Innovation Loans Round 22 - Applicant Briefing Webinar and Deep-dive Workshops

We have introduced important changes to the Innovation Loans programme to give businesses more flexibility to deliver both R&D and pre-commercial activities. Loans of between £100,000 and £5 million are now available to SMEs looking for finance for late-stage research and development.

These updates reflect how innovative projects evolve from development through to early commercial deployment and offer support across a longer project period.

Join our upcoming applicant briefing to learn what these changes mean for your innovation loan application, how to complete the updated form, and how to make the most of the funding now available for activities like tooling, marketing, customer testing, and capital deployment.

Whether you are preparing to apply or simply exploring your options, this session will help you understand the opportunity and navigate the process with confidence.

Round 22 will open on Thursday 3 July 2025 and will close at 11am on Wednesday 27 August 2025.

Click here to read about the current Round 21 which will close on Wednesday 2 July 2025. Note that funding for round 21 has an upper limit of £2m.

Briefing event

An Applicant Briefing webinar for round 22, which will provide an overview of the Future Economy Innovation Loans programme and detailed information about the application process, will be held online from 2pm to 4pm on Wednesday 16 July 2025. A recording will be available afterwards.

Deep dive workshops

Participate in an online ‘deep dive’ workshop for the financial submission for Innovate UK’s Innovation Loans Future Economy Competition. Please ensure you have attended or watched the recording of the Applicant Briefing webinar.

The business and financial submission is a critical part of the application loan in the future economy innovation loans programme. We will be holding ‘deep dive’ workshops to enable applicants to consider how an innovation loan may fit within their funding strategy for growth at scale through innovation, and to engage with members of the innovation loans team and other applicants. The online workshops will have a maximum of 55 participants to promote engagement and discussion.

Each workshop will focus on the three areas of the financial submission where we have frequently seen applicants struggle to evidence their suitability for an innovation loan:

• Presenting credible forecasts for future revenues and costs
• Demonstrating effective management of liquidity and working capital
• Evidencing adequate capitalisation

Workshop agenda

The workshop agenda will cover:

• Highlighting the three core ‘problem areas’ seen across many previous unsuccessful applications, with anonymised examples
• Breakout discussions in groups, led by a member of the innovation loans team, to enable participants to take a ‘deep dive’ into one of the core areas
• Reflecting on the ‘deep dive’ discussions

The workshop will last 90 minutes and will be carried out through an interactive Zoom meeting. As there will be a limited number of participants at each workshop, we will repeat the workshops three times.

These workshops will not repeat the information provided in the applicant briefing webinar (which provides an overview of the Future Economy Innovation Loans programme and detailed information about the application process).

We expect all participants at the ‘deep dive’ workshops to have already reviewed the content of these webinars (as well as the recorded webinar on completing a good project application). Please visit our: Innovation Loans Future Economy page to find webinar recordings. These ‘deep dive’ workshops will not be recorded, so that participants can discuss their funding strategies freely.

Prior registration is mandatory for these workshops and applicants will only be permitted to register one participant at one workshop. Since each applicant will only be permitted one participant, we recommend that this should be the Chief Financial Officer or another member of the Board or Senior Leadership team with responsibility for developing the funding strategy for growth through innovation of the business.

• Deep dive workshop 1: Wednesday 23 July, 2.00pm – 3.30pm
• Deep dive workshop 2: Wednesday 30 July, 09.30am – 11.00am
• Deep dive workshop 3: Monday 4 August, 11.00am – 12.30pm