Circular Economy and Women-Led Agrifood Funding: Five EU Grants Open Now

"This is not a toolkit about perfect farms. It is a toolkit about transition."

Circular Voices, an AgriVentures initiative

Alongside its work on carbon and digital farming, AgriVentures is tracking a cluster of open EU calls aimed squarely at circular agrifood systems, ESG aligned businesses, and women led ventures, several with funding rates as high as 100%. Here is what is currently live.

Circular Economy and Food Security

HORIZON-CL6-2026-02-FARM2FORK-05 (Horizon Europe) offers up to €6,000,000 at a 100% funding rate for projects spanning circular economy, livestock, and agri-food, one of the largest calls currently open in the space. A companion Horizon Europe call, Boosting organic farming for a competitive sector, offers up to €6,000,000 at a 70% funding rate for work across circular economy, bioeconomy, and agri-food. On the promotional side, the Promotion of Agricultural Products programme (AGRIP) provides up to €3,000,000 at an 85% funding rate for initiatives built around sustainability, circular economy, and organic production, useful for producer groups and businesses looking to bring circular or organic agrifood products to new markets.

Backing Women-Led Innovation

Two open calls are specifically aimed at women in agrifood. EPIC-X, Women-Led Deep-Tech Startups, a Cascade Funding programme, offers up to €60,000 at a 100% funding rate for circular economy, biotech, and digitalisation ventures. The WFF Empowering Women in Agrifood Systems competition offers up to €17,500, also at 100% funding, for projects addressing agri-food security, women's participation, and sustainability.

Evidence from the Field, Not Just Theory

These funding tracks sit alongside AgriVentures' own Circular Voices initiative, a pilot project with Spanish partner Alberizas, funded by the Global Research Alliance on Agricultural Greenhouse Gases through the Circular Food Systems Network, which has documented 31 farmer stories and 20 documentary videos of circular practices already working in Bulgaria and Spain, from compost facilities and closed loop hydroponics to biogas powered wineries. That fieldwork now feeds a policy brief calling on EU institutions to embed circularity into the next programming period, and it is the same evidence base AgriVentures draws on when helping applicants build a competitive case for these calls.

Small Grants, Real Funding Rates

What stands out across this cluster is how accessible several of the calls are. Three of the five run at a 100% funding rate, meaning no matching contribution is required from the applicant, and the smallest, WFF's €17,500 competition, is well within reach for early stage teams and small producer groups, not just large consortia.

Get These Calls Delivered to Your Inbox

Circular, ESG, and women-led agrifood ventures do not need to monitor every EU portal by hand. By creating a free profile at agriventures.co and selecting Circular Agrifood and ESG or Women in Agrifood as areas of interest, applicants let AgriVentures track the live database of 500+ funding opportunities on their behalf and send matching calls straight to their email, saving time and making sure a good fit is never missed.

Checkout our guides for funding opportunities

Agriventures Connect 3.0 is coming on 20th of April 2026 in Sofia, Bulgaria

The role of Agriventures in supporting agrifood innovation

As the agritech startup ecosystem grows across Europe, initiatives such as Agriventures are helping connect entrepreneurs, researchers, investors, and policymakers working in agriculture and food innovation.

Agriventures focuses on supporting agrifood startups, biotechnology innovation, and access to European funding for agriculture, while also helping entrepreneurs navigate the complex landscape of startup financing, venture capital, and research commercialization.

By strengthening connections between startups, research institutions, investors, and farmers, Agriventures contributes to building a stronger agricultural innovation ecosystem that can accelerate the transition toward sustainable agriculture and resilient food systems.

Through knowledge sharing, events, and ecosystem building, Agriventures helps ensure that promising agritech innovations can scale and reach farmers, food producers, and global markets.