Innovate UK Smart Grants
Funds United Kingdom technology ventures across broad sectors through competitive grants for deep technology and innovation.
Innovate UK Smart Grants was the UK's most widely used open innovation grant competition from 2017 until its suspension in January 2025. Operating on a quarterly cycle, the programme accepted applications from UK-registered businesses across any technology sector — science, engineering, creative industries, or digital — with no thematic restriction. At peak activity the programme funded more than …
Any UK technology or innovation area — open scope across science, engineering, creative industries, and digital. Project must be industrial research or experimental development (TRL 3 to 7) with a clear UK commercialisation path.
Sign up free to see the funding breakdown
Sign up free to see the industries in scope
Sign up free to see the full eligibility
Sign up free to see how they score you
Sign up free to see the timeline
Guides for this application
All guides →Innovate UK Grants for Deeptech Startups
How UK deeptech startups should approach Innovate UK grants, including competition fit, R&D categories, collaboration, eligibility, budgets, and strategy.
Where to applyGrants for Biotech Startups: NIH, NSF, SBIR/STTR, and Non-Dilutive Funding
A practical guide to grants for biotech startups, including NIH SBIR/STTR, NSF, translational funding, evidence, regulatory readiness, and budgets.
Where to applyGrants for Robotics Startups: SBIR, Defense, NSF, and Pilot Funding
A practical guide to grants for robotics startups, including SBIR/STTR, NSF, DoD, NASA, field validation, TRL, pilot evidence, budgets, and commercialization strategy.
BudgetGrant Financials and Co-Funding Evidence: Examples for Startup Applications
See examples of grant financials, match funding evidence, co-funding tables, accountant letters, investor commitments, and budget-to-work-plan checks.
More from Innovate UK
All grants from this funder →Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP): 2026 – 2027 Round 3
🇬🇧Innovate UK · United Kingdom
A university and a business share a graduate for a project neither could run alone.
Advancing innovation in accelerated cancer diagnosis
🇬🇧Innovate UK · United Kingdom
Supporting clinical validation of early cancer diagnostic technologies
National Materials Innovation Programme: CR&D Rd1
🇬🇧Innovate UK · United Kingdom
Funds UK-registered businesses collaborating on industrial research into advanced materials, covering up to 70% of project costs from a £12 million pool.
DRIVE35 Scale-up Fund drawdown five
🇬🇧Innovate UK · United Kingdom
Build the UK plant that makes zero emission vehicle technology at real volume.
UK-Singapore CRD 2026
🇬🇧Innovate UK · United Kingdom
Funding for UK-Singapore industrial research collaborations.
BridgeAI
🇬🇧Innovate UK · United Kingdom
Supports artificial intelligence adoption in agriculture, construction, creative, and transport sectors.
Similar grants
Browse the directory →
National Space Innovation Programme - Call 3
🇬🇧DSIT · United Kingdom
Co-funded R&D for UK space technologies, applications and services
International AI Partnerships for Local Innovation
🇪🇺European Commission · European Union
Funds two €1.5M projects that adapt European AI to local data, innovation hubs and real-world challenges in low- and middle-income countries.
Towards Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) for healthcare
🇪🇺European Commission · European Union
Funds a European community and roadmap for trustworthy frontier AI models in healthcare.
Industrial Energy: Renewable Heat and Storage
🇪🇺European Commission · European Union
Funds €7–9M projects that replace fossil process energy with renewable heat, electrification and resilient industrial storage.
BBSRC Industrial Partnership Awards (IPA) — Always Open
🇬🇧BBSRC · United Kingdom
Supports United Kingdom industry-academia teams through partnership awards for precommercial innovation experiments.
Cancer Mission: Functional Genomics for New Treatments
🇪🇺European Commission · European Union
Funds €7–8M projects that use functional genomics and patient data to uncover precise new targets for difficult-to-treat cancers.