Startup grants in the UK: Innovate UK and what is open now

By GrantSnap team · Published 2026-10-31 · guide

The Innovation Funding Service competition search, captured 31 October 2026.

Yes, UK startups can get grant funding, but the main route is a competition run by Innovate UK, part of UKRI, rather than a standing grant for any new company. Most other support that looks like a grant is regional, aimed at one sector, or is actually a loan. As of 31 October 2026, you can search the open competitions on the Innovation Funding Service and the wider support schemes on GOV.UK.

This guide is for a UK-registered founder. It explains where each type of money sits, how the funding share is capped, what the application asks, how assessment works, how it sits next to R&D tax relief, and where to look for devolved and local funds. Confirm every date and amount on the official page before you act.

The honest map of UK startup funding

GOV.UK runs a finance and support finder. On 31 October 2026 it listed 185 schemes. You can filter by type of support (finance, equity, grant, loan, expertise and advice, recognition awards), by business stage (not yet trading, start-ups with one to two years of trading, established), by sector, by number of employees and by region.

The results show how mixed the field is. The finder describes one Sunderland innovation grant as a 40% contribution towards projects valued between £5,000 and £25,000, and another business grant as up to £750. It describes a Business Growth Loan offering finance of up to £250k, and a co-investment fund that makes equity investments alongside angel syndicates.

Innovate UK describes itself as the UK's innovation agency. Its funding is usually offered as a share of a pot for a defined call, not as money open to every company. If your work is not research and development, or does not fit a live call, a regional scheme or a loan is more likely to be your route.

Innovate UK competitions and the Innovation Funding Service

Innovate UK competitions are listed on the Innovation Funding Service, which is marked as a beta site. On 31 October 2026 its search page showed 29 competitions, with filters for keywords and innovation area. Each entry says whether it is open now or opening soon, whether it takes single applicants or collaborations, and the closing date.

Applications are tied to a signed-in account. The site warns that you are signed out after eight hours of inactivity, so write your answers elsewhere and paste them in.

Innovate UK's eligibility page says your organisation must be UK-registered with its main operations in the UK. It defines an SME as fewer than 250 employees and either turnover below £50 million or a balance sheet total under £43 million. It also says a project lead can lead one application and collaborate on two others, and that a project gets two assessment opportunities before it becomes ineligible. Each competition sets its own extra rules.

Funding intensity and subsidy control

A grant rarely pays the whole bill. Innovate UK's eligibility page says R&D grants typically offer up to 70% funding to SMEs, with less for large organisations, and that some small early-stage competitions allow 100% funding. You pay the rest.

The Frontier AI: SME Champions, Phase 1 page shows how this works in one live call. It allows up to 70% of eligible costs for micro and small organisations, 60% for medium and 50% for large, on projects with total eligible costs of £150,000 to £250,000. For a small company that means a grant of £105,000 to £175,000 and a contribution of £45,000 to £75,000 from you. That is our arithmetic from the page's figures, not a stated amount.

Nearer-market work gets a lower share. A closed Innovate UK investor partnerships competition offered up to 45% for micro or small organisations and 35% for medium on experimental development, against 70% and 60% for feasibility and industrial research.

Funding is given under the Subsidy Control Act 2022. The Frontier AI page names the Research, Development and Innovation Streamlined Subsidy Scheme, SC10780. It says organisations in financial difficulty are ineligible and that viability checks follow the application stage. It also says Innovate UK cannot advise on your individual position, so take independent advice if unsure.

What the application asks

The Frontier AI page lists four sections: project details, application questions, finances and project impact. The project details ask for a summary, a public description and the scope. The first seven questions are not scored and cover things like location, animal testing, permits, international collaboration, export licences and research security.

Ten questions are scored. They cover intellectual property and defensibility, the need and the technical development, your team and resources, market awareness, outcomes and route to market, wider impacts, project management, risks, added value, and costs and value for money. Most answers are capped at 400 words, with two longer ones at 600 and 800. Some questions take a PDF appendix of up to two A4 pages, such as a project plan or a risk register.

The page says missing CVs cap the team score at 5, and that answers must not contain links. The closed investor partnerships competition went further and warned that web addresses in answers can make an application ineligible. Read the competition's own rules, because they differ.

How assessment works and how long it takes

The Frontier AI page says three independent assessors score each application against published assessor guidance. Scores are totalled to make funding decisions. You can be rejected even with positive feedback if your average falls below the threshold or the portfolio approach does not pick you. Unsuccessful applicants can read assessor feedback in their portal.

The same page says that competition is oversubscribed and estimates about a 2% chance of success. That is a figure for that call, not for Innovate UK in general.

