About the competition

Innovate UK will be supporting the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) and the Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade (BIST) who will be investing up to £15 million for innovation projects delivered through the Investor Partnerships programme across Advanced Connectivity Technologies (ACT) and semiconductor solutions. The aim of this competition is to provide support for research and development and access to the capital investment needed to develop and commercialise innovation.

These are both frontier technologies in the Digital & Technologies Sector Plan of the UK’s Modern Industrial Strategy. For Semiconductor solutions, this competition also contributes to the new UK AI Hardware Plan, supporting the development of Semiconductor technologies that underpin AI. This joint call recognises each technology individually, as well as their convergence and shared criticality to the growth of the modern digital economy. Projects and solutions that consider either or both technology domains in innovative ways are within scope.

Your project must focus on one of the following themes:

• Advanced Connectivity Technologies (ACT)
• Semiconductors (including AI Hardware)
• Convergence of ACT and Semiconductor technologies for use in connectivity networks

Read more about the competition on the Innovation Funding Service (IFS) competition page.

Investor Partnerships

Innovate UK, as part of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), has selected investor partners with aligned investment interests and capacity to lead investments.

These investor partners have demonstrated that they have the credibility, capability, capacity and appetite to invest in innovative, technology-led businesses in areas that align with our strategic priority areas.

The Investor Partnerships programme brings together Innovate UK’s expertise in identifying innovation and using grant funding to change the risk profile of businesses; and investor partners’ aligned funding and expertise in identifying opportunities and teams that can best use additional investment finance

The aim of this competition is to provide innovative SMEs with support for research and development alongside access to the capital investment they need to develop, commercialise and scale their innovations.

This competition targets SMEs with strong growth and scaling potential that have an innovative project aligned with the competition scope.

Innovate UK also provides wider business support, including investment readiness and connections to relevant investors through Innovate UK Business Growth and Innovate UK Business Connect, Catapults and the UK Semiconductor Centre.

B2Match

To support applicants, we are using B2Match to connect businesses and investors working across ACT and semiconductor technologies. Through the platform, you can explore investment opportunities and arrange meetings with potential investment partners.

When registering for the applicant briefing, you’ll be given the option to join the B2match platform where you can set up a profile to showcase your organisation to interested investors. For further information on B2Match please watch the recording of this briefing when it is published or get in touch with Innovate UK Business Connect. In the first instance please contact Richard Foggie for ACT companies and Jessica Dobson for Semiconductors.

Who should attend

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

What to expect

During this briefing we will delve into:

• the sectors and technologies this competition is open to
• specific themes of the competition
• research categories
• the application process
• how to make your application stand out
• how to use B2Match
• how to make your B2Match profile stand out to investors

There will be a Q&A session at the end of the session.