For businesses driving innovation in agri-tech, accessing the right support can make all the difference. Discover the latest opportunities across the agri-food supply chain to create a strong foundation for growth and accelerate your organisation’s journey.
- Business support programmes
- Farmer-led innovation trials
- Latest UK funding opportunities
Read on to find out about current funding opportunities to help accelerate your business’ aspirations:
ADOPT – Farmer-led innovation trials
ADOPT (Accelerating Development of Practices and Technologies) is a funding competition designed to support farmer-led, on-farm trials and experiments across England. Funded by Defra and delivered by Innovate UK, it aims to generate, test, and demonstrate innovative solutions to challenges in agriculture, horticulture, and forestry.
Grants available:
- Full ADOPT Grant: Round 7: £5 million available to support farmer-let trial costs.
- Facilitator Support Grant (Round 8): Provides £2,500 for a Project Facilitator to support with submissions into the Full ADOPT Grant competitions.
Funded projects so far have explored soil and nutrient management, livestock systems, arable trials, equipment and technology and new ways of collaborating to improve resilience and productivity.
ADOPT Support Hub
The ADOPT Support Hub delivered by ADAS, UK Agri-Tech Centre and The Soil Association, is here to support farmers and facilitators from early ideas through to live projects. Support is free and available at any stage.
Overcome technical and commercial challenges with business support programmes
Our business support programmes deliver specialist, expert support to tackle business growth challenges and move your innovation closer to market, quickly.
Global Growth Accelerator – International pilot projects to validate UK-developed agri-tech solutions with end users
‘Global Growth Accelerator – Australasia’ is an international programme designed to fast-track UK agri-tech businesses by validating technologies for dairy and livestock in New Zealand’s innovation-driven farming systems.
Delivered in partnership with Agnition Ventures and AgriTech New Zealand, GGA provides agri-tech businesses with structured access to early-adopter farms for third-party validation, farmer feedback and investment opportunities. The programme will help UK businesses remove barriers to investment and open commercial pathways globally.
Registrations are closed, if you are interested in future opportunities, register your interest.
FASTA – Accelerator for agri-tech solutions enabling Net Zero agriculture
Backed by the UK Agri-Tech Centre and delivered in partnership with the Carbon Trust, FASTA provides expert-led support to accelerate solutions that enable a more sustainable, productive and resilient UK agriculture sector. Agri-tech businesses can benefit from a range of support including tailored mentorship, access to validation facilities, investor readiness sessions and more.
Visit the FASTA page to learn more and register your interest for the next cohort.
Agri-Tech Solution Sprints – Fast-paced innovation sprints
Agri-Tech Solution Sprints supports micro, small, and medium-sized businesses (SMEs) to overcome hurdles and progress agri-tech solutions forward to commercialisation. Delivered in short, fast-paced programmes, you will work with experts to create a bespoke programme to support your business to overcome its innovation challenge.
If you would like to receive updates about the next round of Agri-Tech Solution Sprints, click the button below.
Register your interest and find out more
UK funding opportunities
Funding Opportunity: AgriScale – Accelerating Agri-tech manufacturing: Industrial Research
Deadline: Wednesday 3 June
UK registered businesses can apply for a share of up to £5 million for projects to close product technology gaps that are preventing movement towards commercial acceptance, scale up and manufacture. This funding is from Innovate UK.
Funding Opportunity: AgriScale – Accelerating agri-tech manufacturing: Experimental Development
Deadline: Wednesday 3 June
UK registered businesses can apply for a share of up to £8 million for projects to accelerate Agri-tech manufacturing. This funding is from Innovate UK.
Funding Opportunity: Advanced manufacturing supply chain innovation: CRD
Deadline: Wednesday 10 June
UK registered businesses can apply for a share of up to £6.5 million for collaborative industrial research to make supply chains more productive, resource efficient and resilient.
Funding Opportunity: Defra Farming Innovation Investor Partnership
Deadline: Wednesday 17 June
UK registered micro, small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) can apply for a share of up to £5 million to develop innovative farming solutions. This must align with private investment from selected investor partners.
Funding Opportunity: Horizon Europe 2026-27: EU Missions – Adaptation to Climate Change
Deadline: September 2026
The European Commission has published all of the 2026-27 Horizon Europe Work Programmes, which list the funding opportunities under the 2026-27 call topics.
Funding Opportunity: SMART: Scotland grants
Deadline: Ongoing
The SMART: SCOTLAND grant is one of our research and development (R&D) grants that aims to support high-risk, highly ambitious projects. It provides support to conduct feasibility studies. It’s only available to small and medium enterprises (SMEs) based in Scotland, and supports activities that have a commercial endpoint.
The SMART grant aims to support our priority areas for economic transformation. These are:
- Creating an internationally competitive energy transition industry in Scotland
- Scaling the impact of Scotland’s innovation strengths into high-growth industries of the future
- Driving capital investment to deliver a step-change in Scotland’s productivity
Funding Opportunity: TMAF
Multiple grant opportunities available for:
- Arable research relevant to East Anglia that improves productivity while reducing negative impact on the natural environment.
- PhD projects – in collaboration with other funders and partners.
- Individuals and their continual professional development (CPD) at all levels.
- Initiatives to inform a wide audience – from school age children to adults – about agricultural practices.
Projects that make use of TMAF farms, complement current or previous TMAF-supported projects, contribute long-standing data sets, or offer clear ways to share information and demonstrate results are welcomed.
Funding Opportunity: Water Innovation Implementation Programme – Early Adopter & Fast Followers Stream
Deadline: Ongoing
The Water Innovation Implementation Programme is designed to help move innovations from successful trials to be implemented at scale.
The Early Adopter & Fast Follower stream provides match-funding to help water companies implement innovations that have already been tested and proven. This includes water and wastewater companies, water-only companies, new appointees, or Infrastructure Provider Project Licensees. During the initial trial period, up to £15 million is available through this stream. Funding is provided on a 50:50 match-funded basis.
Funding Opportunity: Water Innovation Implementation Programme – Implementation Enablers Stream
Deadline: Ongoing
The Water Innovation Implementation Programme is designed to help move innovations from successful trials to be implemented at scale.
The Implementation Enablers stream focuses on tackling the shared, systemic barriers that slow or block innovation implementation across the water sector. Initially, up to £10 million will be allocated through the Implementation Enablers stream, with the potential to make more funding available as the Programme develops.
How the UK Agri-Tech Centre can help you
At the UK Agri-Tech Centre, we connect high-potential agri-tech businesses to commercial success. We are a UK-wide organisation dedicated to helping agir-tech businesses become market-ready, scale effectively and achieve real-world adoption. Our expert team ensures customers receive tailored support, access to testbeds and a pathway to market to accelerate growth in the UK and beyond.
If you have any questions about the above funding opportunities or want to find out how we can help your agri-tech business grow, get in touch with us at [email protected]
Last updated 11/05/2026.
