Innovate UK is offering grants of up to £105k to UK SMEs that can prove a new AI or machine learning mechanism works in the lab.
The Efficient, Structured and Controllable AI Systems competition has up to £1.66 million to share. It's aimed at research-heavy AI startups, deep tech SMEs and university spinouts building their own core AI technology, like new learning methods, architectures or ways to control AI agents. If you're mostly plugging existing models into a product, this one isn't for you.
Projects are short, running for one to three months, and must end with hard experimental evidence and a technical white paper. There could be a second phase for winners, although no money has been set aside for it yet.
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 apply, you must be a UK registered micro, small or medium-sized enterprise (SME). SMEs apply as a sole applicant, and you can't use subcontractors on this project.
Your organisation can only lead one application. Innovate UK is mainly looking for:
- Deep tech SMEs
- Pre-commercial companies developing their own AI technology
- Research-intensive AI startups
- University spinouts
Your Project
Your project must:
- Have total eligible costs of between £50k and £150k
- Last between one and three months
- Start by 1 April 2027 and end by 30 June 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:
- Advance by 0.5 to 1 Technology Readiness Level (TRL) during the project
- Deliver a prototype algorithm, architecture or subsystem, tested against named baselines with ablation and negative control evidence
- Fall within at least one of the four themes below, and focus on a specific priority within it
- Have a clear route to defensibility, like protectable IP, a proprietary data advantage or specialist know-how
- Have AI or ML innovation as its core technical contribution
- Produce a technical white paper and a plan for further development
- Start at TRL 1, 2 or 3
If you build on an existing frontier model, you'll need to show that your advance still matters on top of the base model.
The four themes are:
- Theme 1. Resource and data adaptive learning, like active learning, continual learning and learning from small or expensive datasets
- Theme 2. Causal and intervention grounded models, like causal representation learning, counterfactual learning and causal discovery
- Theme 3. Learned modular computation and routing, where models learn to select, combine and reuse their own internal components
- Theme 4. Geometric, equivariant and physics structured learning, which builds symmetry, relational structure or physical laws into the model
Innovate UK won't fund projects that:
- Are mainly literature reviews or requirements gathering
- Focus mainly on non-AI or non-ML research
- Focus on prompt engineering, generic agent orchestration or routine graph neural network (GNN) use
- Integrate, deploy or package existing AI tools or third-party models without new AI or ML development
- Lack a falsifiable, hypothesis-driven experiment plan with a named baseline and numeric targets
- Lack clear background IP ownership or a route to defensible foreground IP
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 £30k to £105k.
Applying as a Company
| Project Type | Micro and Small | Medium |
|---|---|---|
| Feasibility Study* | 70% | 60% |
| Industrial Research** | 70% | 60% |
*A feasibility study evaluates the potential of a project, looking at its strengths and weaknesses and the resources it needs, to support a decision on whether to take it forward.
**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 £150k of eligible project costs, you could receive a grant of £105k (70%).
You will need to fund the remaining £45k from other sources, like R&D Tax Relief, investment or loans.
Applying as a Non-Commercial Organisation
This competition only funds UK SMEs applying on their own, so universities, research organisations and charities can't take part.
How Do I Apply?
The deadline for applications is 18 November 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, but it sets up everything else. It covers:
- Application details, including your title, start date and duration
- Application team
- Project summary
- Public description
- Research category
- Scope
Most answers in this section are limited to 400 words. The scope answer can run to 800 words and matters most. If it doesn't show clearly how your project fits the competition, your application won't go to assessment.
Application Questions
There are 17 questions in total:
- Seven unscored questions covering your chosen theme, location, animal testing, permits, international collaboration, export licences and Trusted Research
- Ten scored questions covering your IP and defensibility, the need and technical plan, your approach, team, market, wider impacts, project management, risks, added value and value for money
You must include a one-page CV for each team member, a project plan and a risk register as appendices. You can also add a two-page appendix to the technical plan and approach questions.
Finances
You'll set out your project costs, organisation details and funding request.
Project Impact
This section isn't scored, but you must complete it before you can submit.
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 20 January 2027.
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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