Innovate UK
The UK national innovation agency and the main public funder of business-led R&D. Runs Smart Grants, sector-specific competitions, Knowledge Transfer Partnerships and the Eurostars route, with grant intervention rates set by company size and project type.
- Kind of funder
- Research council
- Where it funds
- UK-wide
- Indicative award size
- £25k – £10m
- Approx. annual research spend
- £1.1bn
- Who can apply
- SMEs, Large businesses, Universities, Research institutes
- Career stages
- Any stage
Smart Grants typically £100k–£2m. Match funding required — intervention rates usually 30–70%.
Research areas
Named schemes (31)
Zero Emission Vessels and Infrastructure 2: Alternative Fuels ↗
UK registered organisations can apply for a share of up to £150 million. The funding will be to develop, deploy and operate innovative clean maritime solutions for three years in a real world environment. This funding is from the Department for Transport.
Open16 Sept 2026£150m total fundpulled from Innovate UK 2026-09-11Zero Emission Vessels and Infrastructure 2: Electric Power ↗
UK registered organisations can apply for a share of up to £150 million. The funding will be to develop, deploy and operate innovative clean maritime solutions for three years in a real world environment. This funding is from the Department for Transport.
Open16 Sept 2026£150m total fundpulled from Innovate UK 2026-09-11Zero Emission Vessels and Infrastructure 2: Energy Efficiency ↗
UK registered organisations can apply for a share of up to £150 million. The funding will be to develop, deploy and operate innovative clean maritime solutions for three years in a real world environment. This funding is from the Department for Transport.
Open16 Sept 2026£150m total fundpulled from Innovate UK 2026-09-11DRIVE35 Innovation Fund: Collaborate 3 ↗
UK registered organisations can apply for a share of up to £20 million for late stage collaborative research and development projects. Projects will support the UK’s transition to zero emission vehicles and a pathway to a net zero automotive industry.
Open16 Sept 2026£20m total fundpulled from Innovate UK 2026-09-11Accelerating adoption of quantum enabled sensing and PNT ↗
UK registered businesses can apply for a share of up to £14.3 million to accelerate the adoption of quantum enabled position, navigation, and timing (PNT) and sensing technologies by addressing specific technical and commercial barriers.
Open16 Sept 2026£14m total fundpulled from Innovate UK 2026-09-11Electricity Demand Turn Up trial: EOI for flexibility providers ↗
UK registered businesses providing flexibility services can submit an expression of interest for a trial assessing if DTU can reduce renewable electricity curtailment in Great Britain. Successful applicants can apply for a share of up to £16 million.
Open16 Sept 2026£16m total fundpulled from Innovate UK 2026-09-11Quantum computing applications for large scale impact: CR&D ↗
UK registered businesses can apply for a share of up to £13 million for building quantum computing software applications that show clear value and potential high impact on near term quantum computing systems.
Open24 Sept 2026£13m total fundpulled from Innovate UK 2026-09-11Farming Futures R&D fund: Automation and Robotics Round 2 ↗
UK registered businesses can apply for a share of up to £20 million to develop innovative solutions for automation and robotics in agriculture, horticulture and forestry. This funding is from the Farming Futures R&D fund.
Open30 Sept 2026£20m total fundpulled from Innovate UK 2026-09-11ADOPT Facilitator Support Grant: Round 11 ↗
Farming, growing or forestry businesses based in England can apply for a grant of £2,500, to engage an external Project Facilitator to support the development of a Full ADOPT Grant application.
Open30 Sept 2026pulled from Innovate UK 2026-09-11Ultra Long Duration Energy Storage Project Development Studies Relaunch ↗
UK registered businesses can apply for a share of up to £3 million for project development studies to support the development of electrochemical ultra long duration energy storage demonstration projects in the UK.
Open30 Sept 2026£3m total fundpulled from Innovate UK 2026-09-11Scaling performance of quantum computing hardware: CR&D ↗
UK registered organisations can apply for a share of up to £33 million to develop device level hardware and associated software to meet the scale, programmability, and runtime performance needs of universal fault tolerant quantum computers.
