UK registered businesses can apply for a share of up to £600,000 for innovative projects in quantum technologies. You must collaborate with a testbed provider in UK or Netherlands, and at least one Netherlands based business partner applying under the equivalent Netherlands Enterprise Agency (RVO) programme.
We reserve the right to adjust funding allocations for any of our competitions under exceptional circumstances, for example, in response to changes in policy, portfolio funding considerations, or broader government funding decisions.
The aim of this competition is to strengthen collaborative research and development (CR&D) through Netherlands and UK partnerships towards commercialising quantum technologies.
Your proposal must plausibly demonstrate co-innovation, high potential for commercialisation, address a technological challenge and global market exploitation plan. In applying for this public funding, you are entering into a competitive process.
UK registered businesses must collaborate with at least one Netherlands based business, which must be a separate legal entity, not linked to the UK partners applying under the equivalent RVO programme.
UK registered organisations must apply through the Innovation Funding Service (IFS) portal to Innovate UK. Your Netherlands based partner will not receive any funding from Innovate UK. Netherlands based partners must apply to and will be funded by RVO for the Netherlands component of the project set out in this application. No one country or project partner can represent more than 70% of the total project cost.
The project must be independently selected by both Innovate UK and RVO to be awarded funding.
Our experience from similar competitions suggests that you could have a 30% chance of success.
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Your organisation must be a UK registered business of any size.
You must work with at least one Netherlands registered business applying for Netherlands Enterprise Agency (RVO) funding, which must be a separate legal entity from UK partners.
No one country or project partner can represent more than 70% of the total project cost.
You can additionally collaborate with UK partners. To collaborate with the lead, your organisation must be one of the following UK registered:
- business of any size
- academic institution
- public sector organisation
- research and technology organisation (RTO)
Only UK registered partners must be listed in the Project Partner section of your application on the Innovation Funding Service (IFS).
Your project can include non-UK partners, including partners based in the EU, who bring their own funding. Non-UK partners are permitted to carry out project work from within their home countries and exploit results overseas. Their costs will count towards the total eligible project costs.
Subcontractors are allowed in this competition, but they are limited to no more than 20% of the total eligible costs of the UK participation.
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Your project must:
- have a grant funding request of between £150,000 and £300,000 allocated to UK organisations
- have a grant funding request of no more than €300,000 allocated to eligible Netherlands based organisations
- access a testbed (development platforms) hosted at a UK or Netherlands National Lab, RTO or University to test, benchmark or develop your quantum technology solution or application
- start by 1 February 2026
- end by 29 February 2028
- last between 18 and 24 months
The majority of the project work must be undertaken in the UK and Netherlands. UK project partners must carry out the majority of 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 Netherlands 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 (CR&D) through Netherlands based and UK partnerships towards commercialising quantum technologies.
The co-innovation project must focus on development, prototyping and testing of commercial quantum technologies in one or more of the following themes:
- Software services or hardware solutions to advance commercial deployment of entanglement based quantum networking.
- Quantum computing algorithms, software applications, and services development.
- Adoption of quantum sensing for commercial applications in areas such as biosensing, public infrastructure and PNT.
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Innovate UK will hold an online briefing via Zoom on Monday 22 September at noon: click here to register for a place.
If you would like help to find a collaboration partner, contact Innovate UK Business Connect’s Quantum 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.