Work on longer-term farming innovation projects 

You can apply for funding to work on longer-term projects that will benefit farming in England.  

The ‘Farming Futures Research and Development (R&D)’ competitions are for projects that cost between £3 million and £6 million.

Projects can last up to 4 years. Your work should lead to a new product or service, but not necessarily within the 4 years that you’re working on it.

You can apply if you’re a:

  • research organisation
  • business registered in the UK

What we’re looking for 

‘Farming Futures R&D’ projects are slightly different from other farming innovation projects you can apply for.

Each competition has a different theme. For example, the first theme will be ‘Development of solutions to reduce emissions in existing agricultural practices’.

Your application needs to show how you’ll meet the aims of:

This is a competitive process. Applications will be reviewed and funding awarded to the projects that best meet those aims. 

Your application needs to show how you’ll:

  • solve a real-world problem for farmers, growers or foresters
  • increase productivity
  • reduce emissions and the environmental impact of farming
  • improve resilience to extreme events

Work as part of a team

We want to encourage collaboration between farmers, researchers and businesses. We believe that by working together you can develop the solutions and improvements needed to meet environmental and industry challenges.

You’ll need to collaborate with at least one other business or research organisation on a ‘Farming Futures R&D’ project

Once the competition is open, you can get help from KTN (opens in new window) to find the right people to work with. 

Look out for opportunities to join briefing events which will be used to help bring together interested parties to form collaborative bids. 

Work with farmers

Farmers, growers or foresters must be involved throughout the project. This is so that any new product or service works for them in practice. 

There are different ways you could collaborate:

  • work with them directly to develop a product (for example on their land)
  • put them on your advisory or project boards
  • regularly check that the product you are developing works for them 

Amount of funding you could get  

Total project costs need to be between £3 million and £6 million.