Innovate UK Grant Funding Opportunities
Innovate UK grants can fund feasibility studies, industrial research, and late-stage innovation across a wide range of sectors – from software and AI to life sciences, engineering, manufacturing, net zero and transport. This page pulls in live funding opportunities from UKRI so you can quickly spot relevant calls, check deadlines, and shortlist the best fit. If you’d like support, Innovation Tax can review eligibility, shape a compliant project plan, and strengthen your application narrative and costs, so you submit with confidence.
This page pulls a live feed of open UKRI opportunities, so you can quickly spot relevant calls by theme and sector, check opening and closing dates, and shortlist the best-fit competitions for your project.
Tip: Most calls are competitive. You’ll improve your odds by aligning your proposal to the scoring criteria, showing credible delivery, and building a clear impact story – not just describing the technology.
What Innovate UK assessors typically look for
While each competition differs, strong applications usually show a compelling case across a few core areas: a clear problem and market need (who feels the pain, how large the opportunity is, and why existing solutions fall short), credible innovation (what’s genuinely novel, what makes it technically or commercially difficult, and why it hasn’t been achieved already), and a realistic delivery plan (well-structured work packages, key dependencies, risks and mitigations, and appropriate resourcing). Where a consortium is required, they also demonstrate the right mix of partners with clear roles and balanced capability, alongside a strong impact story (economic, societal, and/or environmental) with a believable route to adoption. Finally, they include robust cost justification, aligned to eligible categories and supported by clear, defensible assumptions.
Innovate UK Grant Funding Opportunities (Live Feed)
Discover open grant opportunities from Innovate UK funding calls (updated automatically) and get expert support to assess fit, shape a winning bid, and submit with confidence.
- Defra Farming Innovation Investor Partnership 2026
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.Innovate UK
- Contracts for Innovation: FOAK26
Organisations can apply for a share of £4.3 million, inclusive of VAT, across eight themes to develop a prototype, conduct field testing and demonstrate their solution.Innovate UK
- 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.Innovate UK
- 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.Innovate UK
- Battery Innovation Programme: battery skills initiatives
UK registered organisations can apply for up to £3.7 million to establish or scale regional skills initiatives for battery manufacturing and its supply chain. This funding is provided through the Battery Innovation Programme.Innovate UK
- 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).Innovate UK
- National Materials Innovation Programme: Feasibility studies Round 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.Innovate UK
- 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 cybersecurity solution in real end user environments within critical sector organisations.Innovate UK
- ADOPT Facilitator Support Grant: round 8
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.Innovate UK
- 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.Innovate UK
- 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.Innovate UK
- Growth cohorts: next generation low carbon concrete cohort entry
UK registered businesses can apply to join a cohort of ambitious businesses. These businesses will develop solutions to decarbonise concrete and access funding and sector-specific support, to develop and deliver innovation and growth plans.Innovate UK
- Battery innovation concept development round 2
UK registered businesses can apply for a share of up to £25 million to support innovation in battery grade material technologies for electrification. This funding is from The Battery Innovation Programme.Innovate UK
- Future offshore wind technologies: feasibility studies
UK registered organisations can apply for a share of up to £10 million to support feasibility studies in offshore wind across the two strands of the competition.Innovate UK
- Contracts for Innovation: enabling commercial quantum networking
Organisations can apply for a share of £20 million, inclusive of VAT, to develop a deployable prototype of an enabling component or sub-system for commercial quantum networking.Innovate UK
- 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.Innovate UK
- Full ADOPT grant: round seven
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. This is an Accelerating Development of Practices and Technologies (ADOPT) grant.Innovate UK
- Frontier artificial intelligence discovery
UK registered organisations can apply for a share of up to £2.5 million to develop feasibility studies for frontier artificial intelligence and foundation models.Innovate UK
- Future offshore wind technologies: industrial research
UK registered businesses can apply for a share of up to £10 million to support industrial research in offshore wind across the two strands of the competition.Innovate UK
- Zero emission vessels and infrastructure two: 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.Innovate UK
Found a call that looks relevant? Send us the link and we’ll tell you if it’s worth pursuing.
Quick check: You’re more likely to be eligible if you can show (1) genuine innovation, (2) technical uncertainty, (3) a clear route to impact, and (4) realistic costs and delivery plan.
How Innovation Tax supports grant applications
Applying for Innovate UK funding is more than completing a form – you’re building a case that your project is innovative, deliverable, and high impact. We support businesses through the full lifecycle, including:
- Opportunity selection & fit assessment
What to apply for and what to avoid - Project shaping
Scope, objectives, work packages, deliverables, and milestones - Technical narrative & innovation rationale
State of the art, novelty, challenges, validation approach - Commercial story & impact
Market need, traction, adoption pathway, benefits - Finance & costs
Eligible costs, assumptions, value-for-money, matching funds - Writing & review
Clear, compliant responses aligned to scoring criteria - Risk, ethics & compliance
Data, IP, security, regulatory, EDI, sustainability requirements - Exploitation & IP strategy
Ownership, IP, protection and commercialisation plan
Want help choosing the right call or writing a stronger bid?
If you’ve found a funding opportunity that looks promising, we can help you validate eligibility, shape and refine the scope, and strengthen your application to improve your chances of success – from a rapid eligibility review and bid-writing support (or a critical review of what you’ve drafted), through to budget and work package structuring, finishing with a full submission-readiness check.
Find out if your project is eligible - fast.
A quick, no-obligation review to assess eligibility and potential value.
- Initial assessment in 24–48 hours
- Grant Funding Specialists
- Clear next steps & checklist