This competition is open to single applicants (note that only SMEs may apply as single applicants) and collaborations.

To lead a collaborative project 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

To work alone your organisation must be a UK registered micro, small or medium sized enterprise (SME).

The consortium must contain at least one UK registered SME claiming grant funding on this application.

If the lead organisation is an RTO it must collaborate with two businesses (one SME, and one business of any size).

To collaborate with the lead, your organisation must be one of the following UK registered:

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

In any collaborative project, you must ensure that no single partner accounts for more than £3 million, or 70% of the total eligible costs, whichever is lower.

Number of applications

As we are encouraging the use of national testbeds, we understand that these organisations may be included in multiple projects. In this specific case, involvement in multiple projects is accepted.

However, if testbeds are involved in more than one application, you must clearly state how all projects can be resourced and delivered if successful. You may be asked for further evidence of your resources.

If Innovate UK have concerns about your ability to deliver multiple projects successfully, we reserve the right to award funding based on evidence of your capacity to manage them.

If you are involved in other Innovate UK funded projects, you must show you have the resources in place to deliver further projects funded by this Advanced Connectivity Technologies (ACT) competition.

Your project must:

• have a grant funding request between £200,000 and £5 million
• last between 3 to 24 months
• start by 1 September 2026
• end by 31 August 2028

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.

In any collaborative project, you must ensure that no single partner accounts for more than £3 million, or 70% of the total eligible costs, whichever is lower.

We are not funding projects that are:

• purely research focused with no realistic commercial opportunity
• aimed at commercialising or exploiting the technology outside the UK

The aim of this competition is to accelerate the development, demonstration, and commercialisation of next‑generation communications technologies that strengthen the UK’s security, resilience, sustainability, and long‑term competitiveness.

The Advanced Connectivity Technology (ACT) R&D Programme aims to accelerate the development, demonstration, and commercialisation of next generation communications technologies that strengthen the UK’s security, resilience, sustainability, and long‑term competitiveness.

This CR&D competition invites proposals addressing one of three challenge areas, each aligned to the UK’s overarching ACT Grand Challenges and the Integrated Security Fund (ISF) funded priority on sovereign telecoms components.

The three challenge areas are:

1. Grand Challenge 1: Secure and Resilient Networks
2. Grand Challenge 2: Sustainable Networks
3. ISF Strategic Focus: Sovereign Telecoms Components and Applications

Across all categories, your proposal must demonstrate:

• measurable improvements against relevant performance metrics
• a credible integration route into real world platforms, networks or systems
• a clear pathway to commercial adoption and long term UK strategic impact

Your project must focus on one of the three challenge areas for this competition:

1. Secure and Resilient Networks

Projects in this category must contribute to a demonstrable improvement in the security, reliability, and robustness of UK connectivity infrastructure.

Projects may include innovations that:

• remain operational during faults, attacks and environmental shocks, as well as overload conditions caused by direct network attacks, with rapid, automated recovery
• embed security, provenance and zero trust principles by design across hardware, software and operations, especially full system management and integration
• integrate terrestrial and non-terrestrial networks to provide resilient coverage and failover
• demonstrate spectrum resilience, interference tolerance and secure operation in contested environments
• contribute directly to international standards and position UK developed technologies within global supply chains
• sense current and latent network demand in real time, identifying and executing configurable adaptations in real time

2. Sustainable Networks

This category supports innovations that enable more energy efficient and spectrum efficient networks.

Projects may include:

• dramatically reduce energy use per bit through system level design, not incremental optimisation
• use spectrum more efficiently and dynamically, including through sharing and adaptive reconfiguration
• integrate renewable energy, demand responsive operation and thermal efficiency at network and site level
• embed circular economy principles, lifecycle measurement and design for reuse and recyclability
• support shared and neutral host infrastructure models that lower cost and environmental impact

The Integrated Security Fund (ISF) aligned category focuses on developing sovereign UK capability in critical telecoms hardware and sensing technologies, with an emphasis on advanced Radio Frequency (RF) and integrated sensing and communications (ISAC) systems that strengthen national resilience. Projects should demonstrate components with dual civil and defence applications to enhance the UK’s technological advantage. Projects should be aimed at reinforcing the UK telecoms industrial base and support sovereign production, manufacturing scale up, and greater strategic autonomy.

Projects should address one of the following themes:

Theme A: Assured ISAC Systems and Integration

This includes the following:

• assured ISAC architectures with resilience to interference, spoofing, or degradation
• data fusion and correlation across multiple RF and non-RF sources
• integration of ISAC functions into existing capabilities and platforms
• ad-hoc and self forming ISAC networking, particularly where fixed infrastructure is unavailable

Theme B: Advanced RF Architectures & Components

This includes the following:

• reconfigurable antenna arrays that switch between communications and sensing modes
• multifunction RF front ends that reduce platform cost by replacing multiple discrete subsystems
• programmable metasurfaces that adapt beam patterns or spectral behaviour in response to environment or mission needs
• adaptive electromagnetic (EM) control techniques demonstrated in hardware, not just simulation

Theme C: RF enabled Applications with Civil Pull

This includes the following:

• the use of ambient RF emissions to support drone or object detection in regulated civil airspace
• RF based tracking approaches to improve safety of vulnerable individuals or assets
• monitoring applications that leverage existing telecoms infrastructure rather than bespoke deployments

Innovate UK will hold an online briefing on Thursday 9 April. A recording and slides will be available afterwards.

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