Round 4 of Defra’s Farming Innovation Programme: Feasibility competition is about to open.
Closing on 3 December 2025, this scheme offers grants of up to £350,000 for feasibility studies for solutions to major farm and post-farmgate challenges.
Below are the key things you need to know about this competition. To find out if you should apply, book your free Eligibility and Competitiveness Assessment now.
Am I eligible for a Farming Innovation Programme: Feasibility grant?
To work out whether you’re eligible, we need to look at both your organisation and your project.
Your organisation
To lead a project, your company must:
- Be a UK-registered business
- Collaborate with other organisations
- Involve at least one other grant-claiming business
To be part of the project team, your organisation must be a UK-registered:
- Academic institution
- Business of any size
- Charity
- Not for profit
- Public sector organisation
- Research and technology organisation (RTO)
Your project
To qualify for this competition, your project must:
- Investigate early-stage solutions that have the potential to substantially improve the overall productivity, sustainability or 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 in collaboration with the wider UK research community in the innovation process
In addition, your project must:
- Cost between £200,000 – £500,000
- Last up to 24 months
- Start by 1 July 2026 and end by 30 June 2028
How much funding can I apply for?
While your project can have up to £500,000 in eligible costs, how much of those costs you get in grant funding depends on what kind of organisation you are.
Companies
The proportion of costs that your grant will cover depends on your company’s size.
| Company Size | Micro/Small | Medium-Sized | Large |
|---|---|---|---|
| Percentage of costs you can apply for | 70% | 60% | 50% |
You will need to fund the remainder yourself, through revenues, existing funds or other funding schemes, such as Innovation Loans or R&D Tax Credits.
Research organisations
As a research organisation, you can receive
- 100% of your eligible costs if you are an RTO, charity, not-for-profit or public sector organisation
- 80% of full economic costs (FEC) if you are a Je-S registered institution, like a university
How do I apply?
The written application for this Farming Innovation Programme competition has three parts.
- Project details – This only provides background and is not scored
- Application questions – This is the real meat of your application. It contains 18 questions, the first seven of which aren’t scored
- Finances – This section must be completed by the lead applicant
Your application will be reviewed by independent assessors. Like those who review our clients’ applications before submission via our Grants Review service.
Their individual scores will be combined into your final score, which decides whether you win a grant or not.
Want to know if you should apply? We can help.
If you would like to know whether your project qualifies for this Farming Innovation Programme competition, my colleagues and I can perform a free, no-obligation Eligibility and Competitiveness Assessment.
In less than 30 minutes, we’ll tell you:
- Whether you’re eligible (and if not, why not)
- How we judge your competitiveness
- What other grants and funding schemes you’re eligible for
Book your assessment below.
