Defra is putting £28 million into collaborative projects that improve soil, water and environmental management on farms in England, and applications close on 28 January 2027.
This competition sits in the Farming Futures R&D Fund, part of Defra's Farming Innovation Programme, and Innovate UK delivers it. Projects need total costs of between £1 million and £5 million, can run for up to 36 months, and must end with a commercially deployable solution that helps farmers, growers or foresters in England.
Below, I have explained the key things you need to know about this competition before you apply: who is eligible, how much funding is on the table, and what the application process looks like.
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Who is Eligible?
Your Organisation
To lead a project, you must be a UK registered business of any size.
The project has to be collaborative. You need at least two organisations claiming grant funding, and your consortium must include at least one UK registered micro, small or medium-sized enterprise. No single organisation can claim more than 70% of the total project costs.
You can work with the following as collaborators:
- Academic institutions
- Charities
- Not-for-profits
- Public sector organisations
- Research and technology organisations (RTOs)
- UK registered businesses of any size
If farmers, growers or foresters in your consortium claim grant, at least half of what they claim must go to those based in England.
Your Project
Your project must:
- Have total eligible costs of between £1 million and £5 million
- Last up to 36 months
- Start by 1 August 2027 and end by 31 July 2030
All funded work must be carried out in the UK, and you must intend to exploit the project results from or within the UK.
Your project must also:
- Align with Defra's targets, like the Farming Roadmap 2050 and the Environment Act target to cut nitrogen, phosphate and sediment pollution by 40% by 2038
- Benefit farmers, growers or foresters in England
- Carry out a life cycle assessment (LCA) of your solution where necessary
- Demonstrate and measure wider environmental benefits, like contributing to net zero
- Develop a commercially deployable solution to a soil, water or environmental management challenge in farming or growing
- Fit at least one of the competition's four scope areas
- Share what you learn with the wider sector
The four scope areas are:
- Climate resilience and natural resource adaptation
- Decision support tools, including low-cost monitoring, sensing and data platforms
- Fertilisers, nutrient management, circular bioeconomy and pollution reduction
- Soil, water and land resource management
Projects that cover more than one scope area and take a whole-farm, systems-based approach are particularly encouraged.
Defra won't fund projects that:
- Are cellular, like lab-grown meat, or acellular, like mycoproteins
- Are equine specific
- Are for aquaculture for fish production or human consumption, including algae and seaweed
- Are for producing cannabis for medicinal or pharmaceutical use
- Are forestry only
- Depend on export performance, or on using a set share of UK components
- Don't benefit farmers, growers or foresters in England
- Don't focus on soil, water or environmental monitoring
- Involve wild caught fisheries
How Much Funding Can I Apply For?
The amount you can claim depends on your organisation's type and size and the sort of research your project involves.
Total eligible project costs range from £1 million to £5 million, and this competition only funds industrial research.
Applying as a Company
| Project Type | Micro and Small | Medium | Large |
|---|---|---|---|
| Industrial Research* | 70% | 60% | 50% |
*Industrial research refers to planned research aimed at acquiring new knowledge for developing new products, processes, or services.
Funding Example
Say your consortium runs a £3 million project and you are a small business claiming £1.2 million of those costs. Industrial research is funded at 70% for micro and small companies, so your grant would be £840,000. You will need to fund the remaining £360,000 from other sources, like R&D Tax Relief, investment or loans.
Applying as a Non-Commercial Organisation
Non-economic organisations can share up to 50% of the total eligible project costs, and they are funded at higher rates:
- Up to 100% of eligible costs if you are a charity, not-for-profit, public sector organisation, research organisation, or RTO
- Up to 80% of full economic costs (FEC) if you're a Je-S-registered institution, like a university
How Do I Apply?
The deadline for applications is 28 January 2027.
Applications are submitted via Innovate UK's Innovation Funding Service (IFS) portal.
The application is split into three sections:
Project Details
This section covers the basics of your project and your consortium:
- Application details
- Application team
- Project summary
- Public description
- Research category
- Scope
Most answers in this section are limited to 400 words.
Application Questions
There are 18 questions in total:
- Eight unscored administrative questions covering topics like animal testing, permits and licences, where the farmers and growers in your project are based, and Trusted Research and Innovation
- Ten scored questions covering your need or challenge, approach and innovation, team and resources, market awareness, outcomes and route to market, wider impacts, project management, risks, added value, and costs and value for money
You can include appendices (PDFs of up to two A4 pages) for the approach and innovation, and team and resources questions. The project management and risks questions need a project plan or Gantt chart and a risk register as appendices, and these aren't optional.
Finances
Every organisation in your consortium completes its own finance section, covering its project costs, organisation details and funding request.
Your application will be reviewed by three independent assessors. Their individual scores will be combined to determine your final result.
If you're successful, you'll be notified by 27 May 2027. Applications that pass the initial assessment may be invited to an interview between 3 and 21 May 2027.
Like with most competitions, Innovate UK takes a 'portfolio approach' by funding projects across different technologies, markets and technological maturities. This means that a strong score won't necessarily guarantee that your application will be successful.
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