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 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)

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.

Contracts for Innovation competitions are open to all eligible organisations that can demonstrate a route to market for their solution. Developments are 100% funded and focused on specific identified needs, increasing the chance of exploitation.

Projects must:

• start on 1 August 2026
• end on the 31 July 2027
• last 12 months
• have total costs of between £200,000 and £500,000, inclusive of VAT

The aim of this competition is to support organisations to develop, adapt, or further validate innovative approaches that strengthen fathers’ engagement in their children’s development across all ages.

This competition is focused specifically on the role of fathers in child development, and how we can encourage, enable, and sustain greater paternal engagement within the home learning environment. We are seeking innovative, evidence informed approaches that may include, but are not limited to those focused on:

• removing structural, cultural, or practical barriers to fathers involvement in learning, developmental activities and caregiving
• building fathers confidence, skills or identity as caregivers and educators and their understanding of home learning environments
• enhancing the quantity and quality of father and child interactions
• supporting fathers at key transition points, for example, birth, early years, starting school, family separation
• supporting education, family and health services to work effectively with fathers as equal partners in child development and educational outcomes
• reaching fathers who are less visible to services, for example, young fathers or those from minoritised communities

We are open to a broad range of projects, including those that use technology, design, behaviour change approaches and innovative delivery models. Your project will need to strengthen paternal engagement as a pathway to improving measurable child development outcomes.

In this competition we recognise the diverse experiences of fathers, including non-resident fathers, stepfathers, same sex parents, kinship carers, foster fathers and fathers from underserved and minoritised communities.

Your project must have:

• a clearly identified target audience with evidenced rationale for why this group has a specific need for the proposed solution
• a clear theory of change, highlighting how the paternal engagement intervention will lead to improved children’s learning and development outcomes
• a well articulated and feasible delivery model
• a robust monitoring and evaluation plan to measure both paternal engagement and associated child level outcomes
• strong safeguarding plans and protocols when working with children and families
• established partnerships for effective testing, delivery, spreading, scaling of the solution within the contracted period, where required

Projects funded through this competition must have a clear and credible route to real world use. Applications should demonstrate how the proposed work will move beyond concept development and into delivery, adoption and impact. In particular, applicants must:

• demonstrate a credible and practical route to market, including plans to commercialise or otherwise embed the solution within existing systems or services
• develop a tangible output, such as a product, tool, framework, service model or platform, rather than undertaking purely exploratory or conceptual work
• set out clear plans for delivery and spreading, and scaling, including who the end users are and how they will access or adopt the solution
• show readiness to work with delivery partners, including public services, education or health organisations, where relevant
• commit to working collaboratively with UKRI and Department for Education (DfE) colleagues to support potential adoption, integration and wider take up of the solution following the project

You must define your goals in your application and outline your plan for phase 1. At this stage contracts will only be given for phase 1. In a potential phase 2 we will ask successful applicants from phase 1 to continue the development of their solutions.

We will not fund projects that:

• are not original in scope and duplicate someone else’s work
• would directly duplicate other UK Government or EU funded initiatives you have already been funded to deliver
• are covered by existing commercial agreements to deliver the proposed solutions
• do not have UK families as direct or indirect beneficiaries
• that lack a piloting, delivery or practical intervention component

An online briefing will held on Monday 11 May at 11am: click here to register for a place.

Briefing recording and slides will be available after the event.

If you want help to find an organisation to work with, contact Innovate UK Business Connect.

If you have any questions about the scope requirements of this competition, email OpportunityMission@ukri.org.

If you need more information about how to apply or you want to submit your application in Welsh, email support@iuk.ukri.org or call 0300 321 4357.