Funding Opportunities: 

Fintech/Prof Services

Breakthrough 6 invites innovative ideas from appointed water companies in England and Wales to tackle major water sector challenges and deliver benefits for customers, communities, and the environment. Entries should request £150,000–£2 million in funding, with partners contributing at least 10% financially. Collaboration is strongly encouraged, particularly with SMEs and other sector organisations. Projects can run for less than a year or extend beyond 2031, with successful applicants notified by April 2026 following eligibility checks and panel review.

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This funding opportunity provides loans of £100,000 to £5 million for late-stage R&D projects by UK-registered SMEs. It targets highly innovative projects with clear commercialisation routes and significant economic impact, especially in future economy areas highlighted by Innovate UK. Applicants must show a need for public funding, the ability to repay loans, and a credible repayment plan. Eligible projects should deliver new or significantly improved products, processes, or services and fall within key areas such as Net Zero (energy, industrial processes, agriculture, food, capital intensity), Health and Wellbeing (ill health, wellbeing, diet, food), and Next Generation Digital and Technology Families (AI, advanced computing, bioinformatics, genomics, robotics, smart machines, advanced materials, quantum, energy and environment technologies). Funding is awarded competitively across multiple rounds, with project durations of up to five years covering both R&D and commercialisation phases.

This competition seeks innovative solutions that enhance deployable Test and Evaluation (T&E) capabilities and introduce new technological or regulatory approaches to speed up military assurance processes. Challenge 1 focuses on mobile, high-fidelity testing systems that can operate in austere or deployed environments, reducing reliance on traditional test ranges and enabling real-time performance insights. Challenge 2 aims to accelerate assurance across the capability lifecycle through new technologies or processes, supporting continuous testing, rapid revalidation, and safe experimentation beyond standard regulated ranges. Projects must be genuinely innovative, fall within an 11-month delivery window ending at TRL 6, and avoid consultancy, off-the-shelf demonstrations, resubmissions, or work with no clear long-term defence value.

This competition funds business-led collaborative research and development projects focused on industrial research between the UK, Japan, and other Eureka participating countries, with Innovate UK supporting the UK partners only. Projects must demonstrate strong market potential and aim to develop innovative products, technology-based applications, or services that involve technological risk and represent a substantial advancement beyond incremental improvements. Funding will not be provided for projects involving non-civilian technologies, work in the nuclear or drug discovery sectors, or those lacking at least one UK-registered business and one eligible Japanese partner.

We are interested in funding high quality applied health and social care research to increase and improve the evidence base about early action and prevention with health and social care services. Innovation that could facilitate a marked change in how we deal with complex health issues.

We are looking to fund research which has the potential to inform prevention services at a national level, and therefore local or regional evaluations are unlikely to be fundable. Similarly, evaluations focused on emerging technologies will require evidence of readiness for research on large-scale service delivery, including the published evidence base. All research should consider health and/or social care inequalities, or research focusing on how reducing inequalities can be integrated into prevention services. Alongside this, increasing access to neighbourhood health and social care services, moving care from hospitals into the community, and/or avoiding hospital admissions in the context of prevention are of particular interest to HSDR.

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This competition is seeking innovations in autonomous sensor management and data fusion that can detect and counter attempts to deceive Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance operations. Proposals should show strong commercialisation potential, clear evidence of technical capability, and active collaboration across all partners involved. Phase 2 integrates the previous phase’s separate challenges into a single focus on autonomous techniques that counter deception, with solutions expected to demonstrate performance in a relevant environment at TRL 6. Projects must run for at least 18 months, with up to two collaborative projects expected to be funded, and Phase 1 participation is not required.

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This pilot aims to accelerate high-risk deep tech innovation by supporting breakthrough solutions in areas where commercial uptake is limited, while testing whether stage-gated funding and early involvement of end-users improve market adoption. It focuses on two major challenges: Physical AI for next-generation robotics, and New Approach Methodologies that can replace or reduce animal testing in biomedical research and product safety. Eligible applicants include start-ups, SMEs, and research organisations, with funding delivered across two stages to develop, validate, and test solutions in real-world settings. Successful projects can receive up to €300,000 in Stage 1 and up to €2.5 million in Stage 2, alongside access to partners, experts, and a wider innovation ecosystem.

The NIHR Decarbonising the Health and Social Care System fund supports UK research that reduces carbon emissions and promotes sustainability in health and social care. With £25 million available over five years, it backs projects developing or evaluating innovations, service models, or care pathways that advance net zero goals and can inform policy and practice. Open to UK-based researchers and organisations, the programme encourages collaboration with SMEs, charities, and local authorities to deliver practical, scalable solutions.

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This competition aims to test novel whole-system solutions that tackle grid, power, and operational barriers to delivering ultra-rapid EV charging at challenging sites along England’s Strategic Road Network. Projects must demonstrate technologies that enable at least 12 cars or vans to charge at 150 kW or more, while showing clear potential for replication and wider rollout across APTR cold spots and motorway service areas. Only proposals that directly address future grid constraints up to 2030 and support real-world deployment by March 2028 are eligible, with required collaboration between an SRN site operator and a charge point operator. Funding of £500,000 to £3 million is available for UK-led consortia able to safely operate the solution for at least three years after deployment.

This funding opportunity supports high-quality applied health and social care research focused on early action, prevention, and reducing inequalities at a national level. It aims to generate evidence that improves prevention services, enhances access to community-based care, and reduces hospital admissions. Research should address preventative strategies, early diagnosis, and interventions for those at risk of long-term conditions, demonstrating clear national impact and relevance to the NHS and social care. Areas of interest include improving prevention pathways, integrating preventative approaches, using data to deliver proactive support, and evaluating innovative service models or technologies. There are no specific eligibility restrictions for applicants.

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