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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Medicines Manufacturing Data Institute: Phase 1
Closing Soon
Opens: 07/09/2026
Closes: 14/10/2026
UK registered organisations can apply for a share of up to £500,000 for a phase 1 project to establish the Medicines Manufacturing Data Institute (MMDI). This funding is from Innovate UK.
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Horizon Europe Springboard Scheme for Cluster 4 Industry Themes
Rolling assessment: awards on a first come, first served basis. Closes 2 Feb 2027.
Financial support for eligible UK organisations to strengthen the development of Horizon Europe proposals under eligible topics including digital, manufacturing, materials, clean energy and AI in the Cluster 4 industry and relevant horizontal activities only.
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2027 European Prize for Women Innovators
Opens: 02/09/2026
Closes: 01/12/2026
The 2027 European Prize for Women Innovators is your chance to gain European recognition for the impact of your work and inspire the next generation of innovators.
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Farming Innovation Programme: Small R&D Partnership Projects Rd 5
Closing Soon
Opens: 01/09/2026
Closes: 14/10/2026
UK registered businesses can apply for a share of up to £13 million for small R&D partnership projects. This funding is from the industry led R&D Partnerships Fund, a part of the Defra Farming Innovation Programme.
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Contracts for Innovation: Engineering Biology for Defra and Food Standards Agency, phase 1
Closing Soon
Opens: 01/09/2026
Closes: 14/10/2026
Organisations can apply for a share up to £3 million inclusive of VAT, to develop and scale Engineering Biology platforms, products and services.
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National Materials Innovation Programme: CR&D Rd1
Opens: 01/09/2026
Closes: 28/10/2026
UK registered businesses can apply for a share of up to £12m for collaborative industrial research in materials for health, structures, electronics, or metamaterials.
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Investor Partnerships – ACT and Semiconductors
Closing Soon
Opens: 01/09/2026
Closes: 14/10/2026
UK registered SMEs can apply for grant funding alongside private investment from selected investor partners.
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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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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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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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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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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.