Food & Agriculture

Improving food production, safety, and nutrition

#14 of 29 research categories by total funding · About £40 per person in the UK

Funded awards

8,627

Published funding

£2.7B

Average published award

£395K

Active funded awards

1,396

NIHR-supported projects

Amounts are published for 6,796 of 8,627 funded awards. Data as of 16 July 2026.

InnovateUK funds the most Food & Agriculture research — 2,620 grants (30% of the topic). The busiest year was 2023, with 929 grants.

Top Funders by Funded Award Count

View data table

Funder	Funded awards
InnovateUK	2,620
BBSRC	2,388
UKRI	1,135
EC	977
NERC	627
EPSRC	325
ESRC	267
Wellcome	79
AHRC	65
MRC	43

Funded Awards by Year

View data table

Year	Funded awards
2006	90
2007	120
2008	98
2009	106
2010	167
2011	166
2012	333
2013	347
2014	481
2015	606
2016	548
2017	558
2018	474
2019	561
2020	613
2021	528
2022	765
2023	929
2024	754
2025	301

Grants


Cellular Agriculture Manufacturing Hub	University of Bath	EPSRC	£12.7M	2023	Active
Nitrogen efficient plants for climate smart arable cropping systems (NCS)	Processors and Growers Research Organisation	UKRI	£4.4M	2023	Active
Establishment of a strategic training hub for the advancement of the UK agri-food industry	University of Nottingham	BBSRC	£4.0M	2012	Completed
InFarm2.x: Data enabled vertical farming with minimal waste and emissions and maximum efficiency and crop nutrition	Infarm - Indoor Urban Farming UK Limited	UKRI	£3.3M	2020	Completed
Vertical Farming to Improve UK Food System Resilience (VF-UKFSR)	University of Surrey	BBSRC	£1.5M	2024	Active
Enabling wide area persistent remote sensing for agriculture applications by developing and coordinating multiple heterogeneous platforms	Loughborough University	UKRI	£1.2M	2016	Completed
GelPonic: Smart hydrogels containing graphene-based sensors for precision control of vertical farms	Aeh Innovative Hydrogel LTD	UKRI	£1.0M	2020	Completed
One Health Rationale to Investigate the emerGence of AMR related to chicken Meat and Egg consumption (OHRIGAME)	Royal Veterinary College	UKRI	£845K	2025	Active
Maximising profitability of vertical farming through integration of sales, climate and sensory data	Harvest Farms LTD	UKRI	£753K	2022	Completed
Robust robot location and behaviors for on-farm navigation.	Muddy Machines LTD	UKRI	£700K	2023	Completed
A retrainable, smart-camera, vision system for agriculture - SKAi, the SoilEssentials KORE Artificial Intelligence platform	Soilessentials Limited	UKRI	£609K	2019	Completed
The development of a novel herbicide	University of Sheffield	BBSRC	£603K	2011	Completed
System Sensing in Vertical Farming and Controlled Environment Agriculture (Sys-Sens)	Gardin LTD	InnovateUK	£352K	2021	Completed
Carbon Free Nutrient (CFN)	Flex Farming Limited	UKRI	£345K	2023	Completed
Infection in agriculture and health training partnership	University of Exeter	BBSRC	£315K	2024	Active
Smart Farm and Agri-environmental Big Data Space	Queen Mary University of London	UKRI	£305K	2023	Active
Agri-system histories and trajectories: crops, landscapes, and heritage	Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew	AHRC	£167K	2021	Completed
Novel digital health platform for precision farming	Fitovol LTD	InnovateUK	£164K	2022	Completed
Net-Zero Operation Map	Brits Energy Limited	UKRI	£150K	2021	Completed
Developing Intercropping for Agrifood Value chains and Ecosystem Services delivery in Europe and Southern countries	Scottish Agricultural Organisation Society Limited	UKRI	£111K	2022	Active

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Food & Agriculture

Top Funders by Funded Award Count

Funded Awards by Year

Grants

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