Open2 Oct 2026£33m total fundpulled from Innovate UK 2026-09-11Full ADOPT Grant: Round 9 ↗
Farming, growing or forestry businesses based in England can apply for a share of up to £5 million for on-farm trial and demonstration projects, to improve adoption of new ideas or solutions in the agricultural sector.
Open7 Oct 2026£5m total fundpulled from Innovate UK 2026-09-11Advanced Manufacturing: Measurement and Sensing Pilot ↗
UK registered businesses can apply for a share of up to £1 million as part of a pilot. This is to support high potential businesses developing a technology, product or service in measurement, instrumentation or sensing for UK manufacturing.
Open7 Oct 2026£1m total fundpulled from Innovate UK 2026-09-11Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP): 2026 – 2027 Round 3 ↗
UK registered academic institutions, RTOs or Catapults can apply for a share of up to £12.5 million to fund innovation projects with businesses.
Open14 Oct 2026£13m total fundpulled from Innovate UK 2026-09-11Medicines Manufacturing Data Institute: Phase 1 ↗
UK registered organisations can apply for a share of up to £500,000 for a phase 1 project to establish the Medicines Manufacturing Data Institute (MMDI). This funding is from Innovate UK.
Open14 Oct 2026£500k total fundpulled from Innovate UK 2026-09-11CfI: Engineering Biology for Defra and FSA Phase 1 ↗
Organisations can apply for a share up to £3 million inclusive of VAT, to develop and scale Engineering Biology platforms, products and services.
Open14 Oct 2026pulled from Innovate UK 2026-09-11Investor Partnerships – ACT and Semiconductors ↗
UK registered SMEs can apply for grant funding alongside private investment from selected investor partners.
Open14 Oct 2026pulled from Innovate UK 2026-09-11Farming Innovation Programme: Small R&D Partnership Projects Rd 5 ↗
UK registered businesses can apply for a share of up to £13 million for small R&D partnership projects. This funding is from the industry led R&D Partnerships Fund, a part of the Defra Farming Innovation Programme.
Open14 Oct 2026£13m total fundpulled from Innovate UK 2026-09-11Farming Innovation Programme: Small R&D Partnership Projects Round 5 ↗
UK registered businesses can apply for a share of up to £13 million for small R&D partnership projects. This funding is from the industry led R&D Partnerships Fund, a part of the Defra Farming Innovation Programme.
Open14 Oct 2026£13m total fundpulled from UKRI 2026-09-11Engineering Biology Access to Infrastructure Pilot ↗
UK registered businesses can apply for a share of up to £5 million for Engineering Biology pilot scale and validation projects. This funding is part of UKRI’s Engineering Biology Programme and funded by BIST.
Open21 Oct 2026£5m total fundpulled from Innovate UK 2026-09-11Advancing innovation in accelerated cancer diagnosis ↗
Innovate UK, on behalf of the Office for Life Sciences’ (OLS) Cancer Healthcare Goals programme, will invest up to £25.4 million, to support the clinical validation and evaluation of early cancer diagnostic technologies and devices.
Open28 Oct 2026pulled from Innovate UK 2026-09-11National Materials Innovation Programme: CR&D Rd1 ↗
UK registered businesses can apply for a share of up to £12 million for collaborative industrial research to speed the translation of advanced materials innovations in three prioritised high growth themes and one strategic opportunity theme.
Open28 Oct 2026£12m total fundpulled from Innovate UK 2026-09-11Engineering Biology Collaborative R&D: Round 3 ↗
UK registered businesses can apply for a share of up to £8.5 million to develop and scale Engineering Biology platforms, products and services. This funding is part of UKRI’s Engineering Biology Programme.
Open3 Nov 2026£8.5m total fundpulled from Innovate UK 2026-09-11Future Leaders Fellowships: Round 11, business and non-academic ↗
UK registered organisations can apply for a share of up to £110 million to deliver ambitious research and innovation and develop future leaders. This funding is from UK Research and Innovation (UKRI).
Open4 Nov 2026£110m total fundpulled from Innovate UK 2026-09-11DRIVE35 Scale-up Fund Drawdown 5 ↗
UK registered organisations can apply for a share of up to £150 million to create scale up manufacturing facilities for zero emission vehicle technologies.
Open4 Nov 2026£150m total fundpulled from Innovate UK 2026-09-11