Women in Innovation Awards 2025/26

Overview

Innovate UK, part of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), is offering up to 60 Women in Innovation Awards to women founders and co-founders of micro, small or medium sized enterprises (SMEs) across the UK. This is subject to a sufficient number of high quality applications being received.

Successful projects will receive up to £75,000 of grant funding and bespoke business support for 12 months.

A proportion of highly commended applicants who have not been awarded grant funding in this competition will be offered bespoke business support for 12 months.

Scope

The aims of this competition are to support Women in Innovation Award winners:

whose innovation is aligned to one of the following three high growth sectors defined in the Government’s Industrial Strategy; Advanced Manufacturing, Digital and Technologies and Life Sciences
who have a late stage start-up with ambitions to grow a scalable business which will involve raising considerable investment in the next 12 to 24 months

As a late stage start-up we would expect you to:

have built a basic version of the idea or product, service, solution, for example a prototype or Minimal Viable Product
have received early interest from users, customers, or made some money
know who the product is for and have started testing how the business will work
have an understanding of realistic market opportunity
have started forming a team, going beyond original founders

Your business must be developing a new or significantly improved product, service, or business model that addresses a specific market need. Your solution must be one of the following:

new to the market, for example, not currently available
a significant improvement over existing solutions in terms of performance, efficiency, accessibility, cost or impact

As an award holder you will receive bespoke business support to enable you to significantly grow your business.

Award holders will be required to commit to a minimum of four hours of role modelling activity to inspire future generations of women innovators over the 12 month duration of the award. See more details about being a role model in supporting information.

Innovate UK want to support a diverse cohort of women innovators from a wide range of different backgrounds, from across the UK.

Portfolio approach

Innovate UK want to fund a variety of projects across Advanced Manufacturing, Digital and Technologies and Life Sciences, and different regions. We call this a portfolio approach.

Growth Sectors

The Women in Innovation Awards focus on innovations that support three of the UK’s eight high growth sectors:

For information about each of these high growth sectors we strongly encourage you to look through the sector plan for your respective growth sector.

Your innovation needs to align with one of the following growth sectors and associated priority areas:

Advanced Manufacturing

Automotive: the UK aims to lead in Zero Emission Vehicles (ZEVs) and Connected and Automated Mobility (CAM)
Batteries: will power the transition to net zero and are central to the UK’s clean energy and decarbonisation goals
Aerospace: central to the UK’s ambition to lead in low carbon aircraft technologies, advanced propulsion systems, and next generation aviation innovation
Space: space technologies are part of the UK’s ambition to lead in Industry 4.0, including, in-orbit satellite assembly, advanced manufacturing tools for space applications and integration with AI and automation
Advanced materials: UK manufacturers are leading the charge in developing next generation components that are more sustainable and resilient and better suited for low carbon applications
Agri-tech: pioneering revolutionary approaches to agricultural productivity and sustainable food production, supporting both domestic and global supply chains

Digital and Technologies

Artificial Intelligence (AI): supporting the development of foundation models and applied AI across sectors including health, finance, and manufacturing
Cyber Security: strengthening national cyber resilience and promoting UK leadership in secure digital infrastructure
Quantum Technologies: investing in quantum computing, sensing, and communications to unlock transformative capabilities
Semiconductors: building strategic supply chains and domestic manufacturing capacity for critical semiconductor components
Engineering Biology: advancing synthetic biology and bio-manufacturing for applications in health, agriculture, and materials
Advanced Connectivity: expanding 5G and preparing for 6G networks, alongside satellite based communications for remote areas

Life Sciences

Biotechnology: supporting breakthroughs in areas such as genomics, nucleic acid based medicines, cell and gene therapies
MedTech: accelerating development of AI enabled diagnostics, wearable devices, and minimally invasive technologies
Pharmaceuticals: driving innovation across medicines discovery and development, and scaling sustainable manufacturing technologies. Utilising frontier technologies of AI, engineering biology and quantum
Health Data and AI: integrating NHS data with AI tools to improve patient outcomes and enable personalised medicine

Eligibility

Your project must:

have a grant funding request of up to £75,000
last for 12 months
start on 1 July 2026
end on 30 June 2027

All projects must commence and finish on the dates stated. Any funded business needs to carry out their project work in the UK and must intend to exploit the project results from or in the UK.

Projects must always start on the first of the month, even if this is a non-working day. You must not start your project until your Grant Offer Letter has been approved by Innovate UK. Any delays within Project Setup may mean we need to delay your project start date.

You must only include eligible project costs in your application. See our overview of eligible project costs. For specific guidance, see the eligibility section in this competition.

You will be made ineligible if you exceed the Minimal Financial Assistance limit. You must submit a complete declaration as part of your application.

Lead participant

To lead a project you must:

be a woman founder or co-founder within a UK registered micro, small or medium sized enterprise (SME) that is registered on Companies House
be a resident in the UK
engage in a minimum of 10 hours of training and development support
commit to a minimum of four hours of role modelling activity to inspire future generations of women innovators

You are not eligible to apply for Women in Innovation Awards 2025/26 if you or anyone else from your business have previously received Innovate UK funding from:

Women in Innovation Awards
Young Innovators Next Steps follow on funding
Innovate UK Award: Build

More information on the different types of organisation can be found in our Funding rules.

Subcontractors

Subcontractors are allowed in this competition. Subcontracting costs must not exceed 50% of the grant funding amount.

Subcontractors can be from anywhere in the UK and you must select them through your usual procurement process.

You can use subcontractors from overseas but must make the case in your application as to why you cannot use subcontractors from the UK.

You must also provide a detailed rationale, evidence of the potential UK contractors you approached and the reasons why they were unable to work with you.

We expect all subcontractor costs to be justified and appