To lead a collaborative project your organisation must be a UK registered business of any size. 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)

No single organisation can claim more than 70% of the total project costs.

A business can only lead on one application but can be included as a collaborator in a further two applications.

If a business is not leading any application, it can collaborate in any number of applications.

An academic institution, charity, not for profit, public sector organisation, or research and technology organisation can collaborate on any number of applications.

Your project must:

• have a grant funding request of between £500,000 and £1 million
• last between 18 and 30 months
• start by 1 February 2027
• end by 31 July 2029

Any organisation receiving funding must carry out its project work in the UK, intend to exploit the results in the UK, and spend most of the funding within the UK.

For industrial research you can get funding for your eligible project costs of:

• up to 70% if you are a micro or small organisation
• up to 60% if you are a medium sized organisation
• up to 50% if you are a large organisation

E.g. if you are a consortium of small businesses requesting a grant of £700k, this can cover up to 70% of costs, and the total project costs would be £1m with the remaining £300k to be covered by the consortium members.

The aim of this competition is to accelerate the translation and adoption of material innovations through collaborative industrial research. The competition will support the priority opportunity themes of the National Materials Innovation Strategy, unlock strategic material opportunities and enhance competitiveness across the eight growth driving sectors.

Your project must focus on one of the sub themes within:

• the three prioritised high growth opportunity theme areas, or
• the one strategic opportunity theme, metamaterials and metasurfaces

See the specific theme section to view the full list of these themes and sub-themes.

We recognise that the metamaterials and metasurfaces strategic opportunity theme overlaps with some areas of the high growth opportunity themes. If your material innovation is fundamentally based upon a metamaterial or metasurface technology, then you must apply under Theme 4: Metamaterials and Metasurfaces.

You must explain how your innovation will improve performance, functionality, productivity or sustainability. You must also provide a credible route to commercialisation and deployment.

You must also demonstrate how adoption of your materials innovation contributes to broader UK net zero targets. This could be through more sustainable supply chains, reduction in energy consumption, emissions reduction and resource efficiency.

Your project must:

• be a collaborative industrial research project
• focus primarily on the materials innovation
• identify the specific IS-8 sector and applications being targeted
• explain the opportunity for the materials innovation to be applied and describe any future barriers and challenges you foresee to adoption
• demonstrate a clear route to scale in the UK
• explain how this project will support business growth and UK advanced manufacturing
• involve at least one named end user in the project who is operating within one of the eight growth driving sectors identified in the UK’s Modern Industrial Strategy (IS-8) sectors

The named end user is an organisation, further downstream in the supply chain, that will use or directly benefit from the materials innovation. Examples of end users include OEMs, Tier 1 suppliers and other organisations. The involvement of the end user can be in the form of, but is not limited to:

• being on a project advisory board
• being a non-funded project collaborator or a funded project collaborator

The end user must have a clear, defined role within the project governance or work plan. The following will not be accepted as end users:

• an RTO
• academics and academic institutions
• consultants and consultancies

Government organisations or regulators can act as an end user where you provide a clear justification, for example, where they act as a system integrator or service provider for the materials innovation.

We are seeking material innovation projects focused on advanced materials and material systems for healthcare applications.

Healthcare materials and material systems are defined as those designed to safely interact with biological systems and deliver improved prevention, diagnosis, monitoring, treatment, rehabilitation or regeneration outcomes. This includes materials intended for use in medical devices, diagnostics, therapeutic delivery systems, regenerative medicine products and bioelectronic healthcare technologies.

Projects must address one or more of the following sub-themes:

Biocompatible and Regenerative Materials

This includes the development, characterisation and validation of biocompatible materials and material systems for medical applications, including:

• advanced biomaterials
• regenerative medicine materials
• tissue engineering scaffolds and matrices
• bioresorbable and biodegradable materials
• materials for tissue repair and wound healing
• implantable and medical device materials
• materials for targeted therapies
• materials and carriers for the controlled delivery of therapeutic agents

Projects must demonstrate how the material enables improved biological performance, patient outcomes, functionality, manufacturability or clinical adoption.

Bioelectronic Materials

This includes the development, characterisation and validation of bioelectronic materials and material systems for medical use that directly interface with biological tissues, cells or physiological processes to:

• prevent disease
• diagnose disease
• monitor physiological function
• treat disease
• restore biological function
• support patient rehabilitation

This can include materials for implantable, wearable, in vitro or integrated bioelectronic systems, including conductive, semiconductive, sensing, stimulating and responsive material technologies that enable improved interaction between biological and electronic systems.

We are seeking material innovation projects focused on high value, high performance structural materials and material systems.

High value, high performance structural materials and material systems are defined as those whose primary function is to bear load, maintain structural integrity and deliver reliable performance throughout their operational life in demanding environments. This includes multifunctional materials where structural integrity is the critical enabling function. They are deployed in applications where failure, degradation or loss of performance would have significant economic, operational, safety or environmental consequences.

The following structural material classes are within scope:

• speciality steels, such as high strength, corrosion resistant, wear resistant and high temperature steels
• advanced non-ferrous metals and high performance metallic alloys
• fibre reinforced structural composites where fibre reinforcement provides the primary load bearing function
• structural and wear resistant technical ceramics
• advanced structural glasses and glass ceramics
• advanced concretes and geopolymers
• high performance structural engineering polymers used in load bearing applications

Only the material classes listed above are in scope and projects must address one or more of the following four sub-themes:

Sustainability

This includes sustainability and circularity innovations in the structural materials and material systems listed above, including innovations that improve resource efficiency, reuse, repair, remanufacture, recovery and recycling while maintaining mechanical integrity, durability and long service life.

