Innovate UK has opened a £14.3 million competition to get quantum sensing and quantum navigation technology out of the lab and into the hands of real customers.
This one isn't about inventing something new. It's about taking a quantum sensor, clock or navigation system that already works and knocking down whatever is stopping a customer from buying it. That might be cost, size, ruggedness, integration with existing kit, or simply that nobody has proved it works outside a controlled environment.
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
To lead a project, you must be a UK registered business of any size. Academic institutions can take part but they can't lead.
Your consortium must include at least one UK registered micro, small or medium-sized enterprise claiming grant funding. This is a collaborative competition, so you can't apply on your own.
You can work with the following as collaborators:
- Academic institutions
- Charities
- Not-for-profit organisations
- Public sector organisations
- Research and technology organisations (RTOs)
- UK registered businesses of any size
You can lead only one application, but you can also be a collaborator in up to two others. No single organisation can claim more than 70% of total project costs, or request more than £3 million in grant.
Your Project
Your project must:
- Have total grant funding of between £1 million and £3 million
- Last between 12 and 24 months
- Start by 1 December 2026 and end by 30 November 2028
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:
- Be an industrial research project
- Deliver an innovative and competitive solution to that barrier, and show it is both feasible and commercially viable
- Focus on one of three themes: quantum enabled sensing for healthcare, quantum enabled PNT, or quantum enabled sensing for transport, telecoms, energy or defence
- Identify one or more specific barriers stopping a customer adopting a specific quantum technology in a specific use case
- Use second generation quantum technology, meaning the generation and coherent control of quantum states producing effects like superposition or entanglement. Single photon generation and detection counts as in scope
Innovate UK wants to see field trials, proof of concept demonstrations and other work that puts the technology in front of an end user. Those activities should be the main point of your project, not an afterthought bolted onto the technical development. Projects that co-develop the solution with an end user, integrate it with existing platforms and workflows, or deploy it in a genuinely challenging operational setting will land best.
Innovate UK won't fund projects that:
- Are already covered by an existing commercial agreement, including UK Government or international initiatives
- Don't aim to accelerate the adoption of quantum technologies
- Don't focus on a specific quantum enabled sensing or PNT technology
- Don't identify a specific barrier to adoption for a specific use case
- Don't use second generation quantum technologies
- Duplicate someone else's work rather than being original in scope
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 range from £1 million to £3 million.
Applying as a Company
| Project Type | Micro and Small | Medium | Large |
|---|---|---|---|
| Percentage of Costs Covered* | 70% | 60% | 50% |
*Industrial research refers to planned research aimed at acquiring new knowledge for developing new products, processes, or services.
Funding Example
If you're a small company with eligible project costs of £2 million, you can claim 70% of those costs. That's a grant of £1.4 million. You will need to fund the remaining £600,000 from other sources, like R&D Tax Relief, investment or loans.
Applying as a Non-Commercial Organisation
Research organisations carrying out non-economic activity can share up to 30% of the total eligible project costs between them, and are funded at higher rates:
- Up to 100% of eligible costs if you are a charity, not-for-profit, public sector organisation, research organisation, or RTO
- Up to 80% of full economic costs (FEC) if you're a Je-S-registered institution, like a university
How Do I Apply?
The deadline for applications is 16 September 2026.
Applications are submitted via Innovate UK's Innovation Funding Service (IFS) portal.
The application is split into four sections:
Project Details
This section isn't scored. It covers:
- Application team
- Application questions
- Project summary
- Public description
- Scope
Most answers in this section are limited to 400 words.
Application Questions
There are 17 questions in total:
- Seven unscored administrative questions covering topics like applicant location, animal testing, permits and licences, international collaboration, export licences, trusted research and innovation, and which theme you're applying under
- Ten scored questions covering your need or challenge, approach and innovation, team and resources, market awareness, outcomes and route to market, wider impacts, project management, risks, added value, and costs and value for money
You can include appendices (PDFs of up to two A4 pages) for the approach, team, project management, and risk questions. The project plan or Gantt chart and the risk register are both required as appendices.
Finances
Each organisation in your consortium enters its own project costs and funding details here.
Project Impact
This section isn't scored and captures the expected economic, social and environmental impact of your project.
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 15 October 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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