The latest grant opportunities for UK businesses and research organisations.
Think you might be eligible for grant funding? Struggling to keep up with which competitions might be relevant to your organisation? You’ve come to the right place.
Curated by GrantTree’s funding experts, Grants Watch recaps the latest and greatest funding calls for UK innovators, so you can focus on growing your business.
Not sure what to apply for? I’ll tell you.
Finding relevant grants can be tricky. As can knowing whether you’re eligible and, more importantly, actually stand a chance of winning. I can help.
Book a free Eligibility and Competitiveness Assessment with me, and in less than 30 minutes, I’ll tell you:
- What grants you’re eligible for
- Which ones you have the best chance of winning
- What other types of government funding you’re eligible for
Most competitions are only open for a short time. And writing a competitive application takes weeks. So, if you see any calls that suit your R&D, make sure you book your assessment as soon as possible.
Contents
- Adopt Facilitator Support Grant: Round 4
- Canada-UK Semiconductors
- Contracts for Innovation: Quantum Technologies for Transport
- DRIVE35 Innovation Fund
- DRIVE35 Scale-Up Fund
- EIC Accelerator
- EIC Pathfinder
- European Space Agency Competitions
- Farming Innovation Programme: Small R&D Partnership Projects
- Full ADOPT Grant Round 3
- Future Leaders Fellowships: Round 10
- Hydrogen Innovation Initiative Demonstrations 2025-26
- Innovation Loans
- NIHR Work and Health Research Awards Round
- Obesity Pathway Innovation Programme (OPIP)
- Ofgem Strategic Innovation Fund
- Resource efficiency for resilience and sustainability FS
- UK-Netherlands Co-Innovation and Testbeds Pilot for Quantum Tech
Adopt Facilitator Support Grant: Round 4
Maximum Award: £2,500
Deadline: 15 October at 11 am
Sectors: Farming, forestry, growing
This Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) competition will support farmers, growers and foresters based in England to test and trial new on-farm solutions and get ready to apply for a Full ADOPT grant.
Grants Eligibility Quiz
Find out if you’re eligible for a game-changing innovation grant by answering these eight simple questions.
Canada-UK Semiconductors
Maximum Award: £500,000
Deadline: 15 October at 11 am
Sectors: Semiconductors
This Innovate UK competition is open to UK companies looking to collaborate with their Canadian counterparts on semiconductor R&D. To qualify, your transatlantic partnership must aim to develop novel products, processes or technology-based services.
Contracts for Innovation: Quantum Technologies for Transport
Maximum Award: £40,000
Deadline: 15 October at 11 am
Sectors: Quantum Computing
Innovate UK and the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) are pairing up to support R&D for quantum sensing technologies that can solve transport challenges. Specifically, the efficiency of transport and the resilience of critical infrastructure.
This is set to be a two-phase competition, with the winners of this first phase invited to the second. The Contracts for Innovation scheme replaced the Small Business Research Initiative (SBRI) and is designed to help public sector organisations solve complex challenges.
DRIVE35 Innovation Fund
Maximum Award: £25 million
Deadline: 1 October 2025 at 11 am
Sectors: Automotive
The Driving Research and Investment in Vehicle Electrification programme, ‘DRIVE35’, provides funding for zero-emission vehicle technology innovation. It is delivered by Innovate UK, the Department for Business and Trade (DBT), and the Advanced Propulsion Centre UK (APC).
The Innovation Fund competition offers substantial grants to help companies develop and demonstrate cutting-edge zero-emission vehicle technologies.
This competition is split into two strands:
- Collaborate – Supports collaborative projects (involving more than one organisation) that design and develop technologies leading to commercialisation. Offers grants of £2.5 million to £25 million.
- Demonstrate – Funds the development of products or process ‘demonstrators’, which showcase the benefits of your project work. Offers grants of £500,000 to £1.5 million.
Your project must be at least 50% match-funded. That means that your grant will only cover up to half of your project costs. You must fund the remainder of your costs with other sources, like equity investment or revenues.
DRIVE35 Scale-Up Fund
Maximum Award: £20 million
Deadline: None
Sectors: Automotive
Also part of the DRIVE35 programme, the £150 million Scale-Up Fund will support large, ambitious projects with at least £5 million in qualifying costs, at either pilot or demonstration scale.
