The Growth Cohort will deliver a responsive, tailored and more agile support offer that aims to enable ambitious businesses to unlock the barriers to commercialisation and deployment.

The Growth Cohort is structured in two stages, as outlined below. Businesses within the cohort will be provided with wrap-around support aligned to their needs.

Stage 1 – cohort entry competition (this stage)

The aim of this competition is to recruit ambitious businesses to join the Growth Cohort. Successful businesses will be provided with a dedicated Innovate UK cohort manager, access to grant funding and 6 months to develop an innovation and growth plan.

Businesses must apply and be successful in the entry competition to access any further support or funding beyond the initial Stage 1 grant.

Innovate UK is seeking to fund and support the most ambitious UK businesses working on scalable low-carbon concrete solutions, those with a great team and that are building traction in the construction industry and sustainable concrete supply chains.

This competition is open to UK-based businesses that:

• are developing low-carbon concrete solutions
• have started to build traction in the construction industry
• can demonstrate ambition and potential to scale
• are seeking to rapidly scale

The Growth Cohort is designed to support businesses at different development stages that are focussed on developing and delivering their technology at scale in the construction industry.

Your business and project must:

• be ambitious with solutions to decarbonise concrete that have started to build traction in the construction industry
• aim to create commercial revenue from deploying an innovative product or service within the concrete supply chain
• have IP held by a company that is headquartered in the UK
• be active in the sustainable concrete supply chain
• provide a letter of support from a commercial entity currently operating in the concrete supply chain demonstrating that your idea is considered scalable within the concrete industry
• upload a video in response to the video pitch question in your application

Applicant businesses must be able to dedicate sufficient resource to actively participate in the programme and the range of activities on offer across the duration of the programme, to March 2030. This will include in-person attendance at frequent meetings and events in the UK.

For details on the specific scope of eligible businesses, please refer to the IFS competition page.

Innovate UK will deliver a webinar briefing on Friday 23rd October at 10am: click here to register for a place. A recording and slides will be available afterwards.

There will also be drop in sessions for potential applicants as follows:

• Friday 6 November, 11.00 – 12.00
• Thursday 19 November, 11.00 – 12.00

There will be up to 5 Rounds of this entry competition (stage 1) between April 2026 and January 2028. Round 1 opened in April 2026 and closed in July. Round 2 opens on 21st October and closes on 2nd December 2026.

If you are an investor or corporate organisation with an interest in decarbonising concrete and would like to support the Growth Cohort, please get in touch with our experts.

To enter the Growth Cohort, you must apply to the cohort entry competition and be selected. You must complete an application through the Innovation Funding Service, including the submission of a letter of support and a video pitch.

If your application passes the first stage of assessment, you may be invited to attend an interview, where you must give a presentation. Your interview will take place online.

Successful businesses entering through the cohort entry competition will develop a growth plan specific to their business needs, building on their existing business planning work. To support this, they will be provided with:

• a dedicated cohort manager to help identify and coordinate Growth Cohort activities
• an analysis of their current growth plan, knowledge and capability gaps
• £50,000 Minimal Financial Assistance (MFA) grant
• guidance to identify and apply for tailored follow-on growth support packages, including access to further funding and support

The grant should be used to support the development of the growth plan. This will differ for each business and will be agreed with Innovate UK. Please refer to the Scope section of the competition brief for further details on eligible support areas. Successful applicants will meet with their Innovate UK Cohort Manager to refine plans and associated costs at the beginning of Stage 1. Further details of eligible costs can be found here: Costs we fund – Innovate UK – UKRI.

Once a cohort business has defined its growth plan, a proposal can be submitted to Innovate UK for additional funding and support to help the business achieve its defined objectives.

This competition is expected to open in February 2027 and remain open until December 2028. Applications will be assessed and notified of success at specific dates during the competition open period.

Throughout the Growth Cohort, businesses will be provided with sector-specific “wrap around” support. This will include engagement with investors, industry and others in the cohort.

The Growth Cohort will also support businesses in overcoming industry challenges by convening cohort members and relevant stakeholders on policy, regulatory, and commercial barriers.