Overview

Join us for a webinar briefing to learn more about the latest Advanced Connectivity Technologies (ACT) competition from the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT).

This competition offers UK registered small and micro businesses the opportunity to apply for a share of up to £500,000 to develop affordable, adoptable and investable innovations in Advanced Connectivity Technologies.

During the webinar, we’ll provide an overview of the competition scope, eligibility requirements, funding available, and the two ACT Grand Challenges:

Secure and Resilient Networks
Supporting innovations that improve network security, resilience, interoperability, and preparedness for future threats.

Sustainable Networks
Driving the development of energy-efficient, environmentally sustainable communications technologies and smarter use of spectrum.

The session will also explain what Innovate UK is looking for in successful applications, outline the competition timeline, and provide an opportunity to ask questions ahead of submitting a proposal.

Whether you’re considering applying or simply want to understand the opportunity in more detail, this webinar will help you determine whether the competition is the right fit for your innovation.

UK registered small and micro businesses can apply for a share of up to £500,000 to develop affordable, adoptable, and investable innovations in Advanced Connectivity Technologies. This funding is from the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT), as part of the UK’s ACT Programme.

The aim of this competition is to accelerate the development, demonstration, and commercialisation of next generation communication technologies that strengthen the UK’s security, resilience, sustainability, and long‑term competitiveness.

This will help to address the UK Government’s ACT R&D Programme’s objective to foster a thriving ecosystem that supports ACT companies to grow, scale and compete internationally, strengthening the sector’s contribution to UK economic performance.

Your project must demonstrate innovation that leads to new products, processes or services that are significantly ahead of others currently available, or propose an innovative use of existing products, processes or services. It can also involve a new or innovative business model.

Projects must align to one of the following ACT Grand Challenges, demonstrating measurable improvements against existing technical solutions as well as a credible integration route and pathway for commercialisation and adoption of your solution.

ACT Grand Challenges

Challenge 1 – Secure and Resilient Networks

This challenge focuses on development of solutions that will position the UK as a leader in secure communications, underpinning critical national infrastructure and economic sectors. Solutions will protect networks against interception and cyber threats, ensuring data confidentiality within legal frameworks. This includes the integration of terrestrial and non-terrestrial networks to expand coverage and provide resilience. The key outcome is to create networks that are trustworthy, reliable, and able to withstand disruption, while preparing for emerging risks.

You must demonstrate how your technology addresses at least one of the following network challenges:

• Reliability, availability, and continuity: Ensure uninterrupted service during faults, cyberattacks, natural disasters, and extreme events (including power outages and climate-related shocks).
• Rapid recovery and adaptability: Reduce recovery times through self-healing, automation, AI-driven detection/response, and adaptive reconfiguration of networks and spectrum during disruption.
• End-to-end security and zero trust: Strengthen security across devices, access points, open interfaces, and core infrastructure, including disaggregated/open architectures.
• Future threat readiness: Prepare for advanced threat environments, including quantum-safe cryptography, contested environments, and evolving cyber risks.
• Secure supply chains and interoperability: Assure hardware/software provenance and enable secure multi-vendor interoperability.
• Spectrum security and robustness: Detect and mitigate interference, spoofing, and jamming; improve spectrum resilience for critical services.

Challenge 2 – Sustainable Networks

This challenge will drive innovation in technologies that reduce the environmental impact of telecoms while ensuring that finite spectrum is used as effectively as possible. The key outcome is to create sustainable, energy-efficient networks that contribute to the UK’s clean power commitments.

You must demonstrate how your technology addresses at least one of the following network challenges:

• Energy efficiency, cost reduction, and carbon impact: Reduce energy consumption per bit of data transmitted, lower operational costs, and minimise emissions (e.g. kgCO₂e per site-year) across network infrastructure.
• Maximising use of finite spectrum: Improve spectral efficiency (more data per Hz) and enable multi-functional use of spectrum (e.g. Integrated Sensing and Communications (ISAC), where spectrum supports both connectivity and sensing), alongside scalable spectrum-sharing approaches.
• Adaptive and renewable energy use: Dynamically scale energy use with demand and integrate renewable energy sources (e.g. solar, wind) into network sites.
• Thermal and infrastructure efficiency: Reduce the energy required to operate and cool networks through more efficient system design, including improved cooling techniques, advanced semiconductors, and selective use of photonic technologies in place of electronic processing to reduce heat generation.
• Efficient and multi-functional transport networks: Develop transport solutions (e.g. fibre and backhaul) that reduce loss and latency, while enabling additional functions such as combined data and power transmission or more efficient shared infrastructure use.
• Material efficiency and lifecycle transparency: Reduce material use and waste through efficient design, light-weighting, and extended component lifetimes, supported by lifecycle reporting (e.g. digital product passports).