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  "path": "/2026/04/08/improving-englands-lowland-peat-applications-open-for-the-water-discovery-grant/",
  "publishedAt": "2026-04-08T13:00:32.000Z",
  "site": "https://defraenvironment.blog.gov.uk",
  "tags": [
    "Lowland Peat Water Discovery Grant",
    "England’s peatlands",
    "Land Use Framework,",
    "Water Discovery Pilot",
    "Small Infrastructure Pilot",
    "Paludiculture Exploration Fund",
    "Farming and Wildlife Advisory Group (SW)’s project, “Somerset Moor Futures”",
    "Yorkshire & Humber Drainage Boards",
    "“Broads Water Level Management”",
    "Broadly Speaking Podcast",
    "see details of how to apply at GOV.UK",
    "consortium-building database"
  ],
  "textContent": "Low ditch level on a peaty Fenland farm. Credit: Environment Agency.\n\nToday we’re launching the Lowland Peat Water Discovery Grant. The Discovery Grant will run until 2028, providing up to £4.5 million in funding to support local, collaborative approaches to more sustainable forms of water management within lowland peatland catchments.\n\nThe Grant is part of Defra’s investment in improving lowland peat and reducing greenhouse gas emissions. It is delivered by the Environment Agency.\n\nI’m Anika Dowling, Policy Advisor in Defra’s Lowland Peat team and in this blog post I’m going to tell you about this grant, and the difference funding can make.\n\n**Our lowland peat landscapes: why they matter**\n\nEngland’s lowland peatlands include some of our most productive and culturally significant landscapes, including the Cambridgeshire Fens, Somerset Levels and Moors, and Lancashire Mosses.\n\nFor centuries, these naturally wet areas have been drained to create drier soils for farming. But this drainage now jeopardises their future.\n\nDrainage causes the peat to oxidise, releasing carbon and leading to the loss of these valuable soils, ultimately resulting in land subsidence.\n\nIt also increases vulnerability to drought, flooding, and other climate-related pressures, making it harder to maintain business-as-usual practices on drained peat.\n\nBy managing water tables more sustainably, we can slow the degradation of these soils, reducing emissions and supporting sustainable food production.\n\n**Reducing our greenhouse gas emissions**\n\nAround 80% of England’s peatlands are degraded. They produce about 2% of England’s total greenhouse gas emissions - roughly equivalent to emissions from 3.5 million homes. Drained lowland peat accounts for 88% of these peatland emissions.\n\nLast month, we published the Land Use Framework, announcing up to £50 million of lowland peat grants over the next four years. This funding will support water infrastructure, local collaboration and trials of farming with a higher water table.\n\nTogether, these grants will help farmers and land managers to improve and, where appropriate, restore lowland peat soils, helping to reduce carbon emissions, retain the soil and reduce subsidence.\n\nVisiting a Discovery Pilot site in the Cambridgeshire Fens. Credit: Christopher Moses.\n\n**Discovery Grants: preparing for implementation**\n\nThe grant will fund groups to investigate infrastructure and water needs, and the environmental opportunities and risks of changing water management in lowland peat soils.\n\nSuccessful projects will help to:\n\n  * create effective local partnerships\n  * enable the safe and sustainable raising of water tables\n  * reduce emissions, increase biodiversity, and improve flood and drought mitigation.\n\n\n\nEach Discovery Grant project will produce an implementation plan, setting out how water tables can be raised for conventional farming, wetter farming and paludiculture, or peatland restoration. Plans will identify the systems and infrastructure required to deliver and manage raised water tables within the project area.\n\nUpon completion in 2028, projects will be well placed to apply for a Water Implementation Grant, which will fund installation of the infrastructure identified in the plan.\n\n**Improving lowland peat: project success so far**\n\nTo date, Defra has funded the Water Discovery Pilot, Small Infrastructure Pilot, and the Paludiculture Exploration Fund. These pilots supported data gathering, local partnerships and market development, and small-scale water management infrastructure.\n\nAs the precursor to the Discovery Grant, the Lowland Peat Water Discovery Pilot funded 13 projects and showed that strong local collaboration is central to driving changes in water management.\n\nFor example, Farming and Wildlife Advisory Group (SW)’s project, “Somerset Moor Futures”, brought farmers across two lowland moors into a shared approach to water and land management, overcoming long-standing challenges around fragmentation. By building trust and agreeing changes, the project has developed plans for coordinated action for carbon, biodiversity, and flood resilience.\n\nYorkshire & Humber Drainage Boards also delivered the River Hertford project, which brought together the Vale of Pickering Internal Drainage Board (IDB), Yorkshire Wildlife Trust, and local landowners to explore how farming can work alongside conservation of peat soils. Their project gathered evidence on how the IDB could help facilitate the rewetting of peat soils while continuing to meet its core land-drainage and flood risk management roles. A new hydraulic model is now helping the IDB and partners trial more responsive water management across the catchment.\n\n“Broads Water Level Management” in the Broads National Park, saw the Broads Authority, Norfolk Farming and Wildlife Advisory Group, Cranfield University and Norfolk Environment Food & Farming develop water feasibility studies alongside machine-learning approaches to create a set of effective water management rules. The project united farmers, land managers and communities, and developed strategic mapping that identified water requirements alongside practical solutions for carbon reduction. You can hear more on their Broadly Speaking Podcast.\n\n**What’s coming next**\n\nWe have a series of future lowland peat grant opportunities, including:\n\n  * the **Lowland Peat Water Implementation Grant** , which will fund infrastructure and telemetry to raise and manage water tables in lowland peat soils. Round 1 will run from 2026 to 2030 – we will share further news about it soon. A second round will run from 2028 to 2030, following completion of the Discovery Grants.\n\n\n  * the**Paludiculture and Wetter Farming Fund** , running from**** 2026**** to the end of 2029**,** which will support research projects addressing evidence gaps around growing crops in wetter soils and help to create viable paludiculture markets.\n\n\n\n**Get in touch**\n\nThe application window is open from **8 April to 26 June 2026**. If you are interested in applying for a Discovery Grant, see details of how to apply at GOV.UK. From here you can request access to a dedicated SharePoint site hosting the grant handbook and application form.\n\nTo support applicants, the EA Peatland Team will host an **Application Webinar** on **12 May 2026 at 11am** , after the local elections.\n\nTo sign up for the webinar, please email peatwatergrants@environment-agency.gov.uk. Any questions which are not answered by the guidance or during the webinar can also be emailed to this address.\n\nIf you are interested in building or joining a consortium ahead of a group application, you can log your details in this consortium-building database, hosted by Defra’s delivery partner, Niab.\n\nTo join the Defra Lowland Peat contacts list, please email lowlandpeat@defra.gov.uk.",
  "title": "Improving England’s lowland peat: applications open for the Water Discovery Grant",
  "updatedAt": "2026-04-08T13:24:29.000Z"
}