--- title: ADOPT – using funding opportunities for on-farm trials description: How the ARC can support Defra's ADOPT programme for on-farm research. Giving farmers and ag-tech companies access to funding for trials. image: https://thearc.farm/hubfs/IMG_0044.jpeg --- [Skip to content](https://thearc.farm/NewsandUpdates/adopt#main-content) [![Main Logo Colour](https://thearc.farm/hs-fs/hubfs/Logos/Main%20Logo%20Colour.png?width=2000&height=778&name=Main%20Logo%20Colour.png)Homepage](https://www.thearc.farm) - [Research Model](https://thearc.farm/research-model) - [Explain](https://thearc.farm/explain) - [Evidence](https://thearc.farm/evidence) - [Experiment](https://thearc.farm/experiment) - [Exchange](https://thearc.farm/exchange) - [Projects](https://thearc.farm/projects) - [ADOPT](https://thearc.farm/adopt) - [Network](https://thearc.farm/network) - [ARC Innovators](https://thearc.farm/innovators) - [News & Updates](https://thearc.farm/newsandupdates) [Connect](https://thearc.farm/contact-us) - [Research Model](https://thearc.farm/research-model) - [Explain](https://thearc.farm/explain) - [Evidence](https://thearc.farm/evidence) - [Experiment](https://thearc.farm/experiment) - [Exchange](https://thearc.farm/exchange) - [Projects](https://thearc.farm/projects) - [ADOPT](https://thearc.farm/adopt) - [Network](https://thearc.farm/network) - [ARC Innovators](https://thearc.farm/innovators) - [News & Updates](https://thearc.farm/newsandupdates) [Connect](https://thearc.farm/contact-us) ![Farmers touring a crop trial](https://thearc.farm/hs-fs/hubfs/IMG_0044.jpeg?width=2048&height=1536&name=IMG_0044.jpeg) ADOPT # ADOPT – using funding opportunities for on-farm trials ![Daniel Kindred](https://thearc.farm/hs-fs/hubfs/dk%20sancton%20cropped.jpg?width=48&height=48&name=dk%20sancton%20cropped.jpg) Daniel Kindred May 2, 2025 The newly launched **ADOPT** programme from Defra and Innovate UK presents a major opportunity for UK agriculture to embed innovation directly into the hands of farmers. As a new funding stream designed specifically to support **on-farm testing and demonstration**, ADOPT aligns perfectly with the mission of the Agronomy Research Circle: to understand what works on-farm through *Explanations, Evidence, Experimentation, and Exchange*. ### What is ADOPT? **ADOPT (Accelerating Development of Practices and Technologies)** is part of Defra's **Farming Innovation Programme**, aiming to bridge the gap between research and real-world farming. It funds farmer-led projects that test, adapt, and share knowledge about innovative practices or technologies, helping to speed up adoption across the industry. Projects of between £50,000 to **£100,000** over 12–24 months can support groups of farmers and researchers to test products, technologies or practices in a practical farm setting. Crucially, this isn’t about blue-sky research — it’s about real farmers testing what *might work* in their fields, their systems, and their contexts. More details are available at: - [Farming Innovation UKRI](https://farminginnovation.ukri.org/adopt/) - [FARM-PEP ADOPT Portal](https://farmpep.net/adopt/front) ### Why This Matters In the UK and globally, there's growing recognition that **innovation must work at farm level** to be meaningful. Farmers are experimenters by nature, but they often lack the time, support, or networks to formalise trials, analyse results, or share insights. ADOPT offers funding and a framework to change that. For those of us working to support on-farm research — whether as consultants, researchers, or innovative growers — this is a unique opportunity to: - **Put farmers in the driving seat** of innovation. - **Generate robust, locally relevant evidence** on emerging practices. - **Build peer-to-peer learning networks** to share findings across the sector. ### How ARC Can Help Through the **Agronomy Research Circle** we can connect you with the people, organisations, networks, tools and networks to make your project a success. If you are interested in getting involved we can help with: - Applications for Facilitator support of £2500 from Defra for us to help write a full proposal for funding - As a sub-contractor in projects to provide co-ordination and support with establishing and monitoring of on-farm comparison trials, measurement protocols, data sharing and analysis. Costs will depend on the project and level of support needed, but likely to start at £5000. - Where the project focus is of mutual interest we can join projects as a research partner, co-designing the projects questions and activities, on-boarding farmers and relevant partners, ensuring maximum success in generating knowledge and impact. In particular we are looking to pull together farmer groups to address: - Nutrient Performance - testing technologies, practices and products for improved crop nutrition. - Biostimulants for enhanced crop peformance - which products work in which situations? - Disease detection - testing a range of new technologies to get better in season information on disease pressure to make better fungicide decisions Whether you're testing a novel input, a precision tool, a new crop type, or a management approach — we can help make it rigorous, relevant, and replicable. ### Get Involved ADOPT has rolling rounds so we can make an application at any time. If you have an idea you'd like to explore or are looking for collaborators, email [info@thearc.farm](mailto:info@thearc.farm) or join [ARC Innovators](https://thearc.farm/innovators) .   Check out the ADOPT [Connections Hub](https://farmpep.net/adopt/connections-hub)on FarmPEP for some of the proposals and projects we're pursuing.   👉 [Contact us](mailto:daniel@arcagsci.com)if you’d like to discuss a project idea or partnership. ## Share this post [mailto:https%3A%2F%2Fthearc.farm%2FNewsandUpdates%2Fadopt](mailto:https%3A%2F%2Fthearc.farm%2FNewsandUpdates%2Fadopt) ## Keep reading ### [![](https://thearc.farm/hs-fs/hubfs/AdobeStock_557049844.jpeg?width=1000&height=634&name=AdobeStock_557049844.jpeg) ADOPT Opportunities Six new ADOPT projects get go-ahead with ARC](https://thearc.farm/newsandupdates/six-new-adopt-get-go-ahead) ### [![](https://thearc.farm/hs-fs/hubfs/AdobeStock_339458814.jpeg?width=5739&height=3831&name=AdobeStock_339458814.jpeg) ADOPT Project Soil Health Static Compost](https://thearc.farm/newsandupdates/static-compost) [![Main Logo Colour](https://thearc.farm/hs-fs/hubfs/Logos/Main%20Logo%20Colour.png?width=2000&height=778&name=Main%20Logo%20Colour.png "Main Logo Colour")](https://www.thearc.farm) © 2026 ARC Agronomic Sciences. All rights reserved. [Privacy Policy](https://thearc.farm/hubfs/Official%20Documents/ARC%20Privacy%20Policy.pdf) [Terms & Conditions](https://thearc.farm/hubfs/Official%20Documents/ARC%20Terms%20and%20Conditions.pdf) ```json { "@context" : "https://schema.org", "@type" : "BlogPosting", "author" : { "@type" : "Person", "name" : "Daniel Kindred", "url" : "https://thearc.farm/newsandupdates/author/daniel-kindred" }, "dateModified" : "2026-06-05T13:19:08.930Z", "datePublished" : "2025-05-02T19:26:03.000Z", "headline" : "ADOPT – using funding opportunities for on-farm trials", "image" : [ "https://thearc.farm/hubfs/IMG_0044.jpeg" ], "mainEntityOfPage" : { "@id" : "https://thearc.farm/newsandupdates/adopt", "@type" : "WebPage" }, "publisher" : { "@type" : "Organization", "logo" : { "@type" : "ImageObject", "url" : "https://thearc.farm/hubfs/Logos/Main%20Logo%20Colour.png" }, "name" : "ARC Agronomic Sciences" } } ```