FAQs

The government provides R&D grants through UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) which brings together research councils, including Innovate UK, the agency for business-led innovation.

Innovate UK runs regular funding competitions including for projects that address industry challenges for specific sectors and open (Smart grants) programmes that fund innovative firms in any sector.

Although the UK left the European Union, EU-focused grant programmes like Horizon Europe and Eureka Eurostars are still open to UK businesses.

UK entities are not eligible to participate in the EIC Fund part of the EIC Accelerator, since the UK decided not to take part in financial instruments of the EU. This means UK entities can apply for grants under the Accelerator, but they will not be eligible for loans or equity.

Typically, only SMEs can apply as a single applicant, although some competitions do not have this requirement. UK registered businesses of any size or research and technology organisations (RTOs) are eligible if the project is collaborative.

Yes, as Innovate UK grants are targeted for SMEs to be main beneficiary. In most competitions, large companies must collaborate with a SME independent to their group structure to be eligible.

Company size also affects the funding rate too! Smaller companies can apply for the highest rate of up to 70% whilst larger companies are eligible for up to 50% of eligible project costs.

You should check the grant eligibility before applying. Some competitions may have a specific industry or sector focus which rules out most organisations. Some competitions have company size limitations or require collaborative partners (e.g. universities or industry partners) and if you do not meet the criteria when applying, your application will be considered ineligible.

Innovate UK grants also require you use UK-based workers and subcontractors. If using non-UK workers and subcontractors is part of your business operations, then unless you are looking to change this, Innovate UK grants would not be eligible for you.

Yes, if your company and project meet the grant competition criteria. The last Smart grant round in September 2023 had a national average of 3.8% success rate (over 1600 entries and just 63 funded). Specific industry/challenge grants preset a greater likelihood of success and you should certainly apply for a more specific grant if you have the right project.

Each competition has specific criteria, so you should ensure your project aligns well with them. At Wolfscote we can help you through this process with our grant scoping.

Innovate UK require you to ‘match fund’ their grant offer. In practical terms, this means you need to stump up a proportion of the eligible project costs. This is dependent on the size of your business and the research stage (feasibility studies and industrial research offer the highest levels of funding, whilst experimental development offers the lowest).

For example, a micro/small company undertaking an industrial research project would be funded at 70% by Innovate UK and the applicant would need to self-fund the remaining 30% of costs over the course of the project through private investment, bank loans, and similar finance.

To apply for an Innovate UK competition, applicants should initially check their eligibility and identify the right competition that aligns well with their R&D project. Wolfscote can support you with this endeavour.

Once a competition has been chosen, an online application should be completed using Innovate UK’s innovation funding service to submit information on the project including, the technology, the project plan, the team, the budget, and the anticipated impact that the project will have. Once the application has been submitted, Innovate UK will provide notifications on the outcome of the application.

Yes, applicants can apply for multiple Innovate UK grants simultaneously. However, you should consider the time resource for the writing process and for the project start-up if you successful for multiple grants. For example, if both applications are successful and you need to bring in new hires for the two projects, this will need to be factored into your hiring plans and lead times.

Other restrictions include how many projects you can lead in one grant deadline window. For example, a company can only be the lead applicant for one Smart grant round at a time. This means you can be a partner on multiple grant applications but not the lead applicant. If Innovate UK judges that the applications are materially similar, only one of the applications will be counted towards the maximum number of submissions.

You can choose to either re-submit your application to the same competition in the next funding round or submit your application to a new grant application that is more suitable to your project. However, it’s worth confirming that applicants can only apply twice with the same project, and the original application should be significant changed using the feedback from Innovate UK before re-submitting.