BridgeAI Deployment Catalyst: AI for Decision Critical Systems

Who can apply

Your project

Your project must:

• have a grant funding request of between £100,000 and £200,000

• last between three and five months

• start by 1 April 2027

• end by 31 August 2027

The minimum consortium size for this competition is two organisations: one UK registered micro, small or medium sized enterprise (SME) and one eligible UK registered deployer. You may include no more than one additional organisation, giving a maximum consortium size of three.

For subsequent programme phases, the lead organisation must remain the same throughout. If the deployer organisation drops out, you must provide a replacement. Applicants must provide evidence demonstrating why the new deployer can deliver a similar deployment outcome to that originally intended.

Any organisation receiving funding must carry out its project work in the UK, intend to exploit the results in the UK, and spend most of the funding within the UK.

Projects must always start on the first of the month, even if this is a non-working day. You must not start your project until your Grant Offer Letter has been approved by Innovate UK. Any delays within Project Setup may mean we need to delay your project start date.

You must only include eligible project costs in your application. See our overview of eligible project costs.

Lead organisation

To lead a collaborative project, your organisation must be a UK registered SME.

You must:

• have an existing Artificial Intelligence (AI) or Machine Learning (ML) solution at technology readiness level (TRL) 5 or 6, with a functioning minimum viable product

• demonstrate an innovative and substantive use of advanced AI or ML capability

• have a minimum viable product that may have been piloted or trialled, but is not already commercially deployed in the proposed use case

• intend to exploit the project results from or in the UK

• be willing to participate in subsequent programme stages if invited

The lead organisation must account for between 40% to 70% of the project’s total eligible costs.

More information on the different types of organisations can be found in our Funding rules.

Academic institutions cannot lead.

Deployer organisation

Your project must include one UK registered deployer organisation.

The deployer organisation must:

• be a UK registered medium or large business or a UK based public sector organisation

• operate in an eligible sectoral focus area

• provide a meaningful operational setting for the proposed deployment

• account for between 30% and 50% of the project’s total eligible costs

For more information on company sizes, refer to the company accounts guidance.

The deployer will be expected to:

• work with the lead applicant to develop the deployment use case and assess readiness for future deployment

• provide access to the relevant users, data, workflows, systems, processes or operational environment needed for the project

• contribute to identifying technical, operational, commercial, governance and assurance requirements

• be willing to participate in subsequent programme stages if invited

The deployer must operate in one of these sectors:

• Health and life sciences

• Financial services

• Advanced manufacturing

• Clean energy industries

• Defence

• Professional and business services

• Creative industries

These sectors are defined in line with the UK Industrial Strategy 2025. You should review the relevant sector definition before applying. Innovate UK will assess whether the proposed deployment falls within scope.

Project team

To collaborate with the lead and deployer organisation, your organisation must be a UK-registered:

• business of any size

• academic institution

• research organisation

• research and technology organisation (RTO)

• charity

• not for profit

• public sector organisation

• non-governmental organisation (NGO)

Your consortium can include no more than one additional project partner, which must account for no more than 30% of the project’s total eligible costs.

Each partner organisation must be invited into the Innovation Funding Service (IFS) by the lead to collaborate on a project. Once partners have accepted the invitation, they will be asked to login or to create an account in the IFS. They are responsible for entering their own project costs and completing their Project Impact questions in the application.

To be an eligible collaboration you must explain why you’re collaborating and how the collaboration will work

Non-funded partners

Your project can include organisations who do not claim any funding for their work on the project. Their costs will be covered from their own resources. These can include UK, EU and other non-UK organisations. Non-UK partners are permitted to carry out project work from within their home countries and exploit the results outside the UK.

Where non-funded partners have been invited to the application on IFS, their costs will count towards the total eligible project costs.

Subcontractors

Subcontractors are not allowed in this competition.

Number of applications

If the lead applicant, a UK registered SME can only lead on one application and cannot collaborate on any further applications across the three strands. Any further applications by the same organisation as lead will be made ineligible.

A UK registered deployer organisation can be involved in up to three applications across three strands, where each application is materially different and relates to a distinct deployment use case.

If an organisation is neither the lead SME nor the deployer organisation, it can collaborate in any number of applications across three strands.

