To be eligible to join this pilot your business must be a UK registered micro, small or medium sized enterprise (SME).

An eligible business can only submit one application. Any further applications by the same organisation will be made ineligible.

Grant funding is awarded as Minimal Financial assistance (MFA). This allows public bodies to award up to £315,000 to an enterprise in a 3-year rolling financial period. In your application, you will be asked to declare previous funding received by you. This will form part of the financial checks ahead of Innovate UK making a formal grant offer.

To establish your eligibility, we need to check that our support added to the amount you have previously received does not exceed the limit of £315,000 in the ‘applicable period’. The applicable period is made up of: (a) the elapsed part of the current financial year, and (b) the two financial years immediately preceding the current financial year.

If you are unsure about your obligations under the Subsidy Control Act 2022, you should take independent legal advice. We cannot advise on individual eligibility or your legal obligations.

Your application must:

• have a grant funding request of £80,420, £75,000 grant funding over the duration of the pilot and £5,420 towards Business Connect support that you will receive
• have a grant funding request that matches your total costs
• request support for 9 months

Your funded activities must start by 1 March 2027 and end no later than 30 November 2027.

You must take part in all support activities based on identified need and as agreed with Innovate UK.

Any organisation receiving funding must carry out its work in the UK, intend to exploit the results in the UK, and spend most of the funding within the UK.

The aim of this pilot is to recruit and support ambitious and innovative SMEs with the potential to grow and scale a business in the UK. The business must be developing a technology, product or service based on measurement, sensing or instrumentation that solves a problem faced by advanced manufacturing supply chains in the UK. They will improve the productivity, resource efficiency or resilience of a manufacturer.

Businesses in this pilot will receive a programme of support and funding for a period of 9 months. If successful, you will be able to draw down from your agreed funding based on need and in agreement with Innovate UK throughout the nine month support period.

This pilot is not funding projects; to be in scope your business must meet the following criteria.

a) Your business must be developing a technology, product or service based on measurement, sensing or instrumentation to addresses a specific problem faced by advanced manufacturing supply chains. The problem must relate to improving productivity, resource efficiency or resilience.

b) The supply chains must be part of at least one of the following UK advanced manufacturing supply chains:

• Automotive
• Aerospace
• Battery
• Space
• The commercial production of Advanced Materials

c) Your business must aim to grow and scale in the UK by selling your technology, product or service to customers both in the UK and worldwide.

If you are selected to join the pilot, it will last for 9 months, during which you can claim up to £75,000 of grant towards eligible costs incurred.

You will also be expected to participate fully with the support activities and engage with a team from Innovate UK, IUK Business Connect and Business Growth to develop and action a growth plan. The support activities will be tailored to the needs of each company.

We are not funding businesses in this pilot that are:

• developing a technology, product or service for the Agri-tech supply chain (if you are in this sector, contact our Agrifood team to discuss available support)
• developing new or improved advanced materials
• a manufacturer who is looking to develop a new technology approach for their own operations
• submitting an application based on a project

Innovate UK Business Connect will hold an online briefing for potential applicants on Thursday 10 September, noon-1pm. A recording and slides will be available afterwards.

We will also hold two drop-in sessions on Tuesday 22 and Wednesday 30 September, both running 10.30am-11.30am.

Register for the briefing and/or drop-in sessions here.