Entrants to this competition must be established businesses, academic institutions, start-ups, SMEs, RTOs or individual entrepreneurs and must be UK based

Your project must:

• Provide a rough order of magnitude (ROM) cost financial breakdown for expected development activities. Note: Project costings – only eligible costs will be funded, please read the Innovate UK Costs guidance for further information
• Start on Monday 1st March 2027 and complete by Wednesday 1st March 2028
• Carry out all project work in the UK
• Intend to exploit the project outcomes from or within the UK

Applications will be assessed on:

• Relevance to the defined challenge
• Benefit of implementation
• Feasibility/economic viability
• Innovative nature
• Ability to launch in line with expected timescales
• Credibility of applicant company/organisation
• Coherence of the proposed business model
• Development potential
• Maturity of the solution
• Suitability for the intended geographic market

If successful through this iX process, you will be invited to apply for a share of up to £3.5M funding administered through the Innovate UK Innovation Funding Service (IFS). Applicants will need to upload the following documents to IFS once notified:

• Project plan
• Project costing

• Challenge launch: Mon 10 Aug 2026
• Deadline for applications: Fri 18 Sept 2026 at 1700hrs
• Selection and notification of finalists: w/c 28 Sept 2026
• Pitch Day: week commencing: Wed 14 Oct 2026
• Confirm selected solution provider: By Fri 23 Oct 2026
• Submission to Innovation Funding Service (IFS): Wednesday 2nd December 2026
• Project length: No longer than 12-months

If you have a question relating to this challenge, please email Hazel Biggs.

The immediate opportunity is to be eligible to bid into a pot of £3.5 million Proof-of-Concept funding via Innovate UK Contract for Innovation. This competition will launch in November 2026. We envisage a subset of these proofs of concept will be taken through to the next stages which will be an initial trial and integration test into a final development / productization stage. Our intention is to purchase a number of these products directly in 2029/30.

Successful applicants will be given an opportunity to pitch to HMG and their government partners. The winning applicant, as selected by HMG, will then be eligible to apply for a share of up to £3.5m funding to kickstart the development of the proposed solution through a 12-month project. Selected solutions will be trialled by HMG government partners with potential for further adoption if trials are successful.

The competition is structured to encourage the development of commercially sustainable PNT capabilities, products and services. Under standard Innovate UK Contracts for Innovation terms, suppliers would retain ownership of foreground IP, enabling them to pursue wider commercial opportunities in UK and international markets, while government retains rights to use the outputs generated through the project. This model supports the growth of a resilient UK supplier base, incentivises private investment and market adoption, and provides a route for successful solutions to transition from R&D into operational deployment across government and critical national infrastructure.

Functional requirements

Whilst it is recognised that applying into this iX, you may not meet the below criteria. It is expected that any successful applicant would be required to work towards the below.

• The solution must be compliant with all relevant Safety Directives and Standards and shall be UKCA/ CE marked before being released to market.
• All innovation partners must have Cyber Essentials and ISO 27001 certifications or develop plans to be on a road map to achieving.
• All innovation partners must have ISO 9001 certification or develop plans to be on a road map to achieving.
• The solution must be supported by Reliability and Maintainability data.
• The solution should have a Life Expectancy of no less than 10 years in full-time operation.

Technical requirements

The nominal operating temperature of the laboratory environment housing the capability is in the range of 20 to 23oC. The maximum operating range for the solution shall be 10 to 40oC.

The application form for this challenge will require applicants to provide company information and answer 3 questions – Idea Summary, Technology Readiness and Intellectual Property – each with a limit of 300 words.

Additionally, the following documents must be attached for your application to be considered:

• Project plan
• Project costings – only eligible costs will be funded, please read the Innovate UK Costs guidance for further information

We recommend that you complete the application form in Google Chrome as other browsers may have compatibility issues. The application form does not need to be completed in one session and can be saved for future edits. Please ensure that you toggle “Stage Complete” for each section before submission.

Please note that you will no longer be able to edit your application once you have clicked “Submit Idea” at the bottom of the Summary page.