Sanctions

This competition will not fund you, or provide any financial benefit to any individual or entities directly or indirectly involved with you, which would expose Innovate UK or any direct or indirect beneficiary of funding from Innovate UK to UK Sanctions. For example, through any procurement, commercial, business development or supply chain activity with any entity as lead, partner or subcontractor related to these countries, administrations and terrorist groups.

Use of animals in research and innovation

Innovate UK expects and supports the provision and safeguarding of welfare standards for animals used in research and innovation, according to best practice and up to date guidance.

Applicants must ensure that all of the proposed work within projects, both in the UK and internationally, will comply with the UKRI guidance on the use of animals in research and innovation.

Any projects selected for funding which involve animals will be asked to provide additional information on welfare and ethical considerations, as well as compliance with any relevant legislation as part of the project start-up process. This information will be reviewed before an award is made.

Previous applications

You cannot use a previously submitted application to apply for this competition.

We will not award you funding if you have:

• failed to exploit a previously funded project

• an overdue independent accountant’s report

• failed to comply with grant terms and conditions

Innovate UK may withhold a grant payment at any time if you have any outstanding sums due to us in relation to other projects.

Subsidy control (and State aid where applicable)

This competition provides funding to enterprises using the Research, Development and Innovation Streamlined Subsidy Scheme.

The Research, Development and Innovation Streamlined Scheme can be viewed on the subsidy database here: SC10780.

This is in line with the Subsidy Control Act 2022. Further information about the Subsidy requirements can be found within the Subsidy Control Act 2022.

Innovate UK is unable to award organisations that are considered to be in financial difficulty. We will conduct financial viability and eligibility tests to confirm this is not the case following the application stage.

EU State aid rules now only apply in limited circumstances. See the Windsor Framework to check if these rules apply to your organisation.

In the ‘Project details’ section of your application you will be asked questions to indicate if State Aid or Subsidy applies to your organisation.

Further Information

If you are unsure about your obligations under the Subsidy Control Act 2022 or the State aid rules, you should take independent legal advice. We are unable to advise on individual eligibility or legal obligations.

You must not do anything which could cause a breach of Subsidy Control legislation applicable in the United Kingdom.

This aims to regulate any advantage granted by a public sector body which threatens to, or distorts competition in the United Kingdom or any other country or countries.

This award is classified as a Subsidy which does not form part of your Minimal Financial Assistance or de minimis allowance.

Funding

Up to £5 million has been allocated to fund innovation projects in this competition. This is subject to us receiving a sufficient number of high quality applications. Funding will be in the form of a grant.

We reserve the right to adjust funding allocations for any of our competitions under exceptional circumstances, for example, in response to changes in policy, portfolio funding considerations, or broader government funding decisions.

Under the Research, Development and Innovation Streamlined Route rules, no more than £3 million can be awarded in the form of a grant to any one enterprise in any one competition.

If your organisation’s work on the project is commercial or economic, your funding request must not exceed the limits below. These limits apply even if your organisation normally acts non-economically but for the purpose of this project will be undertaking commercial or economic activity.

Category 1: Feasibility studies

Funding available 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 more information on company sizes, refer to the company accounts guidance.

If you are applying for an award funded under State aid Regulations, the definitions are set out in the European Commission Recommendation of 6 May 2003.

Innovate UK may revoke our decision to provide funding without notice if government commitment for this initiative is withdrawn.

Research participation

The research organisations undertaking non-economic activity as part of the project can share up to 30% of the total eligible project costs. If your consortium contains more than one research organisation undertaking non-economic activity, this maximum is shared between them. Of that 30% you can get funding for your eligible project costs of up to:

• 100% of your eligible project costs if you are an RTO, charity, not for profit organisation, public sector organisation or research organisation

• 80% of full economic costs (FEC) if you are an academic institution

Eligibility criteria for claiming 80% of FEC funding

1. Research organisations must use the Transparent Approach to Costing (TRAC) method as the Je-S form has now been decommissioned.

2. We pay 100% of the 80% Full Economic Cost (FEC). On IFS only enter the 80% being claimed.

To find out more see our: Cost Guidance for Academics.

Your proposal

The overall aim of this competition is to fund the development of innovative Artificial Intelligence (AI) deployment use cases that can progress through later programme stages towards full deployment and replication.

