Innovate UK has opened £500,000 to fund the groundwork for a national medicines manufacturing data hub, with individual grants of up to £100,000.
The Medicines Manufacturing Data Institute (MMDI) is meant to become a trusted, secure and federated national data hub, so that organisations across medicines development and manufacturing can share data without giving up control of it. Phase 1 pays for everything that has to happen before any of it gets built. You assemble the consortium, agree how the data will be governed, and produce the blueprint and the Phase 2 proposal.
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 UK registered. You can be a business of any size, an academic institution, a charity, a not-for-profit, a public sector organisation or a research and technology organisation (RTO). What matters more than your legal form is whether you can convene the full medicines manufacturing ecosystem and let industry drive the strategic direction of the institute.
You can apply on your own or lead a collaborative project. Partners join as collaborators and must also be UK registered:
- Academic institutions
- Businesses of any size
- Charities
- Not-for-profits
- Public sector organisations
- Research and technology organisations
Organisations based outside the UK can take part as non-funded partners, and you can use overseas subcontractors where you justify why the work cannot be done here.
Your Project
Your project must:
- Claim a grant of between £50,000 and £100,000
- Start no earlier than 1 January 2027
- Last between three and six months
- 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:
- Bring together a committed delivery consortium that represents the medicines manufacturing ecosystem
- Deliver an MMDI blueprint covering the vision, governance, architecture and implementation roadmap
- Produce a business model and value proposition showing how the institute becomes commercially sustainable
- Set out a data governance and interoperability framework, and an adoption roadmap alongside it
- Validate and prioritise the use cases the institute will serve first
Innovate UK won't fund projects that:
- Are focused on medicines discovery or on non-human medicine data
- Build or refurbish physical infrastructure
- Deliver a standalone AI tool, digital twin or software platform with no clear link to the MMDI
- Involve laboratory or wet-lab experimental research
- Involve primary production, like agriculture, fishing or aquaculture
- Mainly benefit a single organisation
How Much Funding Can I Apply For?
Every eligible organisation in this competition is funded at the same rate, whatever its type or size.
Individual grants range from £50,000 to £100,000.
Funding Example
If your eligible project costs come to £100,000, you can claim the full £100,000 as a grant. There is no match funding requirement here.
If the work you want to do costs more than the £100,000 cap, you will need to fund the difference from other sources, like R&D Tax Relief, investment or loans.
Applying as a Non-Commercial Organisation
Charities, not-for-profits, public sector organisations, research organisations and RTOs are funded on the same terms as businesses, at up to 100% of eligible project costs. Academic institutions can lead or partner on the same basis.
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 three sections:
Project Details
This section is not scored. You will complete:
- Application questions
- Application team
- Project summary
- Public description
- Scope
Most answers in this section are limited to 400 words.
Application Questions
There are 12 questions in total:
- Seven unscored administrative questions covering topics like project location, animal testing, permits and licences, international collaboration, export control and trusted research and innovation
- Five scored questions covering the sector need, your vision for the institute, your pathway to Phase 2, your leadership and convening ability, and how you will deliver the project
You must include a project plan or Gantt chart and a risk register as appendices, each a PDF of up to two A4 pages. Some of the other answers allow optional supporting documents.
Finances
Every organisation claiming grant funding completes a finance form setting out its eligible project costs.
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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