Innovate UK Efficient, Structured and Controllable AI Systems
Innovate UK (UKRI) · Innovation grant (AI)
$140KProjects with £50,000–£150,000 total costs; grant up to 70% for micro/small firms (≈£105k max). £1.66M pot.
Industrial-research grant for UK AI startups, deep-tech SMEs and spinouts to experimentally validate novel reusable AI mechanisms (new learning rules, adaptive/graph-native architectures, causal models, agent control).
Key terms
- Lead must be a UK-registered SME; one lead application per organisation; no subcontractors
- Projects must start at TRL 1–3
- Must beat named baselines with ablations/negative controls; whitepaper at end
- ~4% historical success rate; possible Phase 2 not yet funded
Eligibility
- Where
- United Kingdom
- Stages
- idea, pre-seed, seed
- Needs VC/accelerator backing
- No
- Needs partner referral code
- No
- Must be incorporated
- Yes
- AI focus required
- Yes
- Students / researchers
- Not eligible
- Nonprofits
- Not eligible
How to apply
Apply on the Innovation Funding Service before 11:00 UK time on the closing date.
- Benefit
- cash
- Equity-free
- Yes
- Decision time
- —
- Credit validity
- —
- Deadline
- 2026-11-18
- Status
- Open
Verified 2026-10-23 · source