Find out more about this 2 strand competition at a live briefing event

Competition details

Innovate UK is to invest up to £19 million to support innovation that offers significant changes in productivity and cutting-edge innovation. The competition has 2 strands; strand 1 is for health and life sciences projects and strand 2 is for emerging and enabling technologies projects. A further £12 million is available to fund Knowledge Transfer Partnerships (KTPs).

Projects under strand 1, Health and Life Sciences must show significant innovation in one of these priority areas:

1. Increasing agricultural productivity

2. Improving food quality and sustainability

3. Advanced therapies (cell and gene therapies)

4. Precision medicine

5. Medicines discovery

6. Advanced biosciences

The aim of the competition under strand 2 emerging and enabling technologies is to help UK businesses broaden their innovation activities, disrupt existing markets and find new revenue sources. Projects must show significant innovation in one of 4 priority areas:

1. Emerging technologies (biofilms, energy harvesting, graphene, new imaging technologies)

2. Digital

3. Enabling capabilities, including electronics, sensors and photonics (ESP), robotics and autonomous systems (RAS), creative economy and design

4. Space applications

All projects must involve at least one SME, working alone or in collaboration with other organisations. Projects with costs over £100,000 must be collaborative and include a funded partner.

The competition will open on the 22nd January and you must apply before 28th March. More details will be shared soon.

Register for the event here