Farming Innovation Programme: Feasibility Round 5

UK registered businesses can apply for a share of up to £15 million for feasibility projects. This funding is from the industry led R&D Partnerships Fund, part of the Farming Innovation Programme.

Competition opens: Wednesday 15 July 2026
Competition closes: Wednesday 09 September 2026 11:00am

Description

The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) will invest up to £15 million to fund innovation projects in this competition. This is subject to a sufficient number of high quality applications being received.

This funding is part of Defra’s Farming Innovation Programme which is delivered in partnership with Innovate UK.

The aim of this competition is to fund feasibility studies investigating new solutions that will address major on-farm or immediate post farmgate challenges or opportunities.

The funding will support projects to:

• investigate early stage solutions that have the potential to substantially improve the overall productivity, sustainability and resilience of farming, and move existing agricultural sectors to net zero
• prioritise solutions that will have positive outputs for farmers, growers and foresters in commercially relevant situations
• accelerate research and development of new agricultural solutions by actively engaging collaboration with the wider UK research community in the innovation process

Eligibility

Who can apply

Your project

If your application passes the technical assessment, any awards given to primary agricultural producers are subject to the green box exemption under the WTO Agreement on Agriculture.

See further guidance on green box subsidies WTO Guidance for support in Agriculture. Applicants receiving this type of support must ensure that there is minimal to no distortion of trade and comply with the requirements of Annex 2 of the Agriculture Agreement.

Your project must:

• have total costs of between £200,000 and £500,000
• last up to 24 months
• start by 1 January 2027
• end by 31 December 2028

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.

Scope

Your Proposal

The aim of this competition is to fund feasibility studies investigating new solutions that will address major on-farm or immediate post farmgate challenges or opportunities.

Your solutions must significantly improve:

• productivity
• resilience
• sustainability and progression towards low emission farming

Your project must be able to demonstrate how the project will benefit farmers, growers or foresters in England.

Portfolio approach

We want to fund a variety of projects across different technologies, markets, themes and locations. We call this a portfolio approach.

Specific Themes

Your project must address a significant industry challenge or opportunity in at least one of the four industry subsectors below:

• farmed animals
• plants
• novel food production systems
• bioeconomy and agroforestry

Projects We Will Not Fund

We are not funding projects that:

• do not benefit farmers, growers or foresters in England
• are equine specific
• involve wild caught fisheries
• involve aquaculture for fish production or human consumption
• involve cellular expression of proteins or cultivated meat
• involve acellular production systems, fermentation systems, bacteria, yeast or fungi for human consumption
• are for the production of crops or plants for medicinal or pharmaceutical use

We cannot fund projects that are:

• dependent on domestic inputs usage: giving a subsidy to an organisation on the condition that it uses a set percentage of UK components in their product
• dependent on export performance: giving a subsidy to an organisation on the condition that it exports a certain quantity of its products to another country

Dates

• 15 July 2026 Competition opens
• 20 July 2026 Pre-recorded briefing: recording to follow shortly. Briefing slides will be available to download from Supporting Information after the recording has been uploaded.
• 09 September 2026 11:00am Competition closes
• 12 October 2026 Applicants notified
• 1 January 2027 Project start from

How to Apply

You must read the guidance on applying for a competition on the Innovation Funding Service before you start.

What we ask you

The application is split into three sections:

1. Project details.
2. Application questions.
3. Finances