The purpose of the fund is to help companies to commercialise automotive innovations by validating their manufacturing capability and commercial viability.
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EIC Accelerator
Funding available: Up to €2.5 million
Deadline: 1 October 2025 for stage 2 of the application
Sectors: All
Run by Europe’s leading innovation funding agency, the European Innovation Council, the Accelerator scheme offers generous grants for UK startups and scale-ups looking to fund late-stage R&D to take mature innovations to market.
Accelerator has two strands:
- Open – Open to all fields of science and technology, but more competitive
- Challenges – For innovations focused on specific areas* of technology
*The specific areas are:
- Acceleration of advanced materials development and upscaling along the value chain
- Biotechnology-driven low-emission food and feed production systems
- GenAI4EU: Creating European Champions in Generative AI
- Innovative in-space servicing, operations, robotics and technologies for resilient EU space infrastructure
- Breakthrough innovations for future mobility
UK companies are eligible for all EIC competitions as the UK is associated to Horizon Europe, under which the EIC was established.
Learn more about the EIC Accelerator.
EIC Pathfinder
Funding available: Up to €4 million
Deadline: 29 October 2025 for the Challenges strand
Sectors: All
EIC Pathfinder offers grants to UK startups and scaleups looking to perform R&D to validate early-stage, potentially ground-breaking innovations: Technology Readiness Level (TRL) 1-2.
Like Accelerator, Pathfinder has two strands:
- Open – Grants of up to €3 million for consortia featuring at least three independent organisations from different EU member states and associated countries. The Open strand is currently closed, but will likely reopen again in the coming months.
- Challenges – up to €4 million for single applicants and small consortia whose R&D aligns with specific themes
The themes are:
- Biotech for climate-resilient crops and plant-based biomanufacturing
- Generative-AI-based agents to revolutionise medical diagnosis and the treatment of cancer
- Towards autonomous robot collectives delivering collaborative tasks in dynamic, unstructured construction environments
- Waste-to-value devices: Circular production of renewable fuels, chemicals and materials
Learn more about EIC Pathfinder.
European Space Agency Competitions
Maximum Award: Varies by competition
Deadline: Varies by competition
Sectors: Outlined below
The European Space Agency is running a number of competitions for UK innovators looking to harness space technology and assets in any of the following areas:
- Coastal resilience to
- European rail
- Metaverse
- Retail
- Smart cities
The maximum funding available from these competitions varies from €75,000 to €500,000, with grants covering 50%-80% of project costs for businesses.
Farming Innovation Programme: Small R&D Partnership Projects
Maximum Award: £2.1 million
Deadline: 5 November 2025 at 11 am
Sectors: Agriculture and Farming
Part of Defra’s Farming Innovation Programme, this competition is open to collaborative projects (involving more than one organisation) working on solutions that will improve the overall productivity, sustainability and resilience of the agriculture sector.
There are two stages to applying: a written application and, if you’re successful, a presentation.
Full ADOPT Grant Round 3
Maximum Award: £80,000
Deadline: 22 October 2025 at 11 am
Sectors: Agriculture and Farming
Round 3 of Defra’s Accelerating Development of Practices and Technologies (ADOPT) competition is offering grants for R&D projects designed to significantly improve the productivity, resilience, or sustainability of the UK’s farming sector. Solutions can address major on-farm or post-farmgate challenges.
Future Leaders Fellowships: Round 10
Maximum Award: £3 million
Deadline: 5 November 2025 at 11 am
Sectors: All
This UKRI-funded programme offers large grants, covering up to four years of project work, to early-career innovators looking to tackle complex and novel challenges.
The competition is designed to support excellence in innovation and develop the next generation of research and innovation leaders.
Highlights:
- Up to four years of project work funded
- Applicants can apply from any sector
- Open to people working at a range of non-academic organisations, including businesses, catapults and charities
If you’re applying as an eligible research organisation, you need to apply through the UKRI Funding Service.
Learn more about the Future Leaders Fellowship award.
