Innovate UK’s Sovereign AI call offers significant grants to businesses looking to validate early-stage AI technologies.
Closing on 10 September, this grant competition is designed to support the UK’s AI sovereignty objectives by funding projects that can deliver one or more of the following:
- Proof of concept of architecture or subsystem component
- Technical validation of the capability of a system or subsystem component
- Frontier AI performance that delivers new capabilities or states of performance
- Ability of architecture and business model to scale
- Demonstrate a clear path for access to data
- Demonstrate a strategy to access compute infrastructure and quantify requirement for compute
Below are the key things you need to know about this competition, including who’s eligible, how much funding you can apply for, and how to submit an application.
Want to know whether you’re eligible? Book a free Eligibility and Competitiveness Assessment. In just 30 minutes, my colleagues and I will tell you:
- Whether you’re eligible (and if not, why not)
- What we judge to be your chances of success
- What other grants and funding you’re eligible for
Who is Eligible for the Sovereign AI competition?
As with most grants, the eligibility criteria for the Sovereign AI competition relate to both your company and your project.
Your company
To qualify for the Sovereign AI call, your company must:
- Be registered in the UK
- Carry out all of your project work in the UK
- Intend to exploit the results of your project in the UK
Your project
Meanwhile, your project must:
- Have total costs of between £50,00 and £120,000
- Last 1 to 3 months
- Start by 1 January 2026
- End by 31 March 2026
It must also look to deliver one of the outcomes listed in this blog’s introduction, and focus on specific areas within the competition’s general themes: Fundamental AI research; AI for materials discovery; AI for biosciences and health; AI for defence and national security; or AI-aided design (see here for more detail).
How much funding can I apply for?
You can secure up to £84,000 in grant funding through this competition, for projects costing up to £120,000.
The exact amount you can apply for depends on your company’s size and the cost of your project.
| Company Size | Micro/Small | Medium-Sized | Large |
|---|---|---|---|
| Percentage of costs you can apply for | 70% | 60% | 50% |
The remainder must be financed by revenues, outside investment, or other sources of funding such as R&D Tax Relief.
Here’s the definition of micro, small, medium and large for grant purposes.
How do I apply for the Sovereign AI grant?
The application for the Sovereign AI grant has four sections:
- Project details – Unscored, provides your assessors with a background to your project
- Application questions – 15 questions, the last 10 of which are scored. It also includes appendices
- Finances – Where you break down your project costs
- Project Impact – Not scored, where you describe the potential impact of your project on your company, sector and the wider world
Applications are submitted to the Innovation Funding Services (IFS) portal.
Thinking about applying? Check out our exclusive guide containing five expert tips for winning Innovate UK grants.
Secure transformative funding with GrantTree
The Sovereign AI competition is an excellent opportunity for artificial intelligence innovators to secure funding for early-stage R&D.
While highly targeted, this call is bound to be deeply competitive, with only a small fraction of applicants receiving funding for their projects.
GrantTree’s innovation grants experts can maximise your chances of success.
Leveraging their unmatched experience, which has connected companies with over £500 million in funding, our team can ensure you put forward the strongest possible application, standing out from the crowd.
To get expert help with an application – or a free, no-obligation assessment of your eligibility and suitability for Sovereign AI – just get in touch.
