To lead a project, you must:

• be a UK registered organisation of any size
• carry out your project work in the UK and intend to exploit the project results from or in the UK
• work alone or with the subcontracted skills and expertise of others from business, research organisations, research and technology organisations, or the third sector (charities, social enterprises and voluntary groups)

You must carry out your project work in the UK and intend to exploit the project results from or in the UK.

Contracts will be awarded to a single legal entity only. The majority of the project work and key deliverables must be completed by the applicant and be carried out in the UK. Subcontractors can be used, but only for specialist skills.

Projects must:

• start by 1 September 2026
• end by 31 August 2027
• last between 3 and 12 months
• have total costs of between £200,000 and £2 million, inclusive of VAT

Contracts for Innovation competitions involve procurement of R&D services and are not subject to subsidy control criteria. This competition is run by the Authority under the Procurement Act 2023 (R&D exemption).

Your application must have at least 50% of the contract value attributed directly and exclusively to R&D services, including solution exploration and design.

You must carry out your project work in the UK and intend to exploit the project results from or in the UK.

The aim of this competition is to develop near-term, testable solutions that advance UK capability in the 2 Grand Challenge areas of: Secure and Resilient Networks and Sustainable Networks. Projects will deliver deployable prototypes or demonstrators on UK testbeds and in real-world environments.

Grand Challenge 1: Secure and Resilient Networks

We invite innovators to develop next generation technologies that strengthen the resilience, security, and autonomy of UK communications networks. We are seeking solutions that leverage UK strengths in advanced Radio Frequency (RF), optical wireless, AI native network management, compound semiconductors, and secure by design architectures. Proposals should demonstrate achievable near term impact while supporting the long term evolution toward 6G‑class networks.

• Theme 1: AI Enabled Network Resilience and Automation
• Theme 2: Seamless Integration of Terrestrial and Non‑Terrestrial Networks (NTN)

Grand Challenge 2: Sustainable Networks

We aim to support innovations that reduce the environmental impact of future communication networks while improving performance. We are particularly interested in technologies that leverage UK leadership in compound semiconductors, photonics, energy efficient RF components, and advanced network automation to drive down operational and embodied energy across infrastructure.

• Theme 1: Reducing Energy Use in Critical Network Components
• Theme 2: Improving Spectrum Efficiency and Fair Access

Projects should present innovations that include hardware as well as software, ideally full systems level solutions, to ensure technology readiness for real world deployment. Projects must clearly define use cases and outline the total addressable market (TAM) for the proposed innovation. Proposals should also identify whether this funding will be used to further developed an existing product or service, and where customers for this innovation may exist.

You must demonstrate a credible and practical route to market, so your application must include a plan to commercialise your results. Contracts will be given to successful applicants.

Your project can focus on one of the following:

Grand Challenge 1: Secure and Resilient Networks

Theme 1: AI‑Enabled Network Resilience and Automation

This theme focuses on AI driven tools that improve the reliability of UK networks predicting faults, detecting anomalies, optimising performance, and orchestrating rapid recovery. Approaches may incorporate intent based automation, semantic communications, digital twins, distributed edge AI compute, or integrated sensing and communications to enhance network awareness. Supporting technologies could include RF processors, optical switching or chiplet base accelerators for real time decision making. Innovations that improve spectrum security by detecting and reducing harmful interference – such as spoofing and jamming would also be in scope.

Theme 2: Seamless Integration of Terrestrial and Non‑Terrestrial Networks (NTN)

This theme seeks innovations that deliver smooth, consistent connectivity across terrestrial, satellite and aerial networks. Opportunities include terrestrial and non-terrestrial network convergence, advanced handover mechanisms, unified management or control layers, and multi‑domain resource orchestration. Relevant enabling technologies include steerable and metamaterial antennas, free space optical links, optical or photonic transceivers, inter‑satellite link technologies, and software defined, intent based network control.

Grand Challenge 2: Sustainable Networks

Theme 1: Reducing Energy Use in Critical Network Components

This theme targets substantial reductions in the energy consumption of base stations, transport networks, and edge infrastructure. Solutions may include high efficiency compound semiconductor devices, such as Gallium Nitride (GaN), Gallium Arsenide (GaAs), Indium Phosphide (InP), photonic switching, to reduce optical losses, advanced packaging and thermal management. Approaches that cut per‑bit energy use and reduce active‑component duty cycles are encouraged.

Theme 2: Improving Spectrum Efficiency and Fair Access

This theme focuses on technologies that increase spectral efficiency and improve access to finite spectrum resources. Potential approaches include dynamic sharing, interference resilient radios, advanced modulation or coding, RF processing innovations, and cell free or distributed Multiple Input Multiple Output (MIMO) architectures. Supporting technologies may include adaptive antennas, metamaterials, novel waveform design, or hybrid (RF and optical) systems that relieve congestion and enhance spectral reuse.

Innovate UK will hold an online briefing on Wednesday 8 April: visit the IFS page below for briefing details. A recording and slides will be available afterwards.

If you have queries about eligibility or would like help to find a subcontractor, contact Innovate UK Business Connect’s Digital team.