To lead a project as a solution provider your organisation must be a UK registered:

• micro, small or medium sized enterprise (SME’s)
• Academic institution
• Research and technology organisation (RTO)
• Community interest company (CIC) or charity

Subcontractors are allowed in this competition

Subcontractors can be from anywhere in the UK and you must select them through your usual procurement process.

Your project must:

• Have a grant funding request of up to £25,000
• Last for three months
• Not start before the 1st June 2026
• Must end by 31st March 2027

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
• Coherence of the proposed business model
• Development potential
• Maturity of the solution
• Suitability for the intended geographic market

• Challenge launch: 24 February 2026
• Deadline for applications: 7 April 2026
• Selection and notification of finalists: 13 April 2026
• Pitch Day: 16 and 17 April 2026
• Confirm selected solution provider: 21 April 2026
• Submission to Innovation Funding Service (IFS): Between 21 – 28 April 2026
• Project length: 3 months and/or anticipated project completion by September

Successful applicants will be given an opportunity to pitch to For the Love of the Sea. The winning applicant, as selected by the company, will then be eligible to apply for £25k grant funding to kickstart the development of the proposed solution through a 3 month project. Selected solutions will be trialled by For the Love of the Sea, with potential for further adoption if trials are successful.

The benefits package for a successful applicant may also include:

• Pitch directly to For the Love of the Sea
• Apply for £25,000 to develop and pilot the solution
• Receive support from Innovate UK Business Connect
• Access technical support and feedback
• Gain visibility across the Innovate UK network
• Build a potential long-term commercial partnership with For the Love of the Sea

Existing background IP associated with a potential solution will remain with Solution Provider(s). Where any new IP generation is envisaged, it will be subject to the mutual IP agreement of the solution provider(s) and challenge holder.

Any commercial deployment of a transferred solution or newly developed solution, through licensing, joint venture, partnership, or direct investment, will be subject to the commercial agreement between the solution provider(s) and challenge holder.

Where necessary, a non-disclosure agreement (NDA) may be signed to uphold confidentiality in the engagement between the solution provider(s) and challenge holder. (This would be expected to be after company selection, it is suggested that details of IP be not disclosed, focus on the outcomes of the technology proposed).

Innovate UK and Innovate UK Business Connect do not take any share of IP ownership or enter commercial ventures through the iX programme.

The challenge holder is open to exclusive licensing for CO₂ use, with solution providers able to adapt the architecture for other applications.

Functional Requirements

Any equipment that might be on the sea, possibly a simple wind/weather station should have east data collection as the boat will go out 3 times a week in the winter and Bluetooth or similar would be ideal.

Data gathered from weather centres and tidal centres like the coast guard would be the easiest method and an digital system to process this data in to intelligence would most beneficial.
An output that could estimate the potential for damage, potentially after some learning is gathered would be desirable.

Technical Requirements

The solution must/should:

• Be able to collect data relating to wind, tides and currents. Data sources preferred but a Buoy with a wind/weather centre that is simple to maintain and robust would be acceptable.
• An output to display digitally the combined information and start a learning process to predict when damage may occur, a bonus would be a risk factor display so decisions can be made.
• A human input that can help learning by estimating the damage so the system can read its data to narrow down the combination that did not manage the expected damage and refine the predictability.

Operating Conditions

The data collection solution must/should be able to:

• operate in tidal conditions.
• operate in an area where there is very limited connectivity.
• Scrape from external reliable sources.

The digital output solution must/should be able to:

• predict in percentages the risk factor for damage.
• have data fed back in to tell it what the damage was.
• use both sets of data to learn and produce more accurate prediction.

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. 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.