving more farms, more data and a broader range of expertise.”
“We’re pleased that Defra has increased the maximum eligible project costs to £200,000. The change will allow farmers to undertake more ambitious projects, bring more partners together and generate stronger evidence that can be shared with others across the sector.”
For more information about funding and support, please visit: https://farmpep.net/adopt.