Surface Engineering

This includes material innovations in coatings, surface treatments, tribological solutions and corrosion protection technologies that enhance the durability, reliability and operational lifetime of the structural materials and material systems listed above by mitigating surface or bulk degradation.

Design and Deployment

This includes innovations that improve the modelling, qualification, manufacture, inspection, monitoring and deployment of the structural materials and material systems listed above, enabling more predictable performance and improved resistance to degradation throughout the asset lifecycle.

Extreme Environments

This includes the development and refinement of structural and multifunctional material systems from the material classes listed above that are capable of maintaining mechanical integrity and performance under extreme or combined extreme conditions, including thermal, radiation, corrosive, high pressure, wear and fatigue environments.

We are seeking material innovation projects focused on advanced electronic, photonic and communication materials and material systems.

Electronic, photonic and communication materials and material systems are defined as those that enable the generation, conversion, transmission, processing, sensing or thermal management of electrical, optical or electromagnetic signals, delivering enhanced performance, efficiency, functionality or reliability in advanced electronic and communication technologies.

Relevant materials and material systems may include semiconductor, photonic, optoelectronic, dielectric, electromagnetic and thermal management materials, such as silicon carbide (SiC), gallium nitride (GaN), diamond, gallium oxide, integrated photonic materials, radio frequency (RF) and microwave materials, low loss dielectric materials, thermal interface materials and advanced heat spreading materials.

Projects must address one or more of the following sub-themes:

Wide and Ultra Wide Bandgap Materials

This includes materials innovations associated with wide and ultra wide bandgap semiconductor materials and associated substrate, packaging and thermal management material systems, enabling higher voltage, higher temperature and higher frequency operation, together with improved power density and energy efficiency compared with conventional silicon based technologies.

Advanced Connectivity Materials

This includes materials innovations for advanced connectivity and communication systems, enabling enhanced energy efficiency, signal quality, bandwidth, spectrum utilisation, capacity and coverage across next generation communication and sensing technologies, including 5G, 6G, optical, RF, infrared (IR) and radar applications.

We are seeking material innovation projects focused on the development, scale-up, commercialisation and adoption of metamaterials and metasurfaces, enabling growth, productivity and dual use opportunities across strategically important sectors.

For the purposes of this theme, projects must demonstrate that they meet the definition of a metamaterial or metasurface as developed by the metamaterials community and the UK Metamaterials Network, which are:

• a metamaterial is a three dimensional structure with a response or function arising from the collective effect of engineered meta-atom elements that cannot be achieved conventionally by any individual constituent material
• a metasurface is a two dimensional version of a metamaterial in which the engineered structural elements are confined to a planar surface

The response or function of a metamaterial or metasurface results from the collective behaviour of designed and engineered meta-atom elements. These responses may include electromagnetic, photonic, RF and microwave, terahertz (THz), acoustic, magnetic, mechanical, structural, thermal or chemical functionality.

Projects must address relevant aspects of the value chain. This can include demonstrating technology concepts for market adoption, overcoming technical barriers to scale-up and manufacture, or developing enabling design, metrology and characterisation tools and methods.

Projects must address one or more of the following sub-themes:

Future Telecommunications and Advanced Connectivity

This includes metamaterial and metasurface innovations enabling enhanced connectivity, communication and sensing capabilities through improved signal control, bandwidth, spectrum utilisation, coverage, energy efficiency and system performance. Relevant applications can include 5G, 6G, satellite communications, RF, microwave and THz systems.

Convergent Electronic-Photonic Technologies

This includes metamaterial and metasurface innovations enabling enhanced integration and functionality across semiconductor, electronic and photonic technologies, supporting next-generation computing, sensing, communication and optoelectronic systems.

Thermal, Acoustic and Mechanical Metamaterials

This includes thermal, acoustic and mechanical metamaterial innovations that enable novel or enhanced control of thermal, acoustic, structural or mechanical behaviour across a range of length scales. Relevant applications can include robotics, autonomous systems, advanced manufacturing, aerospace and defence technologies.

Energy Security and Net Zero

This includes metamaterial and metasurface innovations enabling improved performance, efficiency, control or resilience in renewable energy generation, energy storage, power transmission and broader net zero technologies.

Healthcare

This includes metamaterial and metasurface innovations enabling advances in healthcare technologies, including biosensing, biomonitoring, imaging, diagnostics, biomedical devices, stimuli-responsive systems, advanced prosthetics and acoustic management in clinical environments.

We are not funding projects that:

• do not align with any of the themes and sub-themes listed in the specific themes section
• are focused on the development or application of digital tools and technologies to support or enable materials innovation, for example, AI or machine learning (ML) tools
• do not name and describe an end user and their role within the project
• do not demonstrate the IS-8 sector being targeted and applications within the chosen sector
• do not demonstrate a clear and realistic sector and application opportunity for later adoption
• are focused on chemical or raw materials synthesis, rather than adoption of materials innovations in an end application
• are focused solely on the defence sector, but we will recognise dual use material innovations providing the primary focus is on civil applications
• are focused on enabling areas such as regulations, educational resources, behavioural science, policy, skills and relationships

An online briefing event will be held on Thursday 3 September, 10.30am-noon, with a recording and slides available afterwards. Innovate UK Business Connect will also hold clinics for applicants on Friday 11 September and Wednesday 7 October, both 10.30am-noon.

Click here to register for a place on any of the above events.

If you would like help to find a collaboration partner, contact Innovate UK Business Connect’s Materials team.