For this phase, we will fund consortia that will undertake and complete the following activities during the project:

• develop a clear, evidence based deployment use case that articulates the value to the deployer

• explain how the system will be used and demonstrate why this solution is the most effective way to address the operational challenge

• assess the readiness of the AI supplier in terms of delivery capacity, standards, regulatory compliance, and technical maturity

• assess the readiness of the deployer in terms of operational, technical, governance, assurance, and regulatory considerations

• obtain letters of support from potential deployers that are not part of the initial consortium but may wish to participate in later phases of the programme

• outline the activities you would undertake, if invited to Phase 2, to assure the AI system for the intended use case and prepare the operational site for deployment

• organise a demonstration of the solution using representative deployer data and systems within a representative operational environment this should take place towards the end of the project

The Decision Critical Systems strand (this competition) supports the deployment of AI systems whose primary purpose is to help people make consequential judgements, recommendations or decisions. These decisions must be considered high risk or could have significant consequences for the deployer or its end users.

The Operational Systems strand supports AI systems whose primary purpose is to perform, control or coordinate operational activity within workflows, processes, software, equipment or infrastructure. Reliable integration and performance must be important to the deployer’s operations.

The Assurance and Compliance Systems strand supports AI systems whose primary purpose is to monitor, test, verify, validate or evidence compliance. This includes assessing whether systems, processes or outcomes meet defined regulatory requirements, standards or controls for its intended use.

Each strand is defined by the primary purpose of the AI system within the proposed deployment context. For your application to be in scope you must show:

• how your use of AI is innovative and involves a meaningful application of advanced AI or ML capability

• how the AI capability is central to the proposed deployment

• how the deployer and proposed deployment are aligned with the sector you have selected

• how the proposed use case clearly aligns with the primary purpose of the strand you have selected

• what technical, operational, regulatory or assurance challenges are associated with deployment

• how the proposed deployment is novel in its context and goes beyond routine configuration, integration or implementation of an existing AI service

If you unsure whether your project is in scope, or which strand is most appropriate for your project, email BridgeAI@iuk.ukri.org at least 10 working days before the competition closes. If you apply to the wrong strand, you will be ineligible and your application will not be assessed.

Key Definitions

AI and Machine Learning (ML) are computational systems that use data, algorithms or trained models to identify patterns, generate outputs, make predictions or recommendations, or support or automate decisions and actions.

A use case is the specific operational problem, activity or decision that the AI or ML solution will address. It must identify the intended users, how the solution will be used and the expected benefits.

Deployment is the integration and use of an AI or ML solution within a live operational setting.

An AI supplier is the UK-registered micro, small or medium sized enterprise (SME) leading the project and providing the existing AI or ML solution. It must have the capability and rights needed to develop, integrate and support the solution through deployment.

A deployer organisation is the organisation that will adopt and use the AI or ML solution. It must provide the operational setting and access to the users, data, systems, workflows, processes or infrastructure needed to deliver the project.

Deployment readiness is the extent to which the AI or ML solution, AI supplier, deployer organisation and operational setting are prepared to progress towards live use. This includes technical maturity, data readiness, integration, governance, assurance and operational capability.

An end user is a person, customer, organisation or other recipient that uses, receives or is directly affected by the product or service provided by the deployer.

Portfolio approach

We want to fund a variety of projects across the three strands, sectoral focus areas, AI technologies, deployment challenges, markets, technological maturities, locations and types of deployer. We call this a portfolio approach.

This means we may consider the overall balance of funded projects when making funding decisions. Your project may score highly but may not be funded if it does not fit the desired portfolio balance. We call this a portfolio approach.

Specific themes

Projects should demonstrate the innovative use of advanced AI or ML capability that is central to the proposed deployment.

Relevant capabilities may include:

• agentic AI and multi-agent systems

• multimodal AI

• embodied AI and robotics

• autonomous and semi-autonomous systems

• foundation models and domain adapted models

• graph neural networks and graph based AI

• neuro-symbolic AI and machine reasoning

• advanced computer vision and perception

• reinforcement learning

• AI enabled optimisation and control

This list is illustrative and non-exhaustive. Applicants may propose other advanced AI or ML capabilities where they can clearly explain the technical innovation and its role in the proposed deployment.

Research categories

We will fund feasibility projects as defined in the guidance on categories of research.

