ADOPT Facilitator Support Grant: Round 12

The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) will invest up to £100,000 to support the development of applications for on-farm trials and farm experiment projects. This funding is part of Defra’s Farming Innovation Programme , delivered in partnership with Innovate UK. This competition is designed for farmers, growers and foresters based in England who are keen to test and trial new ideas or solutions on-farm and require support to develop a Full ADOPT Grant application. The aim of this competition is to: • provide a £2,500 grant for a farmer, grower or forester based in England to engage an external Project Facilitator to support with submissions into the Full ADOPT Grant competitions • improve the quality of Full ADOPT Grant applications • make ADOPT funding accessible to a wider range of applicants • enhance the skills and expertise of the farming eco-system to engage with innovation funding If you are successful in this competition, you will need to provide evidence within three months of funding being awarded that your Full ADOPT Grant application has been sent for assessment before any payment can be made to you. In applying to this competition, you are entering into a competitive process. This competition has a funding limit, so we may not be able to fund all the proposed projects. It may be the case that your project scores highly but we are still unable to fund it. We consider a range of factors when determining whether to provide funding to applicants. This includes an assessment of prior conduct, such as any outstanding payments owed to Innovate UK or UKRI. Such factors may influence the funding decision, potentially resulting in a refusal of funding or an award subject to additional scrutiny. We also reserve the right to adjust funding allocations for any of our competitions. This may be in response to changes in policy, portfolio funding considerations or broader government funding decisions. This competition closes at 11am UK time on the deadline stated in this Innovate UK competition brief . We cannot guarantee other government or third party sites will always show the correct competition information. Funding type Grant Project size £2,500 will be awarded to successful applicants after their Full ADOPT Grant application has been sent for assessment. Accessibility and Inclusion We welcome and encourage applications from people of all backgrounds and are committed to making our application process accessible to everyone. This includes making reasonable adjustments for people who have a disability or a long-term condition and face barriers applying to us. You can contact us at any time to ask for guidance. We recommend you contact us at least 15 working days before this competition’s closing date to allow us to put the most suitable support in place. The support we can provide may be limited if you contact us close to the competition deadline. You can contact Innovate UK by email or call 0300 321 4357. Our phone lines are open from 9am to 12pm and 2pm to 5pm UK time, Monday to Friday (excluding bank holidays). This competition is designed for farmers, growers and foresters based in England who are keen to test and trial new ideas or solutions on-farm and require support to develop a Full ADOPT Grant application. The aim of this competition is to: • provide a £2,500 grant for a farmer, grower or forester based in England to engage an external Project Facilitator to support with submissions into the Full ADOPT Grant competitions • improve the quality of Full ADOPT Grant applications • make ADOPT funding accessible to a wider range of applicants • enhance the skills and expertise of the farming eco-system to engage with innovation funding The project you intend to develop and submit as a Full ADOPT Grant application must be for an on-farm trial or experiment to test new ideas and solutions. This is to demonstrate to you and other farmers, growers or foresters if it works in real on-farm conditions. Your project will need to address major on-farm or immediate post farmgate challenges or opportunities and it must have the potential to significantly improve one or more of the following: • productivity • resilience • sustainability and progression towards net zero farming Your proposal must demonstrate to other farmers, growers or foresters in England how the idea or solution will be of benefit to them. Your project must focus on testing and trialling ideas or solutions that are either new or not yet widely used. Portfolio approach We want to fund a variety of projects across different technologies, markets, themes, practices and processes, farming sectors, and regions. We call this a portfolio approach . Specific themes Your project must address a significant industry challenge or opportunity in at least one or more of the following sectors: • agriculture • horticulture • agro-forestry Projects we will not fund We are not funding projects that are: • do not benefit farmers, growers

