Farming Innovation Programme: Small R&D Partnership Projects Rd 5

UK registered businesses can apply for a share of up to £13 million for small R&D partnership projects. This funding is from the industry led R&D Partnerships Fund, a part of the Defra Farming Innovation Programme.

Competition opens: Tuesday 1st September 2026
Competition closes: Wednesday 14 October 2026 11:00am

Description

The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) will invest up to £13 million in innovation projects. 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.

We reserve the right to adjust funding allocations for any of our competitions under exceptional circumstances, for example, in response to changes in policy, portfolio funding considerations, or broader government funding decisions.

The aim of this competition is to:

• develop solutions with the potential to improve overall productivity, sustainability, resilience and move existing agricultural sectors to net zero
• ensure solutions have positive outputs for farmers, growers or foresters in commercially relevant situations
• develop new agricultural solutions by collaboration through engagement with end users and the UK research community in the innovation process
• accelerate adoption by ensuring knowledge exchange with the wider sector and other stakeholders

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

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 between £1 million and £3 million
• last up to 30 months
• be collaborative
• carry out all of its project work in the UK
• intend to exploit the results from or in England
• start by 01 April 2027
• end by 31 March 2030

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:

• develop solutions with the potential to improve overall productivity, sustainability, resilience and move existing agricultural sectors to net zero
• ensure solutions have positive outputs for farmers, growers or foresters in commercially relevant situations
• develop new agricultural solutions, by collaboration through engagement with end users and the UK research community in the innovation process
• accelerate adoption by ensuring knowledge exchange with the wider sector and other stakeholders

Your solutions must significantly improve:

• productivity
• sustainability and the environmental impact of farming
• progression towards net zero emissions
• resilience

Businesses within a supply chain, are encouraged to come together as a partnership to solve major challenges or opportunities.

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

We want to fund a variety of projects across different technologies, markets, technological maturities and research categories. We call this a portfolio approach.

Specific Themes

Your project must address a significant industry challenge or opportunity in at least one of the 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 or acellular production systems, fermentation systems for 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 export performance: giving a subsidy to an organisation on the condition that it exports a certain quantity of its products to another country
• 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

Dates

• 1 September 2026 Competition opens
• 1 September Recorded applicant briefing: watch the recording. Briefing slides are available to download from Supporting Information.
• 14 October 2026 11:00am Competition closes
• 10 November 2026 Invite to interview
• 4-9 December 2026 Interview panel
• 15 December 2026 Applicants notified
• 1 April 2027 Project start by

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 four sections:

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