£13m to turn cutting-edge research into real-world, farming solutions Grant
In context
This call is open to startups, small and medium-sized businesses and large companies and 3 others, at prototype and pilot stage, pre-seed and seed stage. Funding is a grant. Coverage is read from the notice itself: United Kingdom.
Innovate UK is offering £13m in funding to commercialize cutting-edge agricultural research into practical farmer-facing solutions, including disease vaccines, pest-control technology, and crop-yield enhancement tools. The grant targets research organizations and companies ready to translate lab innovations into deployable farm products and services.
About this grant
A £13 million investment through the Farming Innovation Programme (Small R&D Partnerships Round 5) aims to bring cutting-edge agricultural research from laboratories to farms by providing grants to develop practical tools and technologies that address farmer challenges. The programme supports collaborative research and development projects that tackle issues including labour shortages, animal health, crop protection, pest management, and sustainability. Projects funded through previous rounds include AI-powered robotic tomato harvesters, a vaccine for pigs against Streptococcus suis to reduce antibiotic use, and hoverfly-based natural pest control in berry crops. The initiative is delivered in partnership between Innovate UK and the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs, supporting researchers, farmers, and agri-tech businesses to develop new products and services that improve farm productivity, resilience, and sustainability.
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Eligibility
The programme is open to researchers, farmers, and agri-tech businesses collaborating on research and development projects. Applicants must be developing new products or services for the agriculture sector. The press release indicates this is part of the wider Farming Innovation Programme, though specific organizational eligibility requirements are not detailed in the available text.
How it's scored
The evaluation criteria are not explicitly stated in the press release. The programme targets high-potential projects with the capacity to move innovations closer to market, but specific scoring methodology, weightings, or panel composition details are not provided.
Key requirements
- ✓Research must be translatable into practical, real-world farming solutions
- ✓Projects should address agricultural challenges: disease prevention, pest management, or crop productivity
- ✓Applicants likely need demonstrated research output or prototype ready for commercialization pathway
Recent past awardees
Knowing who's won the last rounds tells you whether you're in the strike zone.
- Vitrum
- Novel Enhanced Streptococcus suis Vaccine for Pigs
- FLYTHRIVE
Frequently asked questions
- How much funding does Innovate UK offer?
- £13m to turn cutting-edge research into real-world, farming solutions offers $1.3M – $3.8M.
- Who can apply for £13m to turn cutting-edge research into real-world, farming solutions?
- Eligibility covers organisations in GB; startup, sme, large-company, university, research-institution, consortium. See the eligibility criteria above for the full conditions.
Relevant sectors
About this sector
Regenerative agriculture funding supports soil health, cover cropping, reduced tillage, agroforestry and grazing practices that store carbon and restore land. It comes through agricultural support schemes, research programmes and supply-chain initiatives run with food companies. Applicants often need farmer partners, field trial plans and a way to monitor soil outcomes.
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