UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), in partnership with the Department for Education, is offering up to £500,000 to fund organisations developing innovative interventions, technologies, and frameworks that support children and families experiencing homelessness.
Children and families in temporary or insecure accommodation face disrupted routines, fragmented services, and limited access to spaces and resources that support learning. This competition is looking for evidence-informed solutions that improve home learning environments, educational outcomes, and wider wellbeing for these families.
Below, I have explained the key things you need to know about this competition before you apply: who is eligible, how much funding is on the table, and what the application process looks like.
Find Out if You're Eligible Now
To find out if you and your project are suitable for this grant, book in a free Competitiveness and Eligibility Assessment. In just 25 minutes, I’ll tell you:
- Whether you’re a strong candidate for this competition
- Other grants you may be eligible for
- What other sources of funding we can help you secure
Never Miss a Funding Opportunity
New grant competitions are opening all the time. Make sure you don’t miss out by subscribing to GrantTree’s newsletter.
Who is Eligible?
Your Organisation
To lead a project, you can be an organisation of any size, including those based in the EU, EEA, or internationally. Contracts will be awarded to a single legal entity, so you cannot apply as a consortium. You can, however, subcontract specialist skills and expertise from business, research organisations, research and technology organisations (RTOs), or the third sector, including charities, social enterprises, and voluntary groups.
The majority of the project work and key deliverables must be completed by you, the applicant, and must be carried out in the UK.
Your Project
Your project must:
- Start on 1 September 2026
- End on 31 August 2027
- Have total eligible costs of between £200,000 and £500,000, inclusive of VAT
- Last 12 months
At least 50% of the contract value must be attributed directly and exclusively to research and development activities, including solution exploration, design, prototyping, and field testing. All funded work must be carried out in the UK, and UK families must be your direct or indirect beneficiaries.
Your project must also:
- Demonstrate a credible and practical route to market, with plans to commercialise or embed the solution within existing systems or services
- Develop a tangible output, like a product, tool, framework, service model, or platform, rather than purely conceptual work
- Have a clear theory of change showing how the solution will improve children’s learning or development outcomes
- Have a clearly identified target audience with an evidenced rationale for why this group needs the proposed solution
- Have a robust monitoring and evaluation plan to measure impact on educational or development outcomes
- Have strong safeguarding plans and protocols when working with children and families
- include established partnerships for effective testing, delivery, spreading, and scaling within the contracted period, where required
- Show readiness to work with delivery partners, including public services, education, or housing organisations
Innovate UK won’t fund projects that:
- Are covered by existing commercial agreements to deliver the proposed solutions
- Don’t have UK families as their direct or indirect beneficiaries
- Duplicate other UK Government or EU-funded initiatives you’ve already received funding to deliver
- Aren’t original in scope or duplicate someone else’s work
How Much Funding Can I Apply For?
This is a Contracts for Innovation competition, so successful applicants receive a procurement contract rather than a grant. Contracts are 100% funded, with no match funding required.
Individual contracts range from £200,000 to £500,000, inclusive of VAT. The total funding pot for this phase is £2 million, and UKRI expects to award up to 10 contracts.
Payments are made monthly in arrears against agreed milestones, so you’ll need to manage cashflow throughout the project. You must submit invoices within 30 days of the end of each monthly monitoring period for all completed milestones.
VAT and Cost Eligibility
If you’re VAT registered, you must enter your eligible project costs exclusive of VAT and VAT will be calculated automatically. Your total eligible costs inclusive of VAT cannot exceed £500,000.
If you’re not VAT registered, you must enter your costs exclusive of VAT and no VAT will be added. You can’t increase total project costs to cover VAT later if you become VAT registered during the project.
All costs must reflect actual costs at fair market value and cannot include profit. Full Economic Cost (FEC) calculations don’t apply to Contracts for Innovation competitions.
Phase 2 Potential
This is phase 1 of a potential three-phase competition. Only successful phase 1 applicants will be invited to apply for phase 2, which will support real world implementation and testing. Progression to phase 2 isn’t guaranteed and depends on phase 1 outcomes and the availability of funding.
How Do I Apply?
The deadline for applications is 8 July 2026.
Applications are submitted via Innovate UK’s Innovation Funding Service (IFS) portal.
The application is split into four sections:
Project Details
This section provides background for your application and is not scored. You’ll need to provide:
- A project and scope summary, explaining what makes your project innovative and how it tackles the challenge
- A public description of your project that UKRI can publish if your application is successful
- Basic application details, including project title, start date, and duration
- Details on how long your organisation has been established and its primary focus area
- The name and full registered address of your organisation and any subcontractors
Most answers in this section are limited to 400 words, with the project and scope summary allowing up to 800 words.
Application Questions
There are 12 questions in total:
- 5 unscored questions covering animal testing, permits and licences, international collaboration, export licences, and Trusted Research and Innovation principles
- 7 scored questions covering your proposed idea, technical approach, current state of the art and IP, project plan, technical team, costs and value for money, and commercial potential
You can include appendices (PDFs of up to two A4 pages) for the proposed idea, project plan, and costs questions. You must not include any website addresses or URLs in your answers, as these won’t be viewed or opened.
Finances
Enter your phase 1 project costs, organisation details, and funding details, including all milestones with monthly completion dates and clear deliverables.
Project Impact
This section is not scored but you must complete it before submitting your application.
Your application will be reviewed by three independent assessors. Their individual scores will be combined to determine your final result.
If you’re successful, you’ll be notified by 11 August 2026, with contracts awarded the same day.
Like with most competitions, Innovate UK takes a ‘portfolio approach’ by funding projects across different technologies, markets and technological maturities. This means that a strong score won’t necessarily guarantee that your application will be successful.
Maximise Your Chances of Securing Funding
GrantTree has 15 years of experience helping startups, scaleups and established businesses secure over £500 million in innovation funding.
We offer Full Service Write, Grant Review and Grant Matching, plus our bespoke Elevate package, which combines writing, review, coaching and matching to maximise your chances of success.
We work closely with active Innovate UK assessors to understand exactly what it takes to prepare a compelling application.
To find out how we can help, just get in touch.
