UK registered organisations can apply for a share of up to £3 million for innovative projects in quantum technologies. This funding is from Innovate UK, part of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI). The aim of this competition is to strengthen collaborative research and development towards commercialising quantum technologies, through German and UK partnerships.
Your proposal must plausibly demonstrate co-innovation, high potential for commercialisation, address a technological challenge and global market exploitation plan.
UK registered businesses must collaborate with at least one German based business, applying under the equivalent Federal Ministry of Technology, Research and Space (BMFTR), which must be a separate legal entity, not linked to the UK partners.
UK registered organisations must apply through the Innovation Funding Service (IFS) for funding from Innovate UK. Your Germany based partner will not receive any funding from Innovate UK. Germany based partners must apply to, and will be funded by, BMFTR for the German component of the project set out in this application.
The maximum grant funding request for German partners is expected to be the euro equivalent of the UK maximum grant of £1 million. In exceptional cases, higher amounts may be agreed in advance with the German funder.
The project must be independently selected by both Innovate UK and BMFTR to be awarded funding.
Our experience from similar competitions suggests that you could have 30% chance of success.
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To lead a collaborative project and start an application on IFS your organisation must be a UK registered business of any size.
You must work with at least one German registered business applying for German Federal Ministry of Technology, Research and Space (BMFTR) funding, which must be a separate legal entity from UK partners.
To collaborate with the lead, your organisation must be one of the following UK registered:
- business of any size
- academic institution
- research and technology organisation (RTO)
A UK business can only lead on one application but can be included as a collaborator in one further application. If more than one application is submitted with the same UK business as lead, only the first application will be progressed.
A UK business that is not leading an application can collaborate on a maximum of two applications. If more than two applications are submitted with the same UK business as collaborator, only the first two applications will be progressed, and any subsequent applications will be deemed ineligible.
Academic institutions or RTOs can collaborate in any number of applications subject to the availability of their respective resources and capacities.
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Your project must:
- have a grant funding request of between £750,000 and £1 million allocated to UK organisations
- last between 18 and 24 months
- start on 1 November 2026
- end by 31 October 2028
The majority of the project work must be undertaken in the UK and Germany. UK project partners must carry out their project work in the UK and intend to exploit the results from or in the UK.
The consortium must include one business registered in Germany as project co-lead that is a separate legal entity and not linked to the UK partners. This is to ensure that projects encourage genuine international collaboration, not internal company research. Linked companies are considered a single entity under the parent company.
Your project must demonstrate a balanced technological contribution by the participants from both countries and must be equally significant to all participants.
No one country or project partner can represent more than 70% of the total project cost.
Your proposal must demonstrate a clear intention to commercially exploit the results of the project domestically or globally.
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The aim of this competition is to strengthen collaborative research and development towards commercialising quantum technologies, through German and UK partnerships.
Your proposal must plausibly demonstrate co-innovation, high potential for commercialisation, address a technological challenge and global market exploitation plan.
The co-innovation project must focus on development, prototyping and testing of commercial quantum technologies in one or more of the following themes:
- technologies, for example, qubit processor, switching, networking or control systems, to scale practical quantum computing
- commercial quantum computing software solutions and services
- industrial products, processes, or services to advance scalable solutions, for example, chip scale quantum, photonic and optoelectronic systems for applied quantum technologies
- quantum sensing for applications such as clocks, industrial instrumentation, clinical devices, imaging, resource mapping, geological or oceanographic survey applications
We are not funding projects that are:
- market research, road mapping or landscape studies
- not covered by any of the four specific themes and not focussed on advancing the commercial use of second generation quantum technologies
For the purpose of this competition, second generation quantum technologies exploit superposition and entanglement phenomena in applications.
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If you would like to find a collaboration partner, contact Innovate UK Business Connect’s Quantum team or Global Alliance team.
Innovate UK's application and funding process
If you need more information about how to apply, please read our funding support pages. For additional support, reach out to our team of innovation experts who are ready to help you navigate the application process and maximise your chances of success.
For more information
Accessibility and Inclusion
Innovate UK welcome and encourage applications from people of all backgrounds and are committed to making our application process accessible to everyone. This includes making reasonable adjustments, for people who have a disability or a long-term condition and face barriers applying to us.