This competition is open to single applicants only. To apply your organisation must:

• be a UK registered micro, small or medium sized business (SME)
• carry out its project work in the UK
• intend to exploit the results from or in the UK
• be invited to apply by your investor partner
• have discussed and agreed your proposal with your investor partner before submitting your application

An SME can only submit one application into this round of the competition.

The eligibility criteria will depend on your research category. The investment from the Investor Partner does not have to be directly related to the project or cover project costs. If your investor partner is able to declare that they will invest more than the minimum given below, it will be treated as greater leverage and will usually strengthen the application.

Industrial research projects

This can include the creation of component parts to complex systems and may include prototypes in a laboratory or environment with simulated interfaces to existing systems, particularly for generic technology validation.

Your total project costs must be between £250,000 and £1 million, and the project duration must be between 6 and 18 months. For industrial research projects, Innovate UK will fund:

• up to 70% of eligible project costs for micro or small organisations
• up to 60% for medium sized organisations

The absolute minimum aligned investment led by the Investor Partner must always be at least equal to the grant funding.

E.g. an Industrial Research project costing £500k could receive a grant of up to £350k, and would require at least £350k of investment if so.

Experimental development projects

This may comprise prototyping, demonstrating, piloting, testing and validation of new or improved products, processes or services in environments representative of real life operating conditions.

Your total project costs must be between £500,000 and £2 million, and the project duration must be between 6 and 18 months. For experimental development projects, Innovate UK will fund:

• up to 45% of eligible project costs for micro or small organisations
• up to 35% for medium sized organisations

The absolute minimum aligned investment led by the Investor Partner must be at least twice as much as the grant funding.

E.g. an experimental development project costing £1m could receive a grant of up to £450k, and would require at least £900k in investment if so.

The aim of this competition is to provide you with support for research and development and access to the capital investment you need to develop and commercialise your innovations.

Your proposal must have a clear route to market, a clear link to innovation and evidence that you can create a team to deliver your proposal.

You must be:

• registered in the UK as an SME by the time the award is contracted
• able to complete the aligned investment led by the investor partner needed to qualify for the award, through the issue of new shares or convertible debt

You must also demonstrate that if your project is funded, it will:

• have significant market impact
• be scalable
• be attractive to equity investors

Sectors and Technologies

The scope for this competition reflects two of the frontier technologies in the UK’s Modern Industrial Strategy, Digital & Technologies Sector Plan – Advanced Connectivity Technologies (ACT) and Semiconductors. For Semiconductor solutions, this competition also contributes to the new UK AI Hardware Plan, supporting the development of Semiconductor technologies that underpin AI.

Proposals must support the research and development of ACT, Semiconductor technologies or proposals that must combine both.

Advanced Connectivity Technologies

ACT includes the systems, components and innovations that underpin next-generation digital infrastructure. These technologies enable high-performance, secure, resilient and energy-efficient communications across networks, devices, software and services.

Semiconductors and AI Hardware

Semiconductors are highly specialised components that provide the essential functionality for electronic devices to process, store and transmit data, while photonic technologies use light to enable high speed, energy efficient data movement and sensing. Together, they are typically realised as integrated circuits, photonic integrated circuits and related technologies, forming the foundation of modern digital systems. AI Hardware are the semiconductor technologies that underpin AI, required to enable capability across data centre, edge and embodied AI systems.

Integration of ACT and Semis

Convergent solutions that integrate connectivity systems with specialised hardware. This category reflects the increasing interdependence of these technology domains.

This theme supports the development and commercialisation of secure, resilient and sustainable ACT solutions.

DCMS have developed two Grand Challenges for ACT, solutions that reflect these grand challenges will be prioritised for funding. The Grand Challenges are:

1. Secure and resilient networks – developing trustworthy connectivity technologies that protect networks from cyber threats and disruption, while improving reliability, coverage and continuity of service.
2. Sustainable networks – developing technologies that reduce networks energy use and environmental impact, improve spectrum efficiency and enable smarter use of network resources.

Projects in this theme can include, but are not limited, to technology development in the following areas:

• integration of Terrestrial and Non‑Terrestrial Networks (NTN)
• components or architectures that reduce energy use in connectivity systems
• improved use of spectrum
• assured Integrated Sensing and Communications (ISAC) systems and integration
• advanced Radio Frequency (RF) architectures and components
• network enabled sensing, positioning, and timing (PNT)
• RF interference, spoofing, and jamming resilience
• metamaterials and adaptive antenna systems
• advanced Multiple Input Multiple Output (MIMO) and physical layer innovation
• AI‑native and autonomous network architectures
• AI‑enabled RF design automation

If projects that address this theme primarily includes semiconductor innovations, applicants should apply under theme 3 below.

This theme supports the development and commercialisation of semiconductor technologies, materials, equipment, components and processes. Projects in this theme can include, but are not limited to:

• novel compute hardware and AI accelerators
• advanced semiconductor materials and device innovation
• integrated circuit (IC) design and architecture
• fabrication processes, equipment and manufacturing technologies
• power electronics and energy efficient devices
• sensors, micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS) and embedded systems
• photonics and optoelectronics

His Majesty’s Government (HMG) have developed the UK’s AI Hardware Plan which seeks to secure Britian’s future capability and strategic advantage in the chips and semiconductor technologies that underpin AI. Projects that align with the goals and scope of the UK’s AI Hardware Plan will be prioritised for funding.

AI hardware should be understood as the chips and semiconductor technologies that underpin AI, required to enable capability across data centre, edge and embodied AI systems. This includes all the electronic and photonic components of AI systems and the related capability across chip design, manufacturing and system integration, spanning:

• compute – AI chips and accelerators for training, inference and edge use, including architectures and chip design for example, spanning CPUs, GPUs,TPUs, AI ASICs. Key technology trends in this area include chiplets,heterogeneous integration,3D packaging, novel computer architectures such as quantum computing and neuromorphic computing, and photonic approaches to improve bandwidth, latency and energy efficiency
• photonic interconnects and data movement – chip to chip, board and system level connectivity, including integrated photonics and co‑packaged optics, as well as memory and data storage technologies which are increasingly critical to scaling AI systems
• sensing – sensors and front end devices that generate and pre-process data for AI systems, including vision, radar, lidar, RF based sensing and photonic sensing where they deliver advantages in speed, precision or energy efficiency, and which are particularly important for edge and embodied AI applications such as robotics and autonomous systems
• power and energy systems – power electronics that make use of advanced materials such as silicon carbide and gallium nitride for efficiency and thermal management, and which are fundamental to scalable, cost effective and sustainable AI compute

For projects where the primary application of the semiconductor innovation is for use in connectivity networks, applicants should apply under theme 3 below.

This theme supports the development and commercialisation of innovations that integrate semiconductors, specialist hardware and software into advanced connectivity solutions, including for AI applications and systems.

Projects within this theme must include technology, solution development that represents substantial convergence of themes 1 and 2 above, such as:

• specialised semiconductors and hardware for communications and network infrastructure
• photonic and optoelectronic systems for high speed data transmission
• hardware and software co-design for connectivity applications
• system level optimisation across semiconductor and network layers
• integrated platforms combining sensing, compute and connectivity

An online briefing event will be held on Monday 7 September at 11.30am: click here to register for a place. A recording and slides will be available after the event.

Please contact Richard.Foggie@iukbc.org.uk for ACT related enquiries and Jessica.Dobson@iukbc.org.uk for Semiconductors related enquiries.