GrantRadar

Innovate UK (UKRI)

Frontier AI: SME Champions, Phase 1

Innovate UK grants for UK SMEs to run short feasibility or industrial research projects (1 to 3 months, total costs £150,000 to £250,000) that validate a genuinely frontier AI or machine learning innovation, meaning state of the art performance or new to the world capability from new architectures, training methods or learning or control algorithms. Projects must start at TRL 1 to 3, fit one of four themes (AI for health and life sciences, AI for advanced materials, secure AI for national security and defence, or AI safety and assurance) and show a route to defensible IP. It is Phase 1 of a three-phase pipeline linked to the Sovereign AI Unit: only Phase 1 winners can be invited to a Phase 2 of up to £1 million. Innovate UK estimates about a 2% chance of success; it closes at 11am on 11 November 2026.

Apply on the funder’s site
You could get
£150,000 – £250,000
Deadline
24 days left
11 November
Effort
Heavy
budgets, references, often several stages

Who can apply

  • A UK registered micro, small or medium-sized enterprise (SME) working alone; there are no partners and subcontractors are not allowed
  • An SME can submit only one application
  • Project work must be carried out in the UK, with results exploited in the UK and most of the funding spent in the UK
  • Innovate UK will not fund organisations in financial difficulty (checked after application), or those that have failed to exploit a previous Innovate UK project, have an overdue independent accountant's report or have breached grant terms
  • Funding is a subsidy under the Research, Development and Innovation Streamlined Subsidy Scheme and does not count towards Minimal Financial Assistance

What it funds

Feasibility studies and industrial research projects by UK SMEs that validate the technical feasibility of a frontier AI or ML innovation, with AI as the core technical contribution, delivering:

  • A proof of concept prototype of the whole stack, core architecture or a critical subsystem component
  • A clear validation methodology against predefined metrics (synthetic and simulated data can be used)
  • Evidence of technical novelty
  • A scaling rationale covering both the technology and the business model
  • A technical white paper, including a Phase 2 readiness and delivery plan
  • Projects must fit one theme and one priority within it: Theme 1, AI-enabled health and life sciences (predictive healthcare, medicines discovery, medicines manufacturing optimisation, genomics and multi-omics); Theme 2, advanced materials with AI; Theme 3, secure AI for national security and defence (advanced AI and autonomous decision systems, resilient edge intelligence); Theme 4, AI safety and assurance technologies
  • Eligible project costs at up to 70% for micro and small companies and up to 60% for medium-sized companies

Total project costs must be between £150,000 and £250,000 and projects last 1 to 3 months, starting by 1 April 2027 and ending by 30 June 2027. Projects must start at TRL 1 to 3.

What it will not fund

  • Projects without a quantified serviceable addressable market, clear background IP ownership or a specific defensibility route
  • Projects outside the competition themes and priority areas
  • Projects without a named baseline with metrics and numeric targets for validation
  • Literature reviews or requirement gathering without substantive experimental R&D
  • Routine integration, deployment, orchestration or productisation of existing AI tools or third party models
  • Projects without clear technical novelty, measurable objectives or defensible foreground IP
  • Projects focused mainly on non-AI or ML R&D, including cross-cutting projects
  • Fully autonomous targeting
  • Projects mainly developing hardware (sensors, quantum hardware, platforms or infrastructure) where AI is secondary
  • Projects dependent on export performance or on using domestic inputs
  • Subcontractors
  • Previously submitted applications
  • Organisations in financial difficulty

How to apply

  1. Read the competition brief and the Innovation Funding Service guidance, and watch the recorded briefing (7 October 2026)
  2. Start a new application on the Innovation Funding Service as the lead (and only) applicant
  3. Complete project details: research category, project summary and public description (400 words each), and a scope answer (up to 800 words) covering market and customers, background IP and defensibility, technical novelty and benchmarked validation, the AI capability to be validated and one key uncertainty to resolve
  4. Answer questions 1 to 7 (not scored), including choosing one theme, then scored questions 8 to 17 on IP and defensibility, technical plan and validation (800 words, optional 2-page appendix), team (600 words with CVs), market, route to market, wider impacts, project management, risks, added value and value for money
  5. Complete the finances section with your project costs and the Project Impact questions
  6. Submit by 11am on 11 November 2026; three independent assessors score the application
  7. Applicants are notified on 26 January 2027; successful applicants complete project setup on IFS before the grant offer letter is approved

Contact support@iuk.ukri.org or 0300 321 4357, ideally at least 15 working days before the deadline if you need reasonable adjustments. Applications that do not show they are in scope are made ineligible.

Have ready

  • CVs for each known member of the project team, one page each, as a PDF appendix (without them the team question is capped at 5)
  • Project plan or Gantt chart (PDF, up to 2 pages)
  • Risk register (PDF, up to 2 pages)
  • Optional system or solution architecture diagram and validation or benchmark matrix (PDF, up to 2 pages)

The rest of the application is answered in IFS text boxes and the finance forms.

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