Innovate UK and the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) are investing up to £7 million in technology that makes medicines manufacturing greener and more efficient. Collaborative projects can apply for grants of up to £1 million.
This is the second round of collaborative R&D funding under the Sustainable Medicines Manufacturing Innovation programme. It backs projects that cut the waste, emissions or energy that go into making medicines, or that get more out of the materials and equipment manufacturers already use. That could mean greener chemistry like biocatalysis and flow chemistry, recycling solvents and plastics, or moving to continuous processing and automation.
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
This is a collaborative competition, so you can't apply on your own. To lead the project, you must be a UK-registered:
- Business of any size
- Catapult centre
- Charity
- Not-for-profit organisation
- Public sector organisation
- Research and technology organisation (RTO)
Academic institutions can't lead. Your consortium must include at least one grant-funded UK micro, small or medium-sized enterprise (SME). SMEs can lead the project or join it as a partner.
The following can join as collaborators:
- Academic institutions
- Businesses of any size
- Catapult centres
- Charities
- Not-for-profit organisations
- Public sector organisations
- RTOs
The lead and at least one other organisation must claim funding, and no single organisation can claim more than 70% of the total project costs. If an RTO leads, it must work with at least two businesses, one of which must be an SME.
You can lead up to two applications, but you can join as many as you like as a partner.
Your Project
Your project must:
- Ask for between £500,000 and £1 million in grant funding
- End by 31 March 2028
- Last between 9 and 12 months
- Start by 1 April 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:
- Address both critical enablers: regulation, and measurements, data and standards
- Advance a technology that's already at Technology Readiness Level (TRL) 6 or above by at least two TRLs, towards use in a real manufacturing environment
- Back up its sustainability claims with baseline measurements and clear metrics
- Deliver measurable improvements in at least one of productivity, waste, emissions, energy use or resource efficiency
- Focus on at least one of the three pillars: green chemistry, circularity, or productivity and resource efficiency
- Improve the productivity, competitiveness and growth of at least one UK SME in the consortium
- Show how the grant will move both your TRL and your Commercial Readiness Level (CRL) towards commercial success
Innovate UK won't fund projects that:
- Focus on infrastructure or facility design without a proper demonstration
- Involve medical device manufacturing
- Involve non-human medicines manufacturing
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 £500,000 to £1 million.
Applying as a Company
| Project Type | Micro and Small | Medium | Large |
|---|---|---|---|
| Industrial Research* | 70% | 60% | 50% |
| Experimental Development** | 45% | 35% | 25% |
*Industrial research refers to planned research aimed at acquiring new knowledge for developing new products, processes, or services.
**Experimental development is closer to market. It involves using existing knowledge to develop or improve products, processes, or services.
Funding Example
If you're a small company with £600,000 of eligible industrial research costs, you could receive a grant of £420,000 (70%). You will need to fund the remaining £180,000 from other sources, like R&D Tax Relief, investment or loans. Remember that the total grant across all partners must fall between £500,000 and £1 million.
Applying as a Non-Commercial Organisation
Research organisations doing non-economic work can share up to 30% of the total eligible project costs 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 an academic institution, like a university
How Do I Apply?
The deadline for applications is 2 December 2026.
Applications are submitted via Innovate UK's Innovation Funding Service (IFS) portal.
The application is split into four sections:
Project Details
- Application details
- Application team
- Project summary
- Public description
- Research category
- Scope
Most answers in this section are limited to 400 words.
Application Questions
There are 18 questions in total:
- Eight unscored questions covering topics like your location, animal testing, permits, international collaboration, export licences, Trusted Research, pillar alignment and your funding plans
- Ten scored questions covering your business need, approach and innovation, team, market, 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 and team questions. A project plan or Gantt chart and a risk register are mandatory appendices.
Finances
Each organisation in your consortium enters its own project costs, organisation details and funding details.
Project Impact
Every partner must complete the Project Impact questions before you can submit, though this section isn't scored.
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 3 February 2027. Applications that pass the initial assessment may be invited to an interview between 25 and 29 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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