The Critical Minerals (CM) Accelerator is a £25 million grant funding scheme, aimed at unlocking the commercialisation of innovation through the scaling up of innovative solutions for critical minerals, spanning extraction, processing and recycling and building on the UK’s strengths.
Funding will support projects across the UK for all minerals on the UK 2024 Criticality Assessment published as well as Critical Minerals technical annex by 2035. Successful projects should increase the security of supply of minerals, boost resilience, create jobs and growth. The CM Accelerator is part of the £50 million UK Critical Mineral Programme.
The CM Accelerator is focused on companies and projects at technology readiness levels (TRL) 6 to 8 which are close to commercialisation and that face significant barriers in proving unit economics and de-risking their processes. Projects supported will be at the pilot to pre-commercial or demonstrator to commercialisation stage of development.
The £25 million CM Accelerator grant scheme will support multiple projects through a competitive process. Our expectation is that all approved grants will sit within a range of £150,000 to £3 million. All projects funded under this scheme are expected to be delivered by March 2030.
Applicants should request only the minimum amount of funding required to deliver their proposal and will need to demonstrate value for money as part of the assessment process. Applicants are required to contribute match funding towards eligible project costs: a minimum of 50% match funding for small enterprises, 60% for medium, and 70% for large.
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The lead applicant must be a UK registered business with operations based in the UK and be committed to developing innovation and follow-on commercial activity within the UK.
You can run your project on an individual or consortium basis. If you are applying on a consortium basis, you must appoint a lead applicant business to complete the application form.
Charities, not-for-profits, universities/academic institutions, research and technology organisations (RTOs) and public sector organisations may be included in the project team but not lead a project.
Lead applicants are allowed to be involved in only one application in this funding round, either as a lead applicant or as a member of the project team.
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All projects funded under this scheme are expected to be delivered by March 2030. The project must take place within the UK. Where the project includes extraction of materials outside of the UK, the activities funded through this scheme must take place in the UK.
Pilot to Pre-Commercial projects (TRL 6+) are expected to last 18 to 36 months and request grant funding of £1m-£3m.
Demonstrator to Commercialisation projects (TRL 8+) are expected to last 6 to 18 months and request grant funding of £150k-£1m.
BIST does not have preconceived ideas about how much of the £25m will be committed in the first round as this will depend on the number and quality of the applications received. We anticipate that a second round will be opened in early 2027 to commit any remaining funding and in this case, unsuccessful applicants from the first round will receive feedback to help them strengthen their applications for this round.
Applicants are required to contribute match funding towards eligible project costs: a minimum of 50% match funding for small enterprises, 60% for medium, and 70% for large.
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The overarching objective of the CM Accelerator is to support research and development innovation (typically projects at minimum technology readiness level 6 to 8) in extraction, midstream processing and recycling (which currently do not qualify or are unable to attract support from public finance institutions and private finance) to increase validation, commercialisation prospects and scale up in the UK. This objective is underpinned by 3 strategic priorities:
1. Driving economic growth
- support high-value manufacturing and growth-driving sectors, including clean energy, advanced manufacturing, and defence
- support job creation, skills development, and regional economic growth
- catalyse private sector investment and expansion across UK critical minerals value chains
2․ Strengthening economic security
- reduce vulnerabilities associated with concentrated global supply chains
- build sovereign capability in a strategically critical sector
- improve resilience against supply disruptions and external economic pressures
3․ Building domestic resilience
- reduce reliance on overseas supply chains for critical minerals
- develop domestic capability across critical minerals value chains
- establish a sustainable ecosystem, spanning production, skills and innovation
- promote a circular materials economy by enabling recycling, recovery, and reuse of critical minerals across products’ lifecycles
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- application stage opens – 5 August 2026
- FAQ document published (updated weekly) – August/September 2026
- latest date for questions to be received – 16 September 2026
- application stage closes – 30 September 2026
- notification of application stage outcome – October 2026
- interview stage – October/November 2026
- funding decision – November/December 2026
- grant funding period ends – 31 March 2030
If you would like help to find a collaboration partner, contact Innovate UK Business Connect’s Materials team.