Hydrogen Innovation Initiative Demonstrations 2025-26
Maximum Award: £100,000
Deadline: 6 October 2025 at 5 pm
Sectors: Chemistry, Energy, Manufacturing, Sustainability, Transport
This Connected Places Catapult and Hydrogen Innovation Initiative (HII) scheme aims to accelerate the development of hydrogen technology by financing near-term hydrogen demonstration projects, with the learnings of those projects shared publicly. Demonstrations must be in the TRL 5-7 range.
Innovation Loans
Maximum Award: £5 million
Deadline: 22 October (Round 23)
Sectors: All
Innovate UK’s Innovation Loans Future Economy scheme offers £100,000 to £5 million in debt financing for startups and scaleups looking to commercialise a late-stage technology.
Innovation Loans offer a range of favourable features, including below-market interest rates and repayment terms of up to 7 years. They also cover up to 100% of project costs, more than most Innovate UK competitions, which generally max out at 70%.
Innovation Loans are especially well-suited for companies that have already received grant funding, as they are designed to support innovations that have reached the stage of development typically achieved after a grant-funded project.
Learn more about Innovate UK Innovation Loans.
NIHR Work and Health Research Awards Round 2
Maximum Award: £2 million
Deadline: 11 March 2026
Sectors: BioTech, Health, MedTech
The National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) is looking to fund large, ambitious research projects connected to work and occupational health. Applications must be led by an NHS organisation, university, research institute, or not-for-profit. SMEs can participate as project partners.
Obesity Pathway Innovation Programme (OPIP)
Maximum Award: £3.5 million
Deadline: 19 November 2026
Sectors: Health
This competition is designed to fund projects that will lead to innovative community and primary care-based weight management solutions. Prospective pathways must have realistic plans to provide care to a large number of patients.
This scheme has three strands:
- Access and management service
- Care pathway services
- Combined access and management service and care pathway services
Funding is provided by the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) UK and the pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly. Applications must be led by an eligible NHS organisation that is able to receive a grant.
Ofgem Strategic Innovation Fund
Maximum Award: £15,000
Deadline: 22 October 2025 at 11 am
Sectors: Energy
Backed by Ofgem’s Strategic Innovation Fund, this competition will support collaborative projects that can drive the expansion of the consumer-centric energy grid.
This is one of seven challenge areas the SIF is looking to support with grant funding:
- Advanced energy transmission and networks
- Dynamic modelling
- High energy demand point integration
- Consumer-centric grid expansion
- Enhanced system visibility and control
- Green gas
- Whole system optimisation
This is the Discovery phase of the competition. The next phases, Alpha and Beta, support qualifying projects through live testing and large-scale demonstration, en route to commercialisation.
Resource efficiency for resilience and sustainability FS
Maximum Award: £25,000
Deadline: 3 November 2025 at 11 am
Sectors: Manufacturing, Materials
Innovate UK is financing novel R&D in three strategic areas to drive sustainability and resource efficiency in the UK materials and manufacturing sectors. They are:
- Net zero and resource efficiency
- Resilience and responsiveness
- Technological advancement and digitisation
Proposals must focus on at least one of the following areas:
- Resource-efficient and sustainable materials and manufacturing
- Seaweed processing
UK-Netherlands Co-Innovation and Testbeds Pilot for Quantum Tech
Maximum Award: £300,000
Deadline: 28 October 2025 at 11 am
Sectors: Quantum Computing
UK businesses looking to collaborate with Dutch companies on commercialising quantum technologies and apply for £150,000 to £300,000 in project funding. You must collaborate with a testbed provider in the UK or the Netherlands. Your proposal must demonstrate that your project:
- Addresses a technological challenge
- Demonstrates co-innovation
- Has a high potential for commercialisation
Let GrantTree Get You Funded
Looking for grant funding for your business or research organisation? GrantTree can help.
Over the last 15 years, we’ve secured more than £500 million for innovative projects. Calling on that unmatched experience, we can help you understand which competitions you are not only eligible for but have a good chance of winning, helping you make the most of the time you invest in your application.
We can also help you understand what other types of government funding you might be eligible for, like R&D Tax Relief.
To find out what funding you should apply for, just book a meeting with me at whatever time suits you!
