Counter UAS technologies

Overview

Innovate UK, part of UK Research and Innovation, will invest up to £5 million in projects developing counter Uncrewed Aerial Systems (UAS) technologies that can be used across civil and military settings.

The competition supports dual-use technologies that help address national security, protect critical national infrastructure and support wider government priorities. It is focused on strengthening the UK’s national security and defence ecosystem by accelerating innovation, building sovereign capabilities and supporting scalable businesses within the UK supply chain.

Projects should develop new solutions to counter the illegal use of UAS around civil and military sites, including airports, prisons, critical national infrastructure, schools and public events.

Scope

The aim of this competition is to develop new solutions to counter the illegal use of Uncrewed Aerial Systems (UAS) around civil and military sites, including airports, prisons, critical national infrastructure, schools and public events.

Innovate UK is interested in dual-use technologies that can be applied across civil, defence, and security and intelligence domains.

Innovate UK welcomes solutions that can effectively detect, track, identify, decide and defeat current and emerging threats whilst minimising collateral damage and interference with communications and electronics.

Key themes and topics

Projects must develop and appropriately test, validate or demonstrate one of the following solution types:

• Solutions that provide protection from UAS across UK defence sites, airports, schools, public events and sites of critical national infrastructure (CNI), with a focus on cost effective and scalable solutions appropriate to the location. Technology solutions should already be at TRL5 or above and aiming for introduction and deployment by 2028
• Affordable solutions that protect the UK’s prison estate from illegal UAS activity. Early stage developments and technology validation in the laboratory environment of future systems that can adapt to a rapidly changing threat environment, are typically up to TRL4, and aimed for introduction and deployment by 2030

These could include stand-alone systems designed to act as a last line of defence or technologies that are part of a layered approach to manage threats over greater distances. Solutions could be fixed or designed to be mobile. Systems employing kinetic methods must be safely operable in public spaces and minimise collateral damage.

For solutions tailored to the UK prison estate, Innovate UK welcomes novel applications that consider pressures on frontline staff as the primary users, low collateral defeat solutions and the detection of UAS controlled using radio frequency, cellular or any other means.

Innovate UK notes the increasing appetite for commercial UAS use and the government’s objective of achieving routine Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS) UAS operations from 2027 and promoting public sector UAS adoption. This will increase the volume of low altitude aircraft operations and require future counter UAS solutions to integrate or communicate with air traffic management and remote ID systems for UAS.

Projects must detail how the counter UAS solution being developed will operate within the constraints of existing infrastructure, regulations and laws. Projects must detail how the solution will operate safely and minimise risks to property, members of the public and other air users, and limit interference with communications and electronics.

Proposals must include reference to relevant regulations for the proposed counter UAS solution and any dependencies on regulatory approvals for trials and demonstration purposes. Any required approvals must either already be granted or must be obtainable by a clear and supported route within the project timeline. Applicants must demonstrate a clear understanding of how this will be achieved within the project duration.

Innovate UK wants to fund a variety of projects across different technologies, markets, technological maturities, research categories, locations, use cases, growth potential and technical capability against end-user operating requirements.

Projects will not be funded if they:

• do not have a specifically defined end user or use case
• rely on technology that is already in commercial use for counter UAS purposes
• are not compliant with current regulations
• are not compliant with current laws
• do not demonstrate the potential for businesses involved to achieve economic growth
• solely rely on off the shelf products with no experimental development
• would require significant infrastructure or integration to be operable
• are not scalable or adaptable to real world operations
• are high collateral kinetic approaches
• include testing or demonstration that relies on regulatory approvals that are not already granted or cannot be obtained within the project timeframe

Project duration

8 to 12 months

Must start on 1 September 2026

End by 31 August 2027

Award value

Grant funding request between £300,000 and £1.25 million

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

For experimental development projects, which use existing knowledge to shape and refine new or improved products, processes, or services through prototyping, testing, and validation, not routine upgrades and are nearer to market, you can get funding for your eligible project costs of:

• up to 45% if you are a micro or small organisation
• up to 35% if you are a medium sized organisation
• up to 25% 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 or public sector organisation
• Projects must include at least one grant claiming SME
• 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 preferably UK-based with fully justified and appropriate costs. Overseas subcontractors can be used, but applicants must justify why UK subcontractors cannot be used
• All funded project work must be carried out within the UK, unless specifically stated and pre-approved by Innovate UK
• Any funded organisation must intend to exploit the results from or in the UK
• Subsidy control and state aid rules apply