Projects we will not fund

We are not funding projects that:

• focus on early stage research or concept development

• focus on generic productivity tools, back office automation or routine business process improvement

• use AI in a way that is peripheral to the deployer’s core operations

We cannot fund projects that are:

• dependent on export performance: giving a subsidy to an organisation on the condition that it exports a certain quantity of its products to another country

• dependent on domestic inputs usage: giving a subsidy to an organisation on the condition that it uses a set percentage of UK components in their product

26 October 2026

Collaborative event: register to attend

27 October 2026

Online briefing event: register to attend

(Briefing slides will be available to download from Supporting Information after the event)

1 February 2027

Applicants notified

1 April 2027

Project start by

Before you start

You must read the guidance on applying for a competition on the Innovation Funding Service before you start.

Before submitting, it is the lead applicant’s responsibility to make sure:

• that all the information provided in the application is correct

• your proposal meets the eligibility and scope criteria

• all sections of the application are marked as complete

• that all partners have completed all assigned sections and accepted the terms and conditions (T&Cs)

You can reopen your application once submitted, up until the competition deadline. You must resubmit the application before the competition deadline.

What we ask you

The application is split into four sections:

1. Project details.

2. Application questions.

3. Finances.

4. Project Impact.

Accessibility and Inclusion

We welcome and encourage applications from people of all backgrounds and are committed to making our application process accessible to everyone. This includes making reasonable adjustments for people who have a disability or a long-term condition and face barriers applying to us.

You can contact us at any time to ask for guidance.

We recommend you contact us at least 15 working days before this competition’s closing date to allow us to put the most suitable support in place. The support we can provide may be limited if you contact us close to the competition deadline.

You can contact Innovate UK by email or call 0300 321 4357. Our phone lines are open from 9am to 12pm and 2pm to 5pm UK time, Monday to Friday (excluding bank holidays).

1. Project details

This section provides background for your application and is not scored.

Do not include any website addresses (URLs) in your answers.

Application team

Decide which organisations will work with you on your project and invite people from those organisations to help complete the application.

Application details

Give your project’s title, start date and duration.

Research category

Select the type of research you will undertake.

Project summary

Describe your project briefly and be clear about what makes it innovative. We use this section to assign the right experts to assess your application.

Your answer can be up to 400 words long.

Public description

Describe your project in detail and in a way that you are happy to see published. Do not include any commercially sensitive information. If we award your project funding, we will publish this description. This can happen before you start your project.

Your answer can be up to 400 words long.

Scope

Your answer must explain:

• how your use of AI is innovative and involves a meaningful application of advanced AI or ML capability

• how the AI capability is central to the proposed deployment

• how the deployer and proposed deployment are aligned with the sector you have selected

• how the proposed use case clearly aligns with the primary purpose of the strand you have selected

• what technical, operational, regulatory or assurance challenges are associated with deployment

• how the proposed deployment is novel in its context and goes beyond routine configuration, integration or implementation of an existing AI service

If your answer is not detailed or your project is not in scope, it will not be sent for assessment. We will tell you the reason why.

Your answer can be up to 800 words long.

2. Application questions

The assessors will score all your answers apart from questions 1 to 9. You will receive feedback for each scored question. Find out more about how our assessors assess and how we select applications for funding.

You must answer all questions. Your answer to each question can be up to 400 words long.

You must not include any website addresses or links (URLs) in your answers. Any website addresses or URLs included, will not be viewed or opened.

Question 1. Applicant location (not scored)

You must state the name and full registered address of your organisation and any partners or subcontractors working on your project.

We are collecting this information to understand more about the geographical location of all applicants.

Question 2. Animal testing (not scored)

Will your project involve any trials with animals or animal testing?

You must select one option:

• Yes

• No

We will only support innovation projects conducted to the highest standards of animal welfare.

Further information for proposals involving animal testing is available at the UKRI Good Research Hub and NC3R’s animal welfare guidance.

Question 3. Permits and licences (not scored)

Will you have the correct permits and licences in place to carry out your project?

We are unable to fund projects which do not have the correct permits or licences in place by your project start date.

You must select one option:

• Yes

• No

• In the process of being applied for

• Not applicable

Question 4. International collaboration (not scored)

Does your proposed work involve any international collaboration or engagement?

You must provide details of any expected international collaboration or engagement. You must include a list of the names and the countries, any international project co-leads, project partners, visiting researchers, or other collaborators are based in. You must also include details of any subcontractors or service providers.

If your proposed work does not involve international collaboration or engagement, your answer must confirm this.

