Innovate UK Opens New Round of Smart Grants

The Smart Grants programme is an Innovate UK (IUK) ‘open grant funding’ initiative. Through the programme, IUK is investing in commercially viable, business-focused, innovative or disruptive ideas that have potential to boost the UK’s economy.

IUK will fund innovative research and development (R&D) projects across a variety of technologies, markets and research categories, including feasibility projects, industrial research projects, and experimental development projects.

The current round of the competition will be the last in its regular format. Future rounds will be more focused on supporting proposals from UK-based innovative businesses that are destined for early, successful commercialisation, growth and exports.

This competition is open to single applicants and collaborations. To lead a project, the applicant must be a UK-based business of any size or a research and technology organisation (RTO). If collaborating with others, the application must include an SME. To work alone, the applicant must be an SME. Collaborators can be UK based businesses, academic organisations, charities, public sector organisations or RTOs.

IUK has allocated up to £25 million to fund innovation projects in this competition. Projects of 6 to 18 months must have total eligible project costs between £100,000 and £500,000 and can be single or collaborative. Projects of 19 to 36 months must have total eligible project costs between £100,000 and £2 million and must be collaborative.

Applications can come from any area of technology and be applied to any part of the economy, such as, but not exclusively, net zero; health and wellbeing; technologies; the arts, design and media.

The deadline for applications to be submitted is 13 April 2022 (11:00 GMT).