Overview
Innovate UK is investing up to £6.5 million to support collaborative industrial research projects focused on strengthening UK manufacturing supply chains.
This competition is designed for ambitious businesses looking to improve productivity, resource efficiency and resilience across supply chains. Projects must demonstrate clear commercial potential and the ability to scale across multiple advanced manufacturing sectors.
A key requirement is cross-sector applicability. While businesses may operate in one industry today, solutions must be capable of scaling into at least one additional advanced manufacturing frontier industry. Strong collaboration, including engagement with end users, is central to delivering meaningful impact and accelerating adoption.
Scope
The aim of this competition is to support collaborative industrial research projects to explore innovative ways of making supply chains more productive, resource efficient and resilient.
Projects must apply one of the competition themes to at least two of the Advanced Manufacturing Frontier Industries. While applicants may currently operate within a single frontier industry, the product or service must be capable of scaling into adjacent advanced manufacturing frontier industries.
Projects must clearly describe how they will improve productivity, resource efficiency, resilience, or a combination of these outcomes, within the targeted industries’ supply chain.
Projects must:
- be collaborative industrial research
- focus on solutions that are either new or not yet widely used
- address improvements in supply chain productivity, resource efficiency, resilience, or a combination of these
- identify one theme and at least two Advanced Manufacturing frontier industries being targeted
- address supply chain validation through involvement of at least one named end user in the project
The named end user must have a defined role within the project governance or work plan and represent an organisation further along the supply chain that will directly benefit from the innovation.
Applicants must also:
- demonstrate a clear route to scale in the UK
- assess commercial, technical and operational viability
- explain how the project will drive growth within UK manufacturing supply chains
Key themes and topics
Projects must focus on one of the following themes:
- measurement, sensing and instrumentation
- additive manufacturing
- digital manufacturing and industrial AI
- robotics and intelligent automation
- power electronics
Projects must also target at least two of the following Advanced Manufacturing frontier industries:
- automotive
- aerospace
- advanced materials
- batteries
- agri-tech
- space
Projects will not be funded if they:
- do not focus on one theme across at least two frontier industries
- do not demonstrate named end user involvement
- do not show how the solution applies across both industries
- focus solely on defence applications
- focus on food, beverage, beauty or cosmetics manufacturing
- focus on construction or chemicals without clear advanced manufacturing benefit
- do not deliver meaningful improvements in resource efficiency
Projects will also not be funded if they focus on enabling areas such as:
- regulations
- educational resources
- behavioural science
- policy
- skills and relationships
Project duration
12 to 36 months
Must start on 1 October 2026
End by 30 September 2029
Award value
Grant funding request between £250,000 and £1,000,000
Funding rates
For industrial research projects, purposeful research that builds new knowledge and skills to improve or develop products, processes, or services—often through prototypes or system components that validate ideas in realistic settings, you can get funding for your eligible project costs of:
- up to 70% if you are a micro or small organisation
- up to 60% if you are a medium sized organisation
- up to 50% if you are a large organisation
Research organisations can share up to 30% of the total eligible project costs
Eligibility criteria
- Projects must be collaborative and led by a UK registered business of any size
- Collaborators can be a UK registered business of any size; an academic institution; a charity; a not for profit; a public sector organisation; or a research and technology organisation (RTO)
- Subcontractors must be UK-based or overseas with strong justification and fully justified costs
- Subcontractor costs must not exceed 30% of total eligible project costs
- All funded project work must be carried out within the UK (excluding non-funded international partners)
- Projects must intend to exploit the results from or in the UK
- Subsidy control and state aid rules apply
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