Innovation funding opportunities
Looking for funding and support to develop your idea? At Innovate UK Business Connect, we connect businesses, researchers and innovators with the right opportunities they need to grow.
Explore opportunities for funding and expert guidance, to help turn your innovation into a commercial success.
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Sectors:
Advanced Manufacturing: Measurement and Sensing Pilot
Opens: 26/08/2026
Closes: 07/10/2026
UK registered businesses can apply for a share of up to £1 million as part of a pilot. This is to support high potential businesses developing a technology, product or service in measurement, instrumentation or sensing for UK manufacturing.
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UK Space Agency: International Bilateral Fund – Call 3
Deadline 4 Nov: encouraged to send EoI by 14 Sep.
Up to £1.5m per project to build international partnerships working on mutual space priorities.
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Next Wave: Global Business Innovation Programme – Createch South by Southwest (SXSW), Texas
Opens: 06/10/2026
Closes: 22/10/2026
We are looking for Creative Industries businesses, ready to collaborate internationally, to take part in a GBIP that includes SXSW in Austin, Texas.
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Advancing innovation in accelerated cancer diagnosis
Opens: 01/09/2026
Closes: 28/10/2026
Up to £25.4 million funding available to support the clinical validation and evaluation of early cancer diagnostic technologies and devices.
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BBSRC ICURe Explore January 2027
Opens: 01/09/2026
Closes: 20/11/2026
BBSRC ICURe Explore provides financial support of up to £35,000, including a maximum of £20,000 for the Entrepreneurial Lead’s salary, as well as funding for assumption testing and customer discovery activities.
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Full ADOPT Grant: Round 9
Opens: 14/08/2026
Closes: 07/10/2026
Farming, growing or forestry businesses can apply for a share of up to £5 million for on-farm trial and demonstration projects, to improve adoption of new ideas or solutions in the agricultural sector.
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iX Challenge: AI Attribution and AI Authenticity for Ethical Cultural Content
Opens: 06/10/2026
Closes: 13/11/2026
Supporting Eros Innovation to identify UK-based innovators with practical, scalable and ethically grounded approaches to AI for creative assets, datasets, and cultural material.
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Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP): 2026 – 2027 Round 3
Closing Soon
Opens: 13/08/2026
Closes: 14/10/2026
UK registered academic institutions, RTOs or Catapults, working with businesses, can apply for a share of up to £12.5m to fund innovation projects.
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EIT Culture & Creativity: Shape and Scale - financial support for Cultural and Creative Sectors and Industries
Closing Soon
Opens: 10/08/2026
Closes: 12/10/2026
Cultural and creative startups and scaleups that are looking to accelerate growth, attract investment, and expand internationally, are invited to apply for financial support under the Shape Acceleration Programme and Scale Post-Acceleration Programme.
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DRIVE35 Scale-up Fund Drawdown 5
Opens: 10/08/2026
Closes: 04/11/2026
UK registered organisations can apply for a share of up to £150 million to create scale up manufacturing facilities for zero emission vehicle technologies.
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UK-Singapore CR&D 2026
Opens: 24/08/2026
Closes: 16/12/2026
UK registered businesses can apply for a share of up to £3 million for the purpose of developing innovative proposals with Singapore. You must collaborate with at least one Singapore business applying under the equivalent Enterprise Singapore programme.
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European Space Agency: Environmental Crimes
Opens: 19/10/2026
Closes: 25/06/2027
This opportunity supports the development of space-based applications and services targeting environmental crimes.
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EPSRC Healthcare Technologies ICURe Engage November 2026
Closing Soon
Opens: 10/07/2026
Closes: 09/10/2026
EPSRC Healthcare Technologies ICURe Engage is a four-week, part-time programme which helps healthcare technologies researchers identify who could benefit from their research and explore the benefits of entrepreneurship.
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KAVA Call 14 – Upscaling: Raw Materials & Advanced Materials
Opens: 01/07/2026
Closes: 16/11/2026
Receive funding for projects in mining, materials, and recycling from €500,000 up to €2.5+ million.
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IHI (Innovative Health Initiative) 13th Call for Proposals
Closing Soon
Short proposal submission deadline: 8 Oct 2026
Topics on accelerating healthcare innovation through networks, reducing animal use in drug safety studies, and decoding the immuno-science of diseases affected by ageing and the immune system.
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European Space Agency: The Arctic Region: Safety, Navigation and Operations
Opens: 05/09/2026
Closes: 05/11/2026
Applications are invited on space-enabled solutions targeting safe maritime navigation and operations in the Arctic where the melting ice is not only resulting in increased traffic but also posing significant hazards to vessels.
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European Space Agency: Road and Traffic Safety
Opens: 15/07/2026
Closes: 27/11/2026
This opportunity offers funding for teams who would like to develop sustainable space-based services and applications that address challenges related to the Road and Traffic Safety sector.
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Women TechEU 2026-27
Weekly stage 1 submissions: four stage 2 deadlines throughout 2026-27
Women TechEU 2 EIC is an EU-funded project designed to support women-led early-stage deep tech startups from Europe. Each startup can receive €75,000 in funding.
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Horizon Europe 2026-27: Horizontal Actions - Bridging Actions
Various closing dates between January and June 2027
A series of topics aiming to facilitate a smooth transition between Horizon Europe 2021–2027 and the next EU R&I Framework Programme, Horizon Europe 2028–2034.
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Horizon Europe 2026-27: Horizontal actions - Transformative change towards a nature-positive economy and society
Deadlines from Jan 2027 onwards
Supporting R&I activities dedicated to biodiversity across pillar II of Horizon Europe, with up to €50m for the largest projects.
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Horizon Europe Chips Joint Undertaking 2026
Various closing dates to 31 March 2027
Topics under the CHIPS-JU work programme, aiming to strengthen Europe’s semiconductor ecosystem, with up to €70m available for the largest projects.