Round-up – September 2025
This is our round-up for September 2025. Please note that this page is not updated, so deadlines may have passed and links may no longer work. To receive future newsletters, please join our network.
Save the date
Our next webinar is on Wednesday 22nd October, 3:00–4:00pm and will be on the AFN Roadmap. Please save the date and look out for an email from Jez soon.
Catch up on our latest digests
A reminder of some of the recent things we have been looking at:
- Our digests of news and reports you may have missed over the summer – Part 1 and Part 2.
- The impact of climate change on British farms and farmers’ mental health and
- How public food procurement can support sustainable change
Calling all farmers and urban growers in England
Please help with this survey being carried out by AFN member Fern Baker (AFN member) and Dr Bosun Sanusi (UCLan) exploring how rural farming systems can reduce food loss and transition toward circular, zero-waste models. The survey is investigating:
- The root causes of food loss
- Awareness and readiness for circular value-added practices
- Sustainable enterprise models for converting food loss into value
The study aims to support policy and practice that enable a just and sustainable transition. This work is vital to help farmers facing challenges reinvesting in their enterprises due to post-harvest losses and systemic barriers.
Podcast: Celebrating 10 years of The Food Foundation!
To mark the 10th anniversary of The Food Foundation, a special podcast with the charity’s founder Laura Sandys, Trustee Rosie Boycott, Executive Director Anna Taylor, former government food tzar Henry Dimbleby, and Food Ambassador Dev Sharma. They share amusing and poignant anecdotes about the charity’s early days, the challenges and breakthroughs along the way and their hopes for the future of food policy in the UK.
Funding
Defra – Farming Innovation Programme: Small R&D Partnership Projects Round 4
UK businesses can apply for a share of up to £7.8 million for small R&D partnership projects. This funding is from the industry led R&D Partnerships Fund, part of the Defra Farming Innovation Programme. The aim of this competition is to:
- develop solutions with the potential to improve overall productivity, sustainability, resilience and move existing agricultural sectors to net zero
- ensure solutions have positive outputs for farmers, growers or foresters in commercially relevant situations
- develop new agricultural solutions by collaboration through engagement with end users and the UK research community in the innovation process
- accelerate adoption by ensuring knowledge exchange with the wider sector and other stakeholders
Your proposal must be able to demonstrate how the project will benefit farmers, growers or foresters in England.
Deadline: 5 November 2025
Defra – Feasibility Studies competition (advance notice)
Feasibility Studies projects will test whether a research idea works in real-world conditions. Defra want to support early-stage, innovative solutions and encourage businesses to work together on new ideas. There will be a consortia-building event to help you find partners.
Projects can receive between £200,000 and £500,000 in funding and last up to 24 months.
- The guidance will be available on 29 September. We will post the details in our October newsletter
- The competition will open on 13 October 2025
- A consortia-building event will be held on 14 October 2025
- The competition will close on 3 December 2025
Events
How can we unlock the power of local food?
Thursday 18th September, 11:00am-12:00pm
With Julia Kirby-Smith from Better Food Traders, Bonnie Welch from Sustainable Food Trust and Rachel Jones from Sustain. Join them as they share insights from the recently published Local Food Growth Plan, and how the local food sector can be scaled for security, economic and placemaking benefits. This webinar is for food producers, retailers, processors, hubs and trade organisations, as well food partnerships and local councils.
The Agroecology Learning Collective In-Person Gathering
Monday 22nd September, Manchester
This all-day event will be focused on exploring and building on opportunities within work-based and practical agroecological training.
Webinar: Follow the Carrot: How can more free school meals boost British farming?
Tuesday 23rd September, 12:00–1:00pm
Sustain are hosting this interactive webinar exploring how the expansion of school meals could deliver healthy, sustainable food for pupils and growth opportunities for British farmers and producers.
Webinar: Food Thinkers: Diagnosing Food Systems Policy Coherence – a practical guide
Wednesday 24th September, 4:00–5:15pm
The Global Alliance for Applied Nutrition (GAIN), working with Akademiya2063, have developed a new diagnostic tool that can:
- identify areas of coherence and non-coherence between food system policies and key societal goals and
- suggest ways to improve coherence.
In this presentation Stella Nordhagen, a researcher at GAIN, will introduce the tool and explain how it works.
Farm Carbon Toolkit Annual Field Day 2025
Tuesday 30th September, Scunthorpe
Direct access to some of the industry’s foremost innovators in this space. Discussions with other farmers to hear their experiences and build your knowledge by learning from their successes and failures. Insights on new opportunities to reduce costs and diversify income streams to bolster your bottom line.
Nuffield Farming Conference
18–20 November, Aberdeen
The 2025 Nuffield Farming Conference will take place at the P&J Live in Aberdeen. The event promises three days of lively conversation, fresh ideas, and shared ambition for the future of farming.
Oxford Real Farming Conference 2026
8–9 January 2026, Oxford
The Oxford Real Farming Conference (ORFC) continues to bring the grassroots agroecology and food sovereignty movement together to lead the way towards a fairer food and farming system in the UK. The ORFC 2026 line-up will include 145+ dynamic in-person sessions, including 45+ livestreamed sessions, and will bring together pioneering voices from across the UK and around the world to address the crucial issues facing food and farming right now.