Question 5. Export licence (not scored)

You must indicate whether an export control license is required for this project under the academic export control guidance.

You must select one option:

• Yes

• No

Question 6. Trusted Research and Innovation (not scored)

You must explain if your proposed project work relates to UKRI’s Trusted Research and Innovation (TR&I) Principles, including:

• a list of any dual use (both military and non-military) applications to your research

• a list of the areas where your project is relevant to one or more of the 17 areas of the UK National Security and Investment (NSI) Act

• whether an export control license is required for this project under the academic export control guidance and the status of any applications

• a list of any items or substances on the UK Strategic Export Control List

If your proposed work does not relate to UKRI’s TR&I Principles, your answer must confirm this.

We may ask you to provide additional TR&I information at a later date, in line with UKRI TR&I Principles and funding terms and conditions.

Question 7. Sectoral Focus: What is the sectoral focus area of the deployment context (not scored)

You must select one option:

• Financial Services

• Defence

• Advanced manufacturing

• Clean energy industries

• Health and Life Sciences

• Professional and Business Services

• Creative Industries

Question 8. AI Supplier (not scored)

You must confirm the organisation acting as the AI Supplier for this project.

You must use the same organisation name provided in the Applicant Details section.

Question 9. AI Deployer (not scored)

You must confirm the organisation acting as the AI Deployer for this project.

Question 10. Market Size

Estimate the realistic market opportunity for your innovation.

Provide an evidence based assessment by:

1. The Total Addressable Market (TAM): This is the total market demand for a product or service. It's the maximum revenue opportunity available if 100% market share was achieved.

2. The Serviceable Obtainable Market (SOM): The portion of the addressable market that can realistically be captured by your innovation. It factors in constraints like competition, geography, pricing, and how easily you can go to market.

Question 11. Real world Application and Benefit

Describe the proposed real-world application of the innovation and the anticipated benefits for the organisation deploying it. Provide quantitative estimates of these benefits.

Your response must include quantitative estimates of the anticipated benefits for a typical deployer. Benefits can come from many areas including financial, operational, safety and quality, sustainability, business resilience.

Question 12. Solutions for deployment for innovation readiness

Describe the innovation, including what has been developed to date, how it works, and evidence that it is sufficiently developed for the proposed project.

Explain the intellectual property position, including ownership and confirmation that the project team has the rights required to develop, deploy and commercialise the innovation.

You must upload a technical architecture diagram. It must be a PDF no larger than 10MB. It can be up to two A4 pages and must be legible at 100% zoom.

Question 13. Route to Deployment

Describe your route to deployment and how you will address the regulatory, assurance and standards requirements for your use case.

You must outline:

• what you have done already

• what you understand you must do prior to deployment

Question 14. Skills

What skills, capabilities or experience does your team have that will help you deliver your innovation?

You must include any skills, knowledge, or experiences that are applicable.

Question 15. Deployer readiness

Explain how the deploying organisation provides an appropriate environment for demonstrating the innovation.

Describe the operational environment and why it is suitable for validating the proposed application. Include the people, data, systems, workflows and other resources that will be available to support the demonstration.

Question 16. Learning

Describe the evidence, data and insights that will be collected during the project, how they will be gathered, and how they will be used to inform future deployment or commercialisation of the innovation.

Question 17. Risk detail

You must outline the top three risks for wider deployment of your innovation in more detail. For each identified risk, explain what actions you will take to mitigate its impact.

Risks can come from many areas for example:

• technical risks: risks related to product development, functionality of performance

• commercial or financial risks: for example, those related to market adoption, competition or profitability

• environmental or social risks: risks related to environmental impact, regulations, social acceptance

• regulatory risks: risks related to obtaining necessary regulatory approvals

• project management risks: risks related to timelines, team or resources

Recognising and acknowledging potential risks is a vital part of the planning process and will not negatively impact your application.

Question 18. Milestones

What are the key milestones you are aiming to achieve through this award?

You must focus specifically on what the funding from this competition will enable you to do. Your milestones must fit within your anticipated timeline for project delivery.

You don’t need to provide the full project plan in the answer to this question.

Question 19. Delivery

What steps will you be taking to ensure successful delivery of your milestones?

Your response must consider how you will achieve these key milestones.

