This competition is open to collaborations only.

To lead a collaborative project your organisation must be a UK registered business of any size or public sector organisation. The consortium must contain at least one UK registered micro, small or medium sized enterprise (SME) claiming grant funding on this application.

To collaborate with the lead, your organisation must be one of the following UK registered:

• business of any size
• academic institution
• charity
• not for profit
• public sector organisation
• research and technology organisation (RTO)

You must ensure that no one partner accounts for more than 70% of the total eligible grant.

A business or public sector organisation can only lead on one application but can be included as a collaborator in one further application.

An organisation or business that is not leading any application can collaborate in up to two applications.

Your project must:

• have total grant funding request of between £300,000 and £1.25 million
• last between 8 and 12 months
• start from 1 September 2026
• end by 31 August 2027
• carry out all of its project work in the UK, unless specifically stated and pre-approved by Innovate UK
• have a maximum of five funded partners

Any funded organisation needs to carry out their project work in the UK and must intend to exploit the project results from or in the UK.

The aim of this competition is to develop new solutions to counter the illegal use of Uncrewed Aerial Systems (UAS) around civil and military sites, including airports, prisons, critical national infrastructure, schools and public events.

We are interested in dual‑use technologies that can be applied across civil, defence, and security and intelligence domains.

We welcome solutions that can effectively detect, track, identify, decide and defeat current and emerging threats whilst minimising collateral damage and interference with communications and electronics.

Your project must develop and appropriately test, validate or demonstrate one of the following solution types:

1. Solutions that provide protection from UAS across UK defence sites, airports, schools, public events and sites of critical national infrastructure (CNI), with a focus on cost effective and scalable solutions appropriate to the location. Technology solutions should already be at TRL5 or above and aiming for introduction and deployment by 2028.​
2. Affordable solutions that protect the UK’s prison estate from illegal UAS activity. Early stage developments and technology validation in the laboratory environment of future systems that can adapt to a rapidly changing threat environment, are typically up to TRL4, and aimed for introduction and deployment by 2030.​

These could include stand alone systems designed to act as a last line of defence or technologies that are part of a layered approach to manage threats over greater distances. Solutions could be fixed or designed to be mobile. Systems employing kinetic methods must be safely operable in public spaces and minimise collateral damage.

For solutions tailored to the UK prison estate, we welcome novel applications that consider pressures on frontline staff as the primary users, low collateral defeat solutions and the detection of UAS controlled using radio frequency, cellular or any other means.

We note the increasing appetite for commercial UAS use and the Government’s objective of achieving routine Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS) UAS operations from 2027 and promoting public sector UAS adoption. This will increase the volume of low altitude aircraft operations and require future counter UAS solutions to integrate or communicate with air traffic management and remote ID systems for UAS.

You must detail how the counter UAS solution being developed will operate within the constraints of existing infrastructure, regulations and laws. You must detail how the solution will operate safely and minimise risks to property, members of the public and other air users, and limit interference with communications and electronics.

Your proposal must include reference to relevant regulations for your proposed counter UAS solution and any dependencies on regulatory approvals for trials and demonstration purposes. Any required approvals must either already be granted or must be obtainable by a clear and supported route within your project timeline. You must demonstrate in your application a clear understanding of how this will be achieved within the project duration.

We are not funding projects that:

• do not have a specifically defined end user or use case
• rely on technology that is already in commercial use for counter UAS purposes
• are not compliant with current regulations
• are not compliant with current laws
• do not demonstrate the potential for businesses involved to achieve economic growth
• solely rely on off the shelf products with no experimental development
• would require significant infrastructure or integration to be operable
• are not scalable or adaptable to real world operations
• are high collateral kinetic approaches
• include testing or demonstration that relies on regulatory approvals that are not already granted or cannot be obtained within the project timeframe

Innovate UK will hold an online briefing at 10am on Monday 11 May: click here to register for a place. A recording and slides will be available afterwards.

If you would like help to find a collaboration partner, contact Innovate UK Business Connect’s Security & Defence or Future Flight teams.