Your project If you are successful in the Full ADOPT Grants, any awards given to primary agricultural producers are subject to the green box exemption under the WTO Agreement on Agriculture. See further guidance on green box subsidies WTO Guidance for support in Agriculture . Applicants receiving this type of support must ensure that there is minimal to no distortion of trade and comply with the requirements of Annex 2 of the Agriculture Agreement . To be eligible to apply for this competition, you must: • engage with an external Project Facilitator who is registered in the Innovate UK Business Connect database • work with the facilitator to develop and submit an eligible application for a Full ADOPT Grant competition • add £2500 in the ‘other costs’ column in the finance section of the application form If you are successful in this competition you will need to: • provide evidence that your Full ADOPT Grant application has been sent for assessment • submit a claim within three months of receiving your Grant Offer letter (GOL) A total of £2,500 will be awarded per successful participant once the claim and evidence is submitted. Lead organisation To apply for this grant your organisation must: • be an active farming, growing or forestry business of any size based in England • be able to evidence that you are an established commercial business, including sole traders and partnerships • have a UK bank account Organisations that are not profit driven or do not have a commercial focus, including Community Interest Companies (CICs) and charities, are not allowed to lead or participate in this competition. More information on the different types of organisation can be found in our Funding rules . Project Facilitator The Project Facilitator is the person who will be working with you to submit a Full ADOPT Grant application. They must be registered in the Innovate UK Business Connect database. You must only include in the ‘other costs’ line of the finance section the name of the Project Facilitator you will be working with and the maximum grant amount of £2,500. You will also be required to include their name in Question 10 in the ‘How to apply’ section. Subcontractors Subcontractors are not allowed in this competition. ** Number of applications** A farmer, grower or forester can only submit one application per competition round and receive a maximum of two Facilitator Support Grants in total across all rounds. Sanctions This competition will not fund you, or provide any financial benefit to any individual or entities directly or indirectly involved with you, which would expose Innovate UK or any direct or indirect beneficiary of funding from Innovate UK to UK Sanctions . For example, through any procurement, commercial, business development or supply chain activity with any entity as lead, partner or subcontractor related to these countries, administrations and terrorist groups . Use of animals in research and innovation Innovate UK expects and supports the provision and safeguarding of welfare standards for animals used in research and innovation, according to best practice and up to date guidance. Applicants must ensure that all of the proposed work within projects, both in the UK and internationally, will comply with the UKRI guidance on the use of animals in research and innovation . Any projects selected for funding which involve animals will be asked to provide additional information on welfare and ethical considerations, as well as compliance with any relevant legislation as part of the project start-up process. This information will be reviewed before an award is made. Previous applications You can use a previously submitted application to apply for this competition. If you have previously submitted an application that reached our assessment stage, you can re-apply once more with the same proposal. If there are minor differences to the proposal, but it is judged by us to be ‘not materially different’, the same rule applies. We will not award you funding if you have: • failed to exploit a previously funded project • an overdue independent accountant’s report • failed to comply with grant terms and conditions Innovate UK may withhold a grant payment at any time if you have any outstanding sums due to us in relation to other projects. Subsidy control (and State aid where applicable) This competition provides funding in line with the Subsidy Control Act 2022. Further information about the Subsidy requirements can be found within the Subsidy Control Act 2022 . Innovate UK is unable to award organisations that are considered to be in financial difficulty. We will conduct financial viability and eligibility tests to confirm this is not the case following the application stage. EU State aid rules now only apply in limited circumstances. See the Windsor Framework to check if these rules apply to your organisation. In the ‘Project details’ section of your application you will be asked questions to indicate if State Ai

You must read the guidance on applying for a competition on the Innovation Funding Service before you start. Before submitting, it is the lead applicant’s responsibility to make sure: • that all the information provided in the application is correct • your proposal meets the eligibility and scope criteria • all sections of the application are marked as complete You can reopen your application once submitted, up until the competition deadline. You must resubmit the application before the competition deadline. What we ask you The application is split into three sections: 1. Project details. 2. Application questions. 3. Finances. Accessibility and Inclusion We welcome and encourage applications from people of all backgrounds and are committed to making our application process accessible to everyone. This includes making reasonable adjustments for people who have a disability or a long-term condition and face barriers applying to us. You can contact us at any time to ask for guidance. We recommend you contact us at least 15 working days before this competition’s closing date to allow us to put the most suitable support in place. The support we can provide may be limited if you contact us close to the competition deadline. You can contact Innovate UK by email or call 0300 321 4357. Our phone lines are open from 9am to 12pm and 2pm to 5pm UK time, Monday to Friday (excluding bank holidays). 1. Project details This section provides background for your application and is not scored. Application team Decide which organisations will work with you on your project and invite people from those organisations to help complete the application. The Project Facilitator you are working with can be invited to support you with your application. Application details Give your Support Grant title, start date and duration. The duration must be three months. Project summary Describe your Full ADOPT Grant project you intend to apply for. We use this section to assign the right experts to assess your application. so you must be clear about which agricultural, horticultural or forestry area you are working in. Your answer can be up to 250 words long. Scope Describe how your Full ADOPT Grant project fits the scope of the competition by summarising how your project will be testing and trialling on-farm or immediate post farmgate solutions that are either new or not yet widely used. If your project is not in scope, it will not be sent for assessment. We will tell you the reason why. Your answer can be up to 400 words long. 2. Application questions The assessors will score all your answers apart from questions 1 to 7. You will receive feedback for each scored question. Find out more about how our assessors assess and how we select applications for funding . You must answer all questions. You must not include any website addresses or links (URLs) in your answers. Any website addresses or URLs included, will not be reviewed or opened. Question 1. Location of the farmer, grower or