3. Finances

Each organisation in your project must complete their own project costs, organisation details and funding details in the application. Academic institutions must use the Transparent Approach to Costing (TRAC) method and upload to IFS to support their costs. This is a replacement to the Je-S form which has now been decommissioned.

For an overview on what costs you can claim, see our project costs guidance. Note this is general guidance, for specific guidance see the eligibility section in this competition.

4. Project Impact

This section is not scored but will provide background to your project.

Each partner must complete the Project Impact questions before being able to submit the application.

More information can be found in our Project Impact guidance and by viewing our Impact Management Framework video.

Innovate UK complies with the requirements of UK GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018, and is committed to upholding data protection legislation, and protecting your information in accordance with data protection principles.

Assessment

Your application will be reviewed by three independent assessors based on the content of your application and their skills or expertise relevant to your project. All of the scores awarded will count towards the total score used to make the funding decision unless you are notified otherwise.

You can find out more about our assessment process in the General Guidance.

Your submitted application will be assessed against these criteria:

BridgeAI Deployment Catalyst AI for Decision Critical Systems assessor guidance for applicants.pdf (opens in a new window)

Background and further information

BridgeAI Deployment Catalyst is a multi-phase programme designed and delivered by Innovate UK in partnership with strategic delivery partners:

• Innovate UK Business Connect

• Digital Catapult

• The Alan Turing Institute

• The National Physical Laboratory

The programme aims to accelerate the deployment of advanced Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) solutions. It supports UK AI suppliers and deployer organisations to move from promising pilots and early stage adoption towards live operational deployment and replication.

The programme is focused on AI solutions that already have a functioning minimum viable product and evidence of development beyond concept stage. It is not intended to support early stage research, routine implementation or generic business process improvement. Projects must address substantive deployment challenges and demonstrate a credible route towards live operational use and future replication.

During the programme, organisations will be expected to engage with Innovate UK and relevant strategic delivery partners to support project delivery, capture learning and identify common barriers to AI deployment. Strategic delivery partners will provide expert, vendor neutral guidance to help organisations understand good practice in areas such as deployment preparation, Testing, Evaluation, Validation and Verification (TEVV), assurance, supplier readiness and commercialisation.

The programme is also intended to generate learning that can support wider AI adoption across the UK ecosystem. Innovate UK and its delivery partners will use engagement with funded projects to identify common barriers, good practice and practical lessons from deployment activity.

Information and learning from funded projects may be used to develop wider ecosystem outputs, including case studies, guidance, tools, templates and other learning materials. Participation agreements will set out expectations around engagement, information sharing, monitoring and learning.

Commercially sensitive information, intellectual property and sensitive operational information will not be included in wider materials without agreement from the relevant organisations.

The programme pipeline structure is:

Phase 1: Define

Phase 1 will support UK registered AI suppliers and deployer organisations. They will define and evidence a credible deployment use case for an existing AI or ML solution at TRL 5 to 6.

Projects will assess supplier and deployer readiness. They will identify key technical, operational, commercial, governance, assurance and regulatory barriers. They will also define a pathway towards live deployment.

By the end of Phase 1, projects should have an evidence based use case and a readiness assessment. They should also have identified key deployment requirements. Projects must deliver a demonstration showing how the solution could operate in the intended environment.

The total grant funding request for Phase 1 is expected to be between £100,000 and £200,000. Projects are expected to last three to five months.

Phase 2: Deployment preparation

Phase 2 will support selected projects to prepare for live deployment. This includes the AI solution, deployer organisation and operational setting.

Projects will refine the solution and plan integration. They will address barriers identified in Phase 1 and prepare the deployment environment. They will also define the technical, operational, governance and assurance requirements for live use.

The total grant funding request for Phase 2 is expected to be up to £1 million. Projects are expected to last approximately six months.

Phase 3: Live deployment and replication

Phase 3 will support selected projects to deploy the AI solution in a live operational setting. The initial deployment will be with the original deployer. Projects will then replicate the deployment across two additional organisations, use cases or operating environments.

Projects will focus on implementation, live use and performance monitoring. They will also address assurance, user adoption, benefits measurement and repeatability.

By the end of Phase 3, projects should have evidence of live deployment and learning from replication. They should also have a clearer route to wider adoption and scale.

The total grant funding request for Phase 3 is expected to be up to £2 million. Projects are expected to last approximately 22 months.

