Agri-tech Funding Opportunity

AgriScale: Accelerating Agri-tech Manufacturing is a new UK funding initiative, unveiled by Defra and Innovate UK, designed to transition innovative agricultural technology from prototypes to commercial, large-scale production.

Competition opens & closes 29th March – 3rd June 2026 9:00 am

The grant funding is available in two separate strands: Industrial Research and Experimental Development.

For the Industrial Research strand, your project should aim to close technology gaps that prevent products being proven, demonstrated and accepted in end user conditions. UK registered businesses can apply for a share of up to £5 million for projects with costs of £250k-£750k and duration 6-12 months.

For the Experimental Development strand, your project should target getting products to market to accelerate end user adoption. UK registered businesses can apply for a share of up to £8 million for projects with costs of £1m-£3m and duration 6-18 months.

Your proposal must be a late-stage project and demonstrate how you will develop your product to higher levels of performance, reliability and adoption readiness. You must also demonstrate how you will move your business, technologies and products closer to manufacturing readiness.

Innovate UK, part of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), will invest up to £13 million in these AgriScale competitions.

AgriScale is not intended to fund development of early or mid-stage technologies or concepts.

Read more here.