Innovate UK and the Department for Transport are offering contracts of up to £210,000 for innovative solutions that address specific challenges facing the UK rail industry.
The First of a Kind (FOAK) 2026 competition, run through the Contracts for Innovation programme, is looking for organisations that can develop, prototype, test and demonstrate innovative solutions to eight specific rail industry challenges. Funded by the Department for Transport, the competition has a total budget of £4.3 million and expects to award up to 22 contracts.
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
You can be an organisation of any size, based in the UK, EU, EEA or internationally. This includes micro, small or medium-sized enterprises as well as larger organisations.
Contracts are awarded to a single legal entity. You can work alone or with subcontractors who provide specialist skills, but the majority of the project work and key deliverables must be completed by you and carried out in the UK.
You’re also expected to include an integration partner in your project to help facilitate the demonstration of your technology. The integration partner isn’t added to your Innovation Funding Service application but should be approached as early as possible. Your integration partner could be, for example, an owner of railway assets, an experienced railway organisation, or a rail organisation with the potential to become a customer.
Your Project
Your project must:
- have total costs of no more than £210,000, inclusive of VAT
- last between three and seven months
- start on 1 September 2026
- end by 31 March 2027
The majority of the project work and key deliverables must be carried out in the UK.
Your project must also:
- Address one or more of the eight competition challenges at Rail Industry Readiness Level (RIRL) 5 or above
- Demonstrate that your solution can be integrated into an operational or construction railway environment
- Include a demonstration event and trial in a representative railway environment
- Include a plan to commercialise your results
- include an evaluation activity measuring the anticipated impact on the railway network
- Prove the commercial benefits of your solution to railway stakeholders and customers
Innovate UK won’t fund projects that:
- Are covered by existing commercial agreements to deliver the proposed solutions
- Are not at Rail Industry Readiness Level 5 or above
- Are not likely to be successfully exploited by the rail industry to deliver benefits to rail or light rail organisations and their customers
- Are not original in scope and duplicate someone else’s work
- Are unable to deliver a demonstration event and trial within a representative environment
- Do not include an evaluation and a plan to collect information to inform a cost or benefit analysis
- Would directly duplicate other UK Government or EU funded initiatives you have already been funded to deliver
How Much Funding Can I Apply For?
This is a Contracts for Innovation competition, which means your project is funded through a procurement contract rather than a grant. Each contract is worth up to £210,000, inclusive of VAT, and covers 100% of your eligible project costs. There is no requirement for match funding.
Costs must reflect actual costs at fair market value and must not include profit. At least 50% of the contract value must be attributed directly and exclusively to R&D services, including solution exploration and design.
VAT
If you are VAT registered, you must enter your eligible project costs exclusive of VAT. VAT will be automatically calculated and added by the Innovation Funding Service. Your total eligible project costs, inclusive of VAT, must not exceed £210,000.
If you are not VAT registered, you must enter your eligible project costs exclusive of VAT and no VAT will be added. You won’t be able to increase total project costs to cover VAT later if you become VAT registered.
Subsidy Control
Contracts for Innovation competitions involve the procurement of R&D services and are not subject to subsidy control criteria. This competition is run under the Procurement Act 2023 (R&D exemption).
How Do I Apply?
The deadline for applications is 24 June 2026.
Applications are submitted via Innovate UK’s Innovation Funding Service (IFS) portal.
The application is split into four sections:
Your application will be reviewed by three independent assessors, with the support of challenge holders. Their individual scores will be combined to determine your final result.
Project Details
This section is not scored but will be used to decide whether your project fits the scope of the competition. You’ll need to provide:
- applicant location
- application details (project title, start date, duration)
- how long your organisation has been established
- public description
- short summary of your project (up to 800 words)
- who made you aware of the competition
- your organisation’s primary focus area
Most answers in this section are limited to 400 words.
Application Questions
There are 13 questions in total:
- 8 unscored questions covering topics like animal testing, challenge selection, export licences, international collaboration, permits and licences, previous applications, public synopsis, and trusted research and innovation
- 5 scored questions covering the current state of the art and intellectual property, project plan and methodology, technical team and expertise, costs and value for money, and commercial potential
You can include appendices (PDFs of up to two A4 pages) for the project plan and methodology and costs and value for money questions.
Finances
You must enter your project costs, organisation details and funding details, including your milestones with monthly completion dates.
Project Impact
This section is not scored but provides background to your project and must be completed before you can submit your application.
If you’re successful, you’ll be notified by 17 July 2026. Contracts are expected to be awarded by 31 August 2026, with projects starting from 1 September 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.
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.
