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Letterbox: Submit your ideas to guide AHDB Cereals & Oilseeds activity
We provide independent evidence to help levy payers navigate the many challenges of farming. The Letterbox is your opportunity to tell us what you need to know. Whether it's a knowledge gap, a practical challenge, or a long-term concern – your questions and ideas will guide what we do next.
What is the Letterbox?
The Letterbox is your opportunity to shape our activity.
Your input helps AHDB Cereals & Oilseeds:
- Improve access to relevant and timely information
- Identify if new research is needed
- Develop more effective products, tools and services
How it works
- Anyone* can submit an idea via email, the online form or discussions with the AHDB team at events
- If there is clear value to levy payers, we will explore how to best respond to your idea
- Priority ideas/topics inform AHDB Cereals & Oilseeds Sector Council discussions on how to invest the levy
Submit your ideas
Submit your ideas via email or the form:
Your details will be handled in line with our privacy notice and we may contact you for more information.
Top tips
- Be aware: Ideas that align with the AHDB Cereals & Oilseeds sector plan are prioritised
- Be specific: Explain the question or idea, including why it is important
*We welcome ideas from non-levy payers too, but we do not accept speculative research proposals.
Email subject
Are biostimulants worth the money?
Basic
I need more information about biostimulants, please.
Better
Biostimulants are being pushed at farmers. Many of us want to cut back on chemicals, but we don’t know what is in these products. Nobody appears to be testing if they work.
Best
Like many farmers, I try to cut back on fertilisers and fungicides, but I don’t want to see yields drop.
Biostimulants are offered to farmers as alternatives, but we often don’t know what is in them or if they work.
I have used biostimulants in some split-field trials, but results have been inconsistent. I don’t know if I am wasting my money.
Questions I would like answered:
- Can biostimulants supplement or replace fungicides and still provide good disease control?
- Do micronutrients improve plant resistance to disease with/without biostimulants?
- Can amino acids improve yields with or without nitrogen fertiliser reductions?
Timelines
We review submissions regularly and look at:
- Frequency of submissions (same or similar topic)
- Relevance to levy payers
- Potential benefit to the wider industry
Investment priorities are discussed at regular (usually quarterly) meetings of the AHDB Cereals & Oilseeds Sector Council.
The bigger picture
This levy-payer-led approach to setting priorities began in 2024.
The farmer-led Research & Knowledge Exchange (R&KE) Committee reviews questions and ideas submitted and recommends how to respond to the AHDB Cereals & Oilseeds Sector Council – this could include a request for research, communication or KE activities.
R&KE committee meetings:
- 19 May 2025
- 16 September 2025
- 4 November 2025
James Standen, a farmer and AHDB Cereals & Oilseeds Sector Council member, chairs the R&KE committee.
Cereals & Oilseeds Sector Council meetings:
- 18 June 2025
- 14 October 2025
- 4 December 2025
An overview of AHDB research for growers of cereals and oilseeds
To keep up to date with the latest research and agronomy news from AHDB Cereals & Oilseeds, sign up for the monthly Agronomy Focus eshot: preferencecentre.ahdb.org.uk
Get information on R&KE funding opportunities
Information about recent investment decisions, including research calls, is published below.
ADOPT funding programme
The ADOPT* programme – funded by DEFRA and delivered by Innovate UK – provides grants to conduct small-scale, farmer-led research and development (R&D) projects and on-farm demonstrations of innovation.
It addresses on-farm and immediate post-farmgate challenges, with a focus on productivity, sustainability and resilience.
The deadline for the first round of applications for a full grant (£50,000–£100,000)** is 25 June 2025. However, applications can be made to subsequent rounds (there may be up to 10 rounds).
Lead applicants must be from an agricultural, horticultural or forestry business in England and collaborate with others based in the UK, including at least one other farming, growing or forestry business, in addition to advisors and researchers.
Each project must include a project facilitator (with experience of managing similar projects).
Projects are anticipated to last between 6 to 24 months.
Lead applicants interested in collaborating with AHDB can get in touch via research.ideas@ahdb.org.uk***
Find out more about ADOPT grants
*Accelerating Development of Practices and Technologies (ADOPT).
**Smaller support grants (£2,500) are also available for lead applicants to develop full grants with project facilitators (the first-round application deadline is 11 June 2025).
***To determine whether AHDB should collaborate on potential ADOPT projects, a similar process to the one used to make R&KE investment decisions will be followed.