ADOPT Facilitator Support Grant: Round 10 (2026): £2,500 for England Farm Businesses

ADOPT Facilitator Support Grant: Round 10 (2026): £2,500 for England Farm Businesses

The ADOPT Facilitator Support Grant: Round 10 is open to farming, growing, and forestry businesses based in England. It provides £2,500 for each successful participant to engage an external Project Facilitator and develop an application for a Full ADOPT Grant.

This is application-development funding, not the larger grant for running the farm trial. The support grant is intended to help an eligible farm business turn a practical idea into a well-formed Full ADOPT application. You do not have to receive a Support Grant before applying for a Full ADOPT Grant, but this competition is useful if you want professional help with the application and are less familiar with the Innovate UK process.

The current official Round 10 record lists the competition as open. It opens on 2 July 2026 and closes on 12 August 2026 at 11:00am UK time. The official UKRI opportunity page gives the same closing date and identifies Innovate UK as the funder, with the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) as co-funder.

Key details

What the £2,500 pays for

The award is for the work of an external Project Facilitator. That person helps you develop and submit an eligible Full ADOPT Grant application. The facilitator should be someone who can help connect the farm problem, the proposed trial, the scope rules, and the questions in the application form.

The grant is not a general cash payment for farm operations. It is not the budget for equipment, livestock, construction, routine production, or the wider costs of the Full ADOPT project. The official competition record says that the £2,500 is awarded after the Full ADOPT application has been sent for assessment. To make a claim, you must provide the Full ADOPT application number that has gone to assessment and the facilitator’s invoice for the full grant amount.

The wider ADOPT route is for on-farm trials or experiments. A Support Grant application therefore needs a credible follow-on idea. The facilitator can help you explain what you will test, why the idea is new or not yet widely used, how it will work in real farm conditions, and how the results could help other farmers, growers, or foresters in England.

Who can apply

The lead applicant must be an active farming, growing, or forestry business of any size based in England. The business must be able to show that it is an established commercial business. Sole traders and partnerships are included in the official eligibility summary, provided they meet the other requirements.

You must also have a UK bank account. The grant is not open to organisations that are not profit-driven or do not have a commercial focus, including charities and Community Interest Companies. Subcontractors are not allowed in this competition, so an applicant should not try to structure the Support Grant as a subcontracting arrangement.

The applicant must engage with an external Project Facilitator who is registered in the Innovate UK Business Connect database. This facilitator is the person who will work with you on the Full ADOPT application. A general adviser or consultant is not automatically eligible: check that the person you intend to name is registered in the relevant database and can support the application described in the competition.

You can submit only one application per competition round as a farmer, grower, or forester. The official Round 10 rules also state that an applicant can receive a maximum of two Facilitator Support Grants in total. That limit matters if your business has already used this support in an earlier round.

What the follow-on Full ADOPT project must cover

Your Support Grant proposal must describe the Full ADOPT project you intend to develop and submit. That project must be an on-farm trial or experiment testing a new idea or solution, or one that is not yet widely used. The point is to test it in real on-farm conditions and show whether it works for the applicant and other businesses.

The proposed work must address a significant challenge or opportunity in agriculture, horticulture, or agro-forestry. It must have the potential to improve at least one of the following:

• productivity;
• resilience;
• sustainability;
• progression towards net zero farming.

The project also needs to benefit other farmers, growers, or foresters in England. A proposal that only describes a private improvement for one holding may not demonstrate the required wider value. Explain what other businesses could learn from the trial, how the results could be shared, and why the tested idea is relevant beyond the applicant’s own operation.

The Round 10 rules exclude several types of work. The Full ADOPT project cannot be based on funded crop-variety plot trials or an existing demonstration project. The competition will not fund production of crops or plants for medicinal or pharmaceutical use, cultivated meat, equine systems, wild-caught fisheries, or aquaculture such as algae and seaweed for human consumption. Fermentation systems involving bacteria, yeast, or fungi for human consumption are also excluded. Proposals dependent on export performance or mandated domestic inputs are not eligible.

