SNPN 5G Assured Integration (CR&D)

To lead a collaborative project, or participate in one, your organisation must be one of the following UK registered:

• small, medium or large business
• research and technology organisation (RTO)
• academic institution
• charity
• not for profit
• public sector organisation

Your project must include a small, medium or large business, and a Systems Integrator (see eligibility below).

You must ensure that no single partner does not account for more than £3 million, or 70% of the total eligible costs (whichever is lower).

A business, academic institution, research and technology organisation (RTO), charity, not for profit or public sector organisation can only lead on one application but can be included as a collaborator in two further applications.

Your project must:

• have a grant funding request of between £2 million and £4 million
• last 18 months
• start on 1 August 2026
• end on 31 January 2028
• include a Systems Integrator with clear accountability for overall system design, multi-vendor interoperability, and for achieving security and resilience assurance
• include a small, medium or large business

Any funded organisation needs to carry out their project work in the UK and must intend to exploit the project results from or in the UK.

The aim of this competition is to overcome the system level integration gap that prevents high value UK advanced connectivity components from forming complete, procurable solutions.

Your project must:

• integrate UK anchored advanced connectivity components across the Core, RAN, hardware or software layers, towards the availability of an end-to-end system architecture
• fund and deliver Non-Recurring Engineering (NRE) activity required for multi-vendor system integration
• demonstrate secure multi-vendor interoperability, including interface alignment and system performance validation
• include a systems integrator with clear accountability for overall system design and market fit
• publish technical evidence, such as Technical Reference Architectures and interoperability or security reports
• engage with end users or adopters to ensure system designs reflect real world operational requirements and market fit

Testing and validation must be demonstrated in representative or operationally relevant environment, including, for example, the Digital Catapult Stand-alone Non-Public Network (SNPN) Lab, or other industrial infrastructure, or testbeds providing recognised assurances.

Your project must accelerate the market availability of assured 5G SNPN solutions, that improves system security, resilience, performance, or energy efficiency. As a result, strengthening UK systems integration capability and deliver outputs with a credible route to market.

Your project must describe how you will engage with relevant validation, testbed, and assurance environments to demonstrate interoperability, performance, and integration readiness. This can include collaboration with appropriate DSIT, UKRI, or Innovate UK supported facilities where this strengthens evidence generation and market adoption.

We welcome applications from small, medium and large enterprises, and systems integrators, including organisations outside the traditional telecommunications sector with relevant system integration expertise. Projects working with industrial end users, for example, Advanced Manufacturing, Defence, Ports, and nationally significant infrastructure are also able to apply.

We also welcome integrators involved in enterprise and business IT networking deployments wanting to expand into supporting operational technology (OT) deployment using 5G technologies through a SNPN architecture.

Your project must focus on one or more of the following:

• multi-vendor system integration of Core, RAN, and hardware or software components
• interoperability and interface alignment across disaggregated network elements
• security and resilience of integrated advanced connectivity systems
• energy efficiency and performance optimisation at system level
• system architectures for industrial and infrastructure connectivity use cases
• integrate IT or OT technologies and operation using Wi-Fi or 5G
• engineering approaches that reduce deployment and procurement risk for adopters

We are not funding projects that:

• are not in scope for this competition
• focus solely on individual component development without system level integration
• do not involve multi-vendor interoperability
• do not generate reusable technical evidence or reference architectures
• are primarily focused on large scale deployment or commercial rollout

Innovate UK will hold a competition briefing on Monday 9 March at 1am: click here to register for a place. A recording will be available afterwards.

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