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 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.

You must ensure that no one partner accounts for more than 70% of the total eligible grant.

Your project must:

• have a grant funding request of between £300,000 and £1.25 million
• last between 8 and 12 months
• start from 1 September 2026
• end by 31 August 2027
• carry out all of its project work in the UK, unless specifically stated and pre-approved by Innovate UK
• have a maximum of five funded partners
• include a UK customer or operator as a partner; you must clearly state in your scope answer which partner meets this requirement

Any funded organisation needs to carry out their project work in the UK and must intend to exploit the project results from or in the UK.

The aim of this competition is to support development of, and reduce barriers to the adoption and commercialisation of, key dual use aviation technologies. (Dual use items, including software and technology, are items which can be used for both civil and military purposes.) These are specifically Uncrewed Aircraft System (UAS), hybrid electric Vertical Take off and Landing aircraft (eVTOLs), hybrid electric Conventional Take off and Landing aircraft (eCTOLs), and other swarming, collaborative or autonomous aviation systems.

We are seeking innovative projects that will build on current state of the art technologies and progress towards commercialisation and operational readiness. Your application should also consider the potential to manufacture at scale and specific end user and operational needs.

Your project must progress the development, integration or operational readiness of aviation systems or capabilities, at technology readiness level (TRL) 5 or above at system level, in one or more of the following:

• systems or technologies developed for both civilian and military use
• systems or technologies developed for civilian use cases that are being adapted or integrated for military use
• systems or technologies developed for military use cases that are being adapted or integrated for civilian use

The technology being developed must have a clear pathway to commercialisation in civil and defence markets through strong alignment with key government stakeholder priorities.

Your project must include a UK customer or operator as a partner. You must clearly state in your scope answer which partner meets this requirement.

Your project can include flight activities where this adds benefit to your project. If it does, then these must be performable within existing regulatory approvals or approvals obtainable by a clear and supported route within your project timeline. You must demonstrate in your application very clear understanding of how this will be achievable within the project duration.

Your project must be developing further maturity against current industry work. It must not be a repetition of previous work already completed by yourselves or others.

We particularly welcome applications that focus on strategically important use cases, for example:

• search and rescue
• aerial delivery: including heavy lift logistics and routine delivery, this includes those that support offshore energy infrastructure
• aerial survey: including disaster support, national resilience and security, reconnaissance, scientific or environmental research, border protection, critical infrastructure inspection and policing
• medical support: including emergency support and evacuation

We welcome applications that are developing UK sovereign technologies and systems. Low cost solutions are also of interest to support global competitiveness and scale, especially for military use cases.

Your project can focus on one or more of the following themes:

• swarming technologies in support of strategically important use cases
• multiplatform operations to safely and efficiently deliver complex aviation operations
• enabling capabilities that support multiple operators to have visibility of each other and relevant ground based operators
• heavy lift and vertical take off aircraft systems
• other themes that support relevant government missions and strategic objectives, and key stakeholder priorities; outline what these are in your application

Examples of enabling capabilities include ground based electronic conspicuity reception, distributed sensing capabilities, integration of existing co-operative and third party data sources. This list is not exhaustive.

We are not funding projects that:

• develop or use gyrocopters or High Altitude Platform Systems (HAPS)
• develop, use or counter Uncrewed Aircraft System (UAS), aircraft and systems (if you have technology that could counter UAS, please see the separate competition for counter-UAS technology, also closing 3 June 2026)
• only focus on applications to civil use cases unless converting from military use case
• only focus applications to defence use cases unless converting from civil use case
• develop sub-systems only, without integration and development of the operation of the overall system being a key element of the project
• are developing alternative propulsion systems or fuels such as hydrogen fuel cells, hydrogen combustion or sustainable aviation fuels (SAF)
• are developing batteries or charging systems for electric aircraft
• do not include a UK customer or operator
• do not demonstrate the potential for businesses involved to achieve economic growth
• include test or demonstration flights reliant on any regulatory approvals that are not either already granted or obtainable by a clear and supported route through the regulator within the project timeline

Innovate UK will hold an online applicant briefing at 2pm on Monday 11 May: click here to register for a place. A recording and slides will be available afterwards.

If you would like help to find a collaboration partner, contact Innovate UK Business Connect’s Security & Defence or Future Flight teams.