How to apply

Applications are submitted through the Innovation Funding Service. Start by deciding who in the business will complete the form and invite the Project Facilitator if they need access to help. The application is divided into three sections:

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

In Project details, enter the Support Grant title, proposed start date, and duration. The duration must be three months. You will also write a summary of the Full ADOPT project you intend to apply for. Keep that summary specific enough for the funder to identify the relevant agricultural, horticultural, or forestry area.

The scope response should explain how the proposed Full ADOPT work will test or trial an on-farm or immediate post-farmgate solution that is new or not yet widely used. If the project is outside scope, it will not be sent for assessment, so do not leave the connection to ADOPT implied. Describe the practical test, the setting, the challenge, the expected learning, and the potential value to other businesses.

The scored application questions ask about the business, the proposed project, its expected effects, and the Project Facilitator. You must answer every question. In Question 10, identify the facilitator and explain their relevant skills and experience, their business relationship to the project, the intended Full ADOPT team, and any resources, equipment, facilities, additional parties, or service providers needed for the planned trial.

Do not put website addresses or other URLs in application answers. The official guidance says those links will not be viewed or opened. Use the answer fields to provide the facts and reasoning the assessor needs instead.

In the finance section, enter the facilitator’s name in the other costs line and enter the total cost of £2,500. Do not add subcontractor costs: subcontractors are not allowed for this competition. The grant provides 100% funding for eligible project costs for an active farmer, grower, or forester based in England, but the project still has to satisfy the competition’s eligibility and scope tests.

Before submitting, check that every section is marked complete, that the proposal meets the eligibility and scope criteria, and that the facilitator’s name and cost are consistent throughout the form. You can reopen an application after submission up to the deadline, but you must resubmit it before the competition closes. Do not treat the reopen option as a substitute for submitting a complete application early.

What happens after submission

This is a competitive competition with a funding limit, so an eligible application is not guaranteed an award. The application is reviewed by an independent assessor whose skills or expertise are relevant to the project. Assessment considers the submitted material, and Innovate UK may also consider prior conduct, such as outstanding payments owed to Innovate UK or UKRI.

If you receive a grant offer, you will complete project setup in the Innovation Funding Service and provide the required information for checks on the organisation and project costs. You will receive a Grant Offer Letter through the portal. After it is approved, you will be told that the support grant is approved and given any relevant dates.

The grant is conditional on follow-through. Within three months of funding being awarded, you must provide evidence that your Full ADOPT Grant application has been sent for assessment. For the claim, the official instructions require the Full ADOPT application number and the Project Facilitator’s invoice for £2,500. The support payment is made after the claim and evidence are submitted.

The current Round 10 timetable lists 11 September 2026 for applicant notification and 1 November 2026 as the date by which the Support Grant starts. Plan facilitator availability and the three-month work period around those dates, while relying on the grant offer and Innovate UK instructions for the final project arrangements.

Practical preparation checklist

Before opening the form, assemble the business’s registered details, trading names, address, county, and a concise description of what it grows or produces. If the business operates across more than one holding, identify the main activity clearly and keep the legal applicant consistent.

Write down the farm problem in operational terms. Then identify the new or not-yet-widely-used idea you want to test, the conditions in which you will test it, and the evidence that would show whether it works. A facilitator can improve the application, but they cannot replace a clear trial concept.

Confirm the Project Facilitator’s Innovate UK Business Connect registration before naming them. Agree what support they will provide, including the Full ADOPT application work, and make sure the person can help explain the project’s value to other farmers, growers, or foresters.

Finally, check the timing and the claim requirement. Round 10 closes at 11:00am UK time on 12 August 2026. If funded, you will need the Full ADOPT application to have reached assessment and will need the facilitator’s invoice before claiming the £2,500. Keeping those two deliverables visible from the start will make the Support Grant application more coherent and reduce avoidable problems after an award.

Official links

• UKRI opportunity page: https://www.ukri.org/opportunity/adopt-facilitator-support-grant-round-10/
• Competition brief and application portal: https://apply-for-innovation-funding.service.gov.uk/competition/2520/overview/7b03dc59-645f-426d-a08f-6c6e6b6d6e0e
• Innovate UK help line: 0300 321 4357
• ADOPT Support Hub: https://www.farmpep.net/adoptsupport