Register for this scheme
Innovate UK, part of UK Research and Innovation, is investing up to £15 million in the best game changing and world leading ideas, designed for swift, successful commercialisation.
Innovate UK’s Smart grants programme is intrinsically positioned, by design, as a focused and uniquely differentiated product to support and propel the government’s five key missions:
- driving economic growth
- advancing clean energy
- enhancing public safety
- expanding opportunities
- strengthening healthcare
Smart grants enable UK businesses to lead the way in solving the most pressing challenges and ensuring a prosperous future for the UK. By fostering cutting edge projects showing the highest potential return based on evidence, Smart grants also play an important part in helping to create substantial economic impact and drives productivity improvements across the UK, ensuring that growth benefits all regions.
This competition has a focused scope and eligibility criteria to support micro, small or medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and their partners in developing genuinely new innovations with significant potential for rapid economic return to the UK. The application process reflects the importance of obtaining economic benefits from public funding, and the potential for successful commercialisation, growth, and exports.
Proposals must be business focused and show deliverable, realistic, adequately resourced plans to achieve return on investment, growth and market share, following project completion.
Applications can come from any area of technology and be applied to any part of the economy.
In applying to this competition, you are entering into a competitive process.
This competition has a funding limit, so we may not be able to fund all the proposed projects. It may be the case that your project scores highly but we are still unable to fund it.
The total budget will be divided between the two competition streams, see ‘project size’ for more details.
Eligibility summary
This competition is open to single applicants and collaborations.
To lead a project your organisation must:
- be a UK registered business of any size
- be a UK registered research and technology organisation
- carry out all your R&D project activity in the UK
- intend to commercially exploit the project results from the UK
You must be or involve at least one grant claiming micro, small or medium-sized enterprise.
Dates
14 November 2024 Competition opens
21 November 2024 Online briefing event at 11.30am: join here
Briefing slides will be available to download from supporting information after the event
22 January 2024 11:00am Competition closes
28 March 2025 Applicants notified