To lead a collaborative project, your organisation must be a UK registered SME.

You must:

• have an existing Artificial Intelligence (AI) or Machine Learning (ML) solution at technology readiness level (TRL) 5 or 6, with a functioning minimum viable product
• demonstrate an innovative and substantive use of advanced AI or ML capability
• have a minimum viable product that may have been piloted or trialled, but is not already commercially deployed in the proposed use case
• intend to exploit the project results from or in the UK
• be willing to participate in subsequent programme stages if invited

The lead organisation must account for between 40% to 70% of the project’s total eligible costs.

More information on the different types of organisations can be found in our Funding rules.

Academic institutions cannot lead.

Your project must:

• have a grant funding request of between £100,000 and £200,000
• last between three and five months
• start by 1 April 2027
• end by 31 August 2027

The minimum consortium size for this competition is two organisations: one UK registered micro, small or medium sized enterprise (SME) and one eligible UK registered deployer. You may include no more than one additional organisation, giving a maximum consortium size of three.

For subsequent programme phases, the lead organisation must remain the same throughout. If the deployer organisation drops out, you must provide a replacement. Applicants must provide evidence demonstrating why the new deployer can deliver a similar deployment outcome to that originally intended.

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

Projects must always start on the first of the month, even if this is a non-working day. You must not start your project until your Grant Offer Letter has been approved by Innovate UK. Any delays within Project Setup may mean we need to delay your project start date.

You must only include eligible project costs in your application. See our overview of eligible project costs.

The overall aim of this competition is to fund the development of innovative Artificial Intelligence (AI) deployment use cases that can progress through later programme stages towards full deployment and replication.

For this phase, we will fund consortia that will undertake and complete the following activities during the project:

• develop a clear, evidence based deployment use case that articulates the value to the deployer
• explain how the system will be used and demonstrate why this solution is the most effective way to address the operational challenge
• assess the readiness of the AI supplier in terms of delivery capacity, standards, regulatory compliance, and technical maturity
• assess the readiness of the deployer in terms of operational, technical, governance, assurance, and regulatory considerations
• obtain letters of support from potential deployers that are not part of the initial consortium but may wish to participate in later phases of the programme
• outline the activities you would undertake, if invited to Phase 2, to assure the AI system for the intended use case and prepare the operational site for deployment
• organise a demonstration of the solution using representative deployer data and systems within a representative operational environment this should take place towards the end of the project

The Decision Critical Systems strand supports the deployment of AI systems whose primary purpose is to help people make consequential judgements, recommendations or decisions. These decisions must be considered high risk or could have significant consequences for the deployer or its end users.

The Operational Systems strand supports AI systems whose primary purpose is to perform, control or coordinate operational activity within workflows, processes, software, equipment or infrastructure. Reliable integration and performance must be important to the deployer’s operations.

The Assurance and Compliance Systems strand (this competition) supports AI systems whose primary purpose is to monitor, test, verify, validate or evidence compliance. This includes assessing whether systems, processes or outcomes meet defined regulatory requirements, standards or controls for its intended use.

Each strand is defined by the primary purpose of the AI system within the proposed deployment context. For your application to be in scope you must show:

• how your use of AI is innovative and involves a meaningful application of advanced AI or ML capability
• how the AI capability is central to the proposed deployment
• how the deployer and proposed deployment are aligned with the sector you have selected
• how the proposed use case clearly aligns with the primary purpose of the strand you have selected
• what technical, operational, regulatory or assurance challenges are associated with deployment
• how the proposed deployment is novel in its context and goes beyond routine configuration, integration or implementation of an existing AI service

If you unsure whether your project is in scope, or which strand is most appropriate for your project, email BridgeAI@iuk.ukri.org at least 10 working days before the competition closes. If you apply to the wrong strand, you will be ineligible and your application will not be assessed.

Projects should demonstrate the innovative use of advanced AI or ML capability that is central to the proposed deployment.

Relevant capabilities may include:

• agentic AI and multi-agent systems
• multimodal AI
• embodied AI and robotics
• autonomous and semi-autonomous systems
• foundation models and domain adapted models
• graph neural networks and graph based AI
• neuro-symbolic AI and machine reasoning
• advanced computer vision and perception
• reinforcement learning
• AI enabled optimisation and control

This list is illustrative and non-exhaustive. Applicants may propose other advanced AI or ML capabilities where they can clearly explain the technical innovation and its role in the proposed deployment.

We are not funding projects that:

• focus on early stage research or concept development
• focus on generic productivity tools, back office automation or routine business process improvement
• use AI in a way that is peripheral to the deployer’s core operations

We cannot fund projects that are:

• dependent on export performance: giving a subsidy to an organisation on the condition that it exports a certain quantity of its products to another country
• dependent on domestic inputs usage: giving a subsidy to an organisation on the condition that it uses a set percentage of UK components in their product

• 21 October 2026: Competition opens
• 26 October 2026: Collaborative event: register to attend
• 27 October 2026: Online briefing event: join at 11am
  (Briefing slides will be available to download from Supporting Information after the event)
• 8 December 2026 11:00am: Competition closes
• 1 February 2027: Applicants notified
• 1 April 2027: Project start by

Innovate UK will hold an online collaborative event at 12.00am on Monday 26 October 2026. The event is designed to support prospective applicants understand the programme and how it will be delivered and to connect with potential collaborators and begin forming strong, well-balanced consortia.

Register to attend. Recording and slides will be available after the event.

On online, Zoom based, briefing event will be held on Tuesday 27 October 2026. Join at 11:00. Briefing slides will be available to download from Supporting Information after the event