UKRI Translation: Proof of Concept

UKRI Translation: Proof of Concept sits under UK Research and Innovation and is delivered through the UKRI Funding Service. It is a grant route for UK research organisations that need a small but deliberate bridge from research to application, with an industry partner possible but not required. The scope is cross-sector translation rather than a single discipline, so the call is aimed at teams with a defined technical idea and a reason to push it beyond the lab. Awards run from GBP 125k to GBP 312.5k, with a median actual award of GBP 200k, and the programme usually appears once a year. Applicants must be UK research organisations, and the record points to a 20 percent match requirement. The technical range runs from TRL 3 to 5, which keeps it in the proof-of-concept band rather than full commercialisation. The route is tied to UK geography, and the source note frames the call as supporting an October 2026 start. This is the sort of scheme that rewards a tight translation story: a credible use case, a narrow plan, and enough evidence that the project can move from research output to something a partner can test or adopt. Teams that treat it like a general research grant will miss the point. The strongest fit is an organisation with a specific application path and a practical reason to spend public money on de-risking that path.

No upcoming rounds verified. Cadence: Annual.