As this is a stage gated programme, projects must be delivered within the agreed timescales. Delays may affect whether a project is invited to apply for the next phase.

Research, Development and Innovation Streamlined Scheme Information

This award is being offered under the Research, Development and Innovation Streamlined Subsidy Scheme in accordance with section 10(4) of the Subsidy Control Act 2022.

Projects funded must meet the following definition(s):

Category 1: Feasibility study

The evaluation and analysis of the potential of a project, which aims at supporting the process of decision-making. This is done by objectively and rationally uncovering its strengths and weaknesses, opportunities and threats, as well as identifying the resources required to carry it through and ultimately its prospects for success.​

Briefing recording and slides

Briefing recording and slides will be available to download here after the briefing event.

What happens if you receive a grant offer

If you have passed your initial assessment and have received an email with a grant offer, you will be asked to complete the project setup process on the Innovation Funding Service (IFS). Watch our video on what steps are there before a project starts.

We will ask for information that will allow us to undertake mandatory checks on your organisation and the eligibility of your costs, as well as review the documentation for your project.

You must follow the unique link embedded in your email notification. This takes you to your project's dedicated IFS Set Up portal, where we gather the information required to set up your project, for example, your bank details. Watch our video on how successful applicants receive their funding.

If your application is unsuccessful

If you are unsuccessful with your application this time, you can view feedback from the assessors. This will be available to you on your IFS portal following notification.

Sometimes your application will have scored well, and you will receive positive comments from the assessors. You may be unsuccessful as your average score was not above the funding threshold or your project has not been selected under the portfolio approach if this is applied for this competition.

Find a project partner

If you want help to find a project partner, contact Innovate UK Business Connect.

Support for SMEs from Innovate UK Business Growth service

Innovate UK Business Growth helps innovation focused businesses make the best strategic choices and access the right resources, in order to grow and ultimately achieve scale.

Visit the service’s website to learn about how you might benefit as a winner.

Protecting your innovation

A Secure Innovation campaign has been developed to help founders and leaders of innovative startups protect their technology, competitive advantage, and reputation.

This was developed by UK’s National Protective Security Authority (NPSA) and the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC).

Data sharing

This competition is operated by Innovate UK.

To support successful applicants, Innovate UK will share relevant information submitted and produced during the application process with selected delivery partners for the purpose of providing support and capturing learning to inform wider ecosystem outputs.

The delivery partners are:

• Innovate UK Business Connect

• Digital Catapult

• The Alan Turing Institute

• The National Physical Laboratory

These partners may contact successful applicants directly, on Innovate UK’s behalf, to provide support aligned with the objectives of the programme and to capture learning that can support wider AI adoption across the UK ecosystem.

Innovate UK is accountable for its handling and processing of your information as data controller. The delivery partners are accountable for meeting their obligations under the relevant data sharing agreements and applicable data protection legislation. Data will be held and processed in accordance with each organisation’s applicable data protection policies and legal obligations.

Innovate UK may also share any relevant information submitted and produced during the application process concerning your application with Innovate UK’s national and regional UK third parties and partners who may contact you. For more information see how we handle grant applicant and grant holder data.

Innovate UK and Innovate UK Business Connect are joint data controllers for the personal data of successful applicants processed to deliver this programme. We have an arrangement under UK GDPR Article 26 that sets out our respective roles and responsibilities, including who provides privacy information and who handles data subject rights; key points are available on request. The delivery partners, Digital Catapult, The Alan Turing Institute and The National Physical Laboratory, will process data in accordance with the relevant data sharing agreements and applicable data protection legislation.

Innovate UK’s Privacy Policy

Innovate UK Business Connect Privacy Policy

Digital Catapult Privacy Policy

The Alan Turing Institute Privacy Policy

The National Physical Laboratory Privacy Policy

Innovate UK complies with the requirements of UK GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018, and is committed to upholding data protection legislation, and protecting your information in accordance with data protection principles.

The Information Commissioner’s Office also has a useful guide for organisations, which outlines the data protection principles.

Contact us

If you need more information about how to apply or you want to submit your application in Welsh, email support@iuk.ukri.org or call 0300 321 4357.

Our phone lines are open from 9am to 12pm and 2pm to 5pm UK time, Monday to Friday (excluding bank holidays).

Innovate UK or any of our partners will not tolerate abusive language in any written or verbal correspondence, applications, social media or any other form that might affect staff.