Timelines are long. Frontier AI closes on 11 November 2026 at 11:00am, applicants are notified on 26 January 2027, and projects must start by 1 April 2027. That is about eleven weeks from close to decision. The closed investor partnerships round closed on 3 February 2026, notified applicants on 17 March 2026 and set a project start of 1 July 2026.

Open now in the catalog

GrantSnap's catalog held 102 live UK grants on 31 October 2026, most from Innovate UK and the UKRI research councils. Frontier AI: SME Champions, Phase 1 is the most direct fit for a small UK AI company. It has four themes, takes only a single UK SME with no subcontractors, and each SME may submit one application.

Other open calls in the catalog include Engineering Biology Collaborative R&D: Round 3, the First-of-a-Kind builder programme entry, and Battery innovation: feasibility studies round three. Knowledge Transfer Partnership: 2026 to 2027 round 4 closes on 27 January 2027. Innovate UK's page lists its eligible applicants as UK-registered academic institutions, research and technology organisations or Catapults, so a business joins through one of them.

R&D tax relief and other non-dilutive routes

R&D tax relief is the other main non-dilutive source, and it works through your Corporation Tax return rather than a competition. HMRC's guidance says only companies chargeable to UK Corporation Tax can qualify. The project must seek an advance in science or technology by resolving an uncertainty that an expert could not readily resolve, and you must be able to explain how you tried to overcome it. You must file an additional information form before claiming.

The HMRC page we fetched does not say how a grant affects an R&D claim, so we cannot state the rule here. Ask an adviser or read HMRC's subsidy guidance before you plan your cash around both.

Start Up Loans are a different thing: a government-backed unsecured loan, not a grant, and it must be repaid. Innovate UK Business Connect's page gives £500 to £25,000 at a fixed 7.5% a year over one to five years, with 12 months of free mentoring. Innovate UK Business Growth is not money. It gives one-to-one support from growth specialists, including on which grant and capital options fit your goals.

Devolved and local funds, and common mistakes

Use the GOV.UK finder first and filter by your region. Then check your national agency. Scottish Enterprise lists business grants and funding calls on its site and offers live chat and a contact page, but its home page gave no amounts. Business Wales says its advice is fully funded for people in Wales and points to the Development Bank of Wales for finance.

The mistakes follow from the rules above. Founders treat a loan as a grant. They apply to a call that does not fit the stated theme, and the Frontier AI page says such applications are not sent for assessment. They forget they must fund the balance. They leave out CVs or paste links. They assume one strong answer will carry weak ones, when scores are totalled across questions. And they start late, when notification can take months.

GrantSnap tracks live calls like these, drafts answers from your profile and fills the form in Chrome. You review every answer before you submit anything.

Common questions

Can a UK startup get a grant without doing research and development?

Rarely from Innovate UK, whose competitions fund defined innovation projects. Check the GOV.UK finder for regional or local grants, and treat anything labelled a loan as repayable.

Are Start Up Loans grants?

No. Innovate UK Business Connect describes Start Up Loans as a government-backed unsecured loan that must be repaid, with amounts from £500 to £25,000.

Do Innovate UK grants pay all project costs?

Usually not. Innovate UK's eligibility page says R&D grants typically fund up to 70% for SMEs, and you pay the rest. The exact share is set in each competition.

How many questions does an Innovate UK application have?

The Frontier AI: SME Champions, Phase 1 page lists seven unscored questions and ten scored ones, with most answers capped at 400 words. Other competitions differ, so read the brief.

Sources

Finance and support for your business - GOV.UK (accessed 2026-10-31)
Innovate UK - UKRI (accessed 2026-10-31)
Innovation competitions - Innovation Funding Service (accessed 2026-10-31)
Competition overview - Frontier AI: SME Champions, Phase 1 (accessed 2026-10-31)
Competition overview - Innovate UK Growth Catalyst (closed) (accessed 2026-10-31)
Innovate UK Grants: Eligibility Criteria - Innovate UK Business Connect (accessed 2026-10-31)
British Business Bank Start-up Loans - Innovate UK Business Connect (accessed 2026-10-31)
Research and Development (R&D) relief for Corporation Tax - GOV.UK (accessed 2026-10-31)
Supporting global innovation - UKRI (accessed 2026-10-31)
Scottish Enterprise (accessed 2026-10-31)
Business Wales (accessed 2026-10-31)

We checked the GOV.UK finder, UKRI and Innovation Funding Service pages, Innovate UK Business Connect pages, HMRC's R&D relief guidance, Scottish Enterprise and Business Wales on 31 October 2026; catalog figures come from the GrantSnap catalog as of 2026-10-31.

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