Innovation competitions

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33 competitions

  • Defra Farming Innovation Investor Partnership

    UK registered micro, small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) can apply for a share of up to £5 million to develop innovative farming solutions. This must align with private investment from selected investor partners.

    Eligibility

    This competition is open to single applicants only.
    To lead a project your organisation must:

    Opening soon

    Opens:
    11 May 2026
    Closes:
    17 June 2026

  • Solution Development for Advanced Connectivity Technologies: applications with academic partners

    UK registered organisations can apply for a share of up to £25 million to develop secure, sustainable or sovereign connectivity technologies that support the UK’s Advanced Connectivity Technologies programme. This funding is from DSIT.

    Eligibility

    This competition is open to single applicants and collaborations.

    To lead a collaborative project your organisation must be a UK registered business of any size. The consortium must contain at least one UK registered SME claiming grant funding on this application.

    To work alone your organisation must be a UK registered SME.

    Closing soon

    Opened:
    9 May 2026
    Closes:
    13 May 2026

  • Dual-use aviation systems and autonomy

    UK registered organisations can apply for a share of up to £10 million for the development of aviation technologies and systems that support both civil and military use cases. This funding is from Innovate UK, part of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI).

    Eligibility

    This competition is open to collaborations only.
    To lead a collaborative project your organisation must be either a UK registered business of any size or a UK public sector organisation. The consortium must contain at least one UK registered micro, small or medium sized enterprise (SME) claiming grant funding on this application.

    Open now

    Opened:
    5 May 2026
    Closes:
    3 June 2026

  • Counter UAS Technologies

    UK registered organisations can apply for a share of up to £5 million to develop counter Uncrewed Aerial Systems (UAS) dual use technologies that can be applied to both civil and military settings. This funding is from Innovate UK.

    Eligibility

    This competition is open to collaborations only.
    To lead a collaborative project your organisation must be either a UK registered business of any size or a UK public sector organisation. The consortium must contain at least one UK registered micro, small or medium sized enterprise (SME) claiming grant funding on this application.

    Open now

    Opened:
    5 May 2026
    Closes:
    3 June 2026

  • CfI: Boosting fathers’ engagement to improve child outcomes

    Organisations can apply for a share of up to £2 million, inclusive of VAT, to develop innovative interventions, technologies, and frameworks that boost fathers’ engagement to improve children’s learning and development outcomes.

    Eligibility

    To lead a project, you can:

    • be an organisation of any size, including those based in the EU, EEA or internationally
    • work alone or with other organisations as subcontractors

    Contracts will be awarded to a single legal entity only.

    Open now

    Opened:
    5 May 2026
    Closes:
    10 June 2026

  • National Materials Innovation Programme: Feasibility studies Rd 2

    UK registered businesses can apply for a share of up to £2 million for feasibility studies. These studies aim to speed the translation of advanced materials innovations in three prioritised high growth themes and one strategic opportunity theme.

    Eligibility

    This competition is open to single applicants and collaborations.
    To work alone or lead a collaborative project your organisation must be a UK registered business of any size.

    Open now

    Opened:
    4 May 2026
    Closes:
    24 June 2026

  • Contracts for Innovation: Cyber scale in critical sectors

    Organisations can apply for a share of up to £3.5 million inclusive of VAT, to develop, demonstrate and commercialise their cyber security solution in real end user environments within critical sector organisations.

    Eligibility

    To lead a project, you can:

    • be an organisation of any size
    • work alone or with other organisations as subcontractors

    Contracts will be awarded to a single legal entity only.

    Open now

    Opened:
    1 May 2026
    Closes:
    10 June 2026

  • Advanced manufacturing supply chain innovation: CRD

    UK registered businesses can apply for a share of up to £6.5 million for collaborative industrial research to make supply chains more productive, resource efficient and resilient.

    Eligibility

    This competition is open to collaborations only.
    To lead a collaborative project your organisation must be a UK registered business of any size.

    Open now

    Opened:
    27 April 2026
    Closes:
    10 June 2026

  • Innovate UK Venture Builder Pilot Expression of Interest

    Innovate UK is funding up to £150,000 for a pilot Innovate UK Venture Builder Programme to support new deep-tech spin-outs and to help them in raising their first significant investment. This is the Expression of Interest stage of the competition.

    Eligibility

    This competition is open to single applicants only.

    Your spin-out must be a UK registered micro, small or medium sized enterprise (SME) created in the last 24 months. If you are not an SME you must be formally incorporated by 20 August 2026.

    Open now

    Opened:
    22 April 2026
    Closes:
    No submission deadline

  • Frontier AI Benchmarking Datasets

    UK registered organisations can apply for a share of up to £4.5 million. This programme focuses on the creation, curation, annotation and exploitation of FAIR-data and benchmarks which will fuel AI industry growth. This funding is from Innovate UK.

    Eligibility

    This competition is open to collaborations only.
    To lead a collaborative project your organisation must be a UK registered business of any size or RTO. The consortium must contain at least one UK registered micro, small or medium sized enterprise (SME) claiming grant funding on this application.

    Open now

    Opened:
    21 April 2026
    Closes:
    27 May 2026

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