The latest grant funding opportunities for your startup or scaleup.
Spring is almost here, bringing with it timely waves of optimism and renewal. Just as daffodils and bluebells are newly abloom with vibrant colours, so are various innovation funding agencies sprouting new, game-changing grant opportunities for UK startups.
As always, the biggest and best of these opportunities are captured right here, in the latest edition of GrantTree’s Grants Watch. This instalment features:
- Evergreen schemes from the likes of Innovate UK and the European Innovaton Council (yes, UK businesses can still apply)
- Competitions for green energy innovators bringing electricity to the world
- Early-career innovators looking to fund multi-year projects
Skip the hassle - let GrantTree tell you what you're eligible for
Want to know if you should be applying? Contact GrantTree for a free, no-obligation Grants Eligibility Assessment, covering:
- Your eligibility for grant funding
- How well your project fits with open competitions
- How much funding you can apply for
- Other types of non-dilutive funding you qualify for
To book your Grants Eligibility assessment, just get in touch.
In this edition
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Canada-UK Collaborative R&D
Funding available: Up to £300,000
Deadline: 16 April 2025, 11 am
This competition offers grants of up to £300,000 to UK SMEs looking to develop innovative technologies with a partner in Canada.
Delivered by Innovate UK and the National Research Council of Canada’s Industrial Research Assistance Program (NRC IRAP), this scheme will support innovative projects from a wide range of sectors and technology areas.
To qualify, your project must:
- Last between 12-24 months
- Start by 1 September 2025
- End by 31 August 2027
Your consortium must:
- Include at least one UK-registered SME
- Include at least one Canadian-registered SMEs
Find out if you’re eligible. Request a call from a grants expert.
Contracts for Innovation: Local Partnerships Clean Energy Demonstrators
Funding available: Up to £1.5 million
Application Deadline: 30 April 2025, 11 am
This competition is looking to accelerate technologies that create new or improved clean energy access in sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia, the Indo-Pacific region or South and Central America.
Projects must promote a “just and inclusive” energy transition, where the benefits of clean electricity are felt by all.
This competition is has a lot in common with the Energy Catalyst we’ll get to later. However, this call requires projects to feature at least 3 months of demonstration and field testing with in-country users.
The competition is open to organisations of any size. You can deliver your project alone or with subcontractors that offer specialist skills.
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EIC Accelerator
Funding available: Up to €2.5 million
Deadline: None for Stage 1 applications; 12th March or 1st October 2025 for Stage 2
The EIC Accelerator offers generous grants to European SMEs (under 500 employees) developing innovative, late-stage technologies (technology readiness level – or ‘TRL’ – 5-8) with the potential to create or disrupt markets.
EIC Accelerator has two ‘strands’:
- Open – More competitive. Accepts applications from any field of technology.
- Challenges – Less competitive. Funds projects that address pre-defined areas of innovation, such as generative AI and space infrastructure.
You can apply to either strand at any time. If you make it past Stage 1 (a short proposal, pitch deck and 3-minute video), you’ll be invited to submit a full application at Stage 2, which has two deadlines each year.
You don’t need to be working with a company from another European country to apply for EIC.
As the name suggests, this call is funded and run by the European Innovation Council, Europe’s flagship innovation programme supporting high-potential technologies. The EIC was established under Horizon Europe, the EU’s primary innovation funding agency.
Find out if you’re eligible for the EIC Accelerator. Request your Grants Eligibility Assessment.
EIC Pathfinder
Funding available: Up to €4 million
Deadline: 21 May 2025 / 29 October 2025
The EIC Pathfinder offers grants to accelerate ambitious, early-stage (TRL 1-4) projects that:
- Hinge on high-risk/high-reward research
- Could unleash a radical new technology with the potential to create new markets and solve global challenges
Like Accelerator, EIC Pathfinder has both an Open and a Challenge strand.
EIC Pathfinder Open offers grants of up to €3 million and supports groups featuring at least three organisations from different countries. It’s open until 21 May 2025.
EIC Pathfinder Challenges offers grants of up to €4 million open to single applicants whose innovation aligns with specific themes. Applications for the Challenges strand close on 29 October 2025.
Find out if you’re eligible for the EIC Pathfinder. Request a Grants Eligibility Assessment.
EIC Transition
Funding available: Up to €2.5 million
Deadline: 17 September 2025
EIC Transition supports the evolution of technologies “from lab to market”, offering sizable grants to both single applicants and consortia that are looking to validate and develop business plans for emerging innovations (TRL 3-6).
The ‘Transition’ refers to this call’s role in maturing projects that have received funding from the EIC Pathfinder or similar early-stage schemes to the point where they’re ready for the EIC Accelerator and other late-stage funding.
This €98 million call is open to innovations from all fields of science and technology. However, to apply for EIC Transition, you need to have already won funding for your project from one of the following schemes:
- EIC Pathfinder
- European Research Council Proof of Concept
- Research and Innovation Actions
- European Defence Fund (EDF)
Large companies with 500 or more employees cannot apply for EIC Transition.
Find out if you’re eligible for the EIC Transition. Request an eligibility assessment.
Energy Catalyst Round 11
Funding available: Up to £1.5 million
Deadline: 30 April 2025, 11 am
This competition is looking to fund projects that will create new or improved clean energy access in sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia or Indo-Pacific regions.
This competition has two strands.
- Early-stage: £50,000 – £300,000 in funding, projects 6-12 months long
- Mid-stage: £50,000 – £1.5 million, projects 6-19 months long
The competition provides 50%-70% of project funding, depending on your company’s size.
To qualify, you must:
- Include at least one SME from anywhere in the world
- Have at least one international partner
- Partner with a UK administrative lead if you’re based outside the UK
Find out if you’re eligible. Request a Grants Eligibility Assessment.
Future Leaders Fellowships: Round 10
Funding available: Up to £3 million
Deadline: 5 November 2025, 11 am
This UKRI-funded programme offers large grants – covering up to four years of project work – to early-career innovators looking to tackle difficult and novel challenges.
The competition is designed to support excellence in innovation and develop the next generation of research and innovation leaders.
Highlights:
- Up to four years of project work funded
- Applicants can apply from any sector
- Open to people working at a range of non-academic organisations, including businesses, catapults and charities
If you’re applying from an eligible research organisation, you need to apply through the UKRI Funding Service.
Innovation Loans, Round 20
Funding available: Up to £2 million
Deadline: 5 March 2025, 11 am
This under-utilised Innovate UK scheme provides large loans with attractive terms to SMEs looking to take late-stage R&D to market.
Highlights:
- £100,000 – £2 million available
- Interest rate of 7.4%, 3.7% of which is payable during project execution
- Loans cover up to 100% of project costs, more than most grants
- The bar for qualifying innovation is lower, making them more accessible than some grants
To apply, you need to be:
- A UK-registered SME
- Suitable for a business loan
- Unable to secure sufficient private funding
Innovation Loans are particularly good for startups and scaleups that are looking to develop projects that previously received grant funding.
They are also useful for companies in the market for equity funding but want to commercialise their project before fundraising to secure capital on better terms.
Let GrantTree find you funding
Looking for grant funding? GrantTree can help.
Our experts can tell you exactly what competitions you should be applying for
We’ll also explain what other non-equity funding you’re eligible for – such as R&D Tax Credits – so you can secure the capital you need to grow.
To set up a call with one of our funding experts, just get in touch.
