Medicines Discovery Catapult Industry Partnership

Medicines Discovery Catapult Industry Partnership sits under the Innovate UK Catapult Network and focuses on drug discovery and preclinical work. The route is used for industry partnerships and co-funded calls, including programmes linked to NPIC, LifeArc, AKT-AI, and EDDC. It is built for teams that need a translational partner as much as capital. It offers annual grants from £50,000 to £500,000, with a median award around £150,000. The route is limited to UK biotech SMEs, requires a for-profit applicant, and targets TRL 3 to 5 projects in drug discovery and preclinical development. The same project cannot be funded twice through the route. The strongest applications pair a clear biological hypothesis with a short path to useful evidence, because the Catapult's value sits in helping teams de-risk early translational work. Companies that already have a defined therapeutic or platform question and need structured industry partnership support are the most natural fit, especially when the next step depends on assay data, validation, or preclinical decision-making.

No upcoming rounds verified. Cadence: Annual.