Innovation, Research and Development

Government grants worth up to £75,000 are available to advance the capability of the UK space sector by developing new commercial technologies and bringing them closer to market. Funding is available to businesses, non-profit organisations and academics for proposals for space technology research and development projects that accelerate the development of scientific or commercial technologies for space. This funding call, as part of the Natio...

The UK Government has announced a £191 million Sustainable Innovation Fund to provide UK registered businesses with urgent financial support to help them recover from the impacts of coronavirus and keep their cutting-edge projects and ideas alive. Businesses can apply for a share of up to £55 million in round one for new projects focusing on sustainable economic recovery from COVID-19, such as technology that supports a reduction in single-u...

In response to the coronavirus, the UK Government has launched two support packages to give greater job protection to thousands of researchers, scientists and technicians working at UK universities. Around £280 million will be made immediately available to enable universities to continue their cutting-edge work, such as research into antibiotics resistance and the effects of coronavirus on society. £80 million of this funding will be redistr...

Businesses of any size can apply for a share of £15 million to accelerate the green economic recovery in transport, energy and industrial sectors from covid-19. Funding comes from the UK Government’s Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund Driving the Electric Revolution Challenge. The Challenge aims to accelerate the UK’s ability to deliver; next generation electric vehicles, hybrid aircraft, energy generation, smart grids, robotics & industr...

The Ministry for Housing and Local Government has made funding of up to £800,000 available for data and digital projects to help local authorities in England to combat the challenges as a direct result of COVID-19 and to respond to the need for digital and data-enabled approaches to council operations post-COVID-19. Applications can be submitted by single councils or a group of councils. This challenge is open to local authorities in England...

Funding of between £20,000 and £80,000 is available to help businesses design innovative goods, services or business models that will help reduce the harm that plastics have on the environment. As part of the funding requirements, projects ideas should be based on customer research and projects could focus on either the redesign of existing goods, services or business models or of entirely new ones. The design concept should prioritise reuse...

Alcohol Change UK are inviting applications for their New Horizons Grants Programme for innovative and future-facing academic research on 'Groups, Communities and Alcohol Harm' to explore how people’s use of alcohol relates to their membership of, or identification with, groups and communities. Funding of between £20,000 and £65,000 is available for up to four two-year research projects to explore different groups such as cultural, ethnic,...

Funding of between £100,000 and £200,000 is available for projects of up to twelve months which seek to understand the impact of Covid-19 on the health and social care system in the UK, and to use this research to inform policy and/or service delivery decisions for the future. The Health Foundation’s new Covid-19 Research Programme is open to suitable qualified and experienced research teams to help understand the impact of the crisis in t...

The Scottish Funding Council has announced that the next deadline for applications under its Advanced Innovation Voucher Scheme is the 16th July 2020. The awards are aimed at building sustained relationships between small and medium-sized companies and universities or Further Education colleges in Scotland who may have previously collaborated together or for those companies who are beginning their collaborative journey with a HEI / FE college...

The UK Government has announced that they are doubling investment in the Fast Start Competition to encourage innovative technology and research-focussed businesses and start-ups to develop new ways of working and help build resilience across industries and communities. The additional £20 million funding, which is managed by Innovate UK, comes from a £211 million government investment package to encourage businesses developing new technologie...

UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) are making £1.5 million funding available to enable researchers with no prior experience of using citizen science methods to develop their expertise, and projects that extend citizen science methods into new research disciplines. Citizen science is scientific research conducted, in whole or in part, by amateur scientists. Through the Citizen Science Collaboration Grant eligible institutions and research organ...

Businesses across the UK are being invited to collaborate with an academic or research organisation on a Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP), a scheme that helps businesses to innovate and grow. Up to £40 million in total is available for part funding of KTPs that will offer businesses the opportunity to access new skills and the latest academic thinking to help them deliver a specific, strategic innovation project. KTPs can last between 12...

UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) are inviting proposals from UK businesses for research projects and related data collection of up to eighteen months to address the health, social, economic and environmental impacts of the COVID-19 outbreak. The UKRI will support innovative proposals on any topics which gather critical data and resources quickly for future research use and which support the manufacture and/or wide scale adoption of an interve...

Grants of up to £5,000 are available to individuals and organisations with ideas that will help make the chemical sciences more inclusive and diverse. The funding is being made available through the Royal Society of Chemistry’s Inclusion and Diversity Fund and will support innovative products, activities and research projects related to gender, disability, socio-economic background, language and the LGBT+ community. Initiatives supported i...

Commercial organisations, appropriately qualified scientists or clinicians based in an accredited university or hospital in any country worldwide can now apply for funding for laboratory or clinical research projects. Projects should have the potential to advance knowledge that might lead to a cure for Parkinson’s disease or that represent a substantial advance in treatment. The Cure Parkinson’s Trust has a particular interest in projects...

Funding of £500,000 is being made available to find and support the UK’s most promising female innovators, helping them develop their ideas and expand their businesses. Grants of £50,000 each and a bespoke package of mentoring, coaching and business support are offered to female inventors to develop solutions that tackle major economic and societal change, such as climate change, developing new treatments and services for healthcare patien...

The Government has announced that from early March, bidders can apply for funding from a new £30 million competition which will look at how 5G could boost creative industries including film, TV, video games, logistics and tourism. This is alongside announcing the nine projects who successfully bid for a share of £35 million from the rural and industrial 5G competitions. This funding comes from the £200 million 5G Testbeds and Trials Progr...