Innovate UK has opened a £15 million round of Investor Partnerships for UK SMEs working on advanced connectivity or semiconductors, with grants of up to £900,000 available alongside private investment.
This one works differently from most Innovate UK competitions. You cannot put yourself forward. An investor partner has to invite you and submit an expression of interest before you can start an application, so the opening move is a conversation with your investor rather than a form.
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.
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Who is Eligible?
Your Organisation
You must be a UK registered micro, small or medium-sized enterprise (SME). This competition funds single applicants only, so you cannot lead a collaborative project or bring in collaborators.
You also need an investor partner behind you. Innovate UK publishes the list of approved investor partners, and one of them has to invite you and submit an expression of interest before you can start an application. You need to have discussed and agreed the proposal with them first.
The investment has to be real money on the table alongside the grant. For industrial research, the aligned investment your partner leads must at least match the grant. For experimental development, it must be at least twice the grant.
You can only submit one application per round.
Your Project
Your project must:
- Have total costs between £250,000 and £1 million for industrial research, or between £500,000 and £2 million for experimental development
- Last between 6 and 18 months
- Start on the first of a month, and no later than 1 February 2027
All funded work must be carried out in the UK, and you must intend to exploit the project results from or within the UK.
Your project must also:
- Demonstrate the potential to grow and scale your business
- Fit one of three themes: advanced connectivity technologies, semiconductors including AI hardware, or the convergence of the two
- Sit inside your growth plan rather than off to one side of it
Innovate UK won't fund projects that:
- Are collaborative research and development
- Are large capital infrastructure
- Depend on export performance, or on using domestic goods over imported ones
- Sit outside your company growth plans
You also cannot apply if you owe money to Innovate UK, if you failed to exploit a previous project, or if an independent accountant report is overdue.
How Much Funding Can I Apply For?
The amount you can claim depends on your organisation's type and size and the sort of research your project involves.
Individual grants go up to £900,000.
Applying as a Company
| Project Type | Micro and Small | Medium |
|---|---|---|
| Industrial Research* | 70% | 60% |
| Experimental Development** | 45% | 35% |
*Industrial research refers to planned research aimed at acquiring new knowledge for developing new products, processes, or services.
**Experimental development is closer to market. It involves using existing knowledge to develop or improve products, processes, or services.
Funding Example
A small company runs an experimental development project with £2 million of eligible costs. At 45%, the grant is £900,000. You will need to fund the remaining £1.1 million from other sources, like R&D Tax Relief, investment or loans.
Applying as a Non-Commercial Organisation
You cannot. This round is open to UK registered SMEs applying on their own, so there is no route in for universities, research organisations, charities or public sector bodies, either as a lead or as a collaborator.
How Do I Apply?
The deadline for applications is 14 October 2026.
Applications are submitted via Innovate UK's Innovation Funding Service (IFS) portal.
The application is split into 4 sections:
Project Details
This section is not scored. It covers the administrative basics of your application and how your project fits the competition scope.
Application Questions
There are 18 questions in total:
- Eight unscored questions covering administrative topics
- Ten scored questions that the assessors use to judge your application
Answers are limited to 400 words. You can include appendices as PDFs of up to two A4 pages and 10MB, and they need to be legible at 100% zoom.
Finances
You enter your project costs here, and Innovate UK checks them against the funding rules for your organisation size and research category.
Project Impact
This section is not scored. It captures the impact you expect your project to have.
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 16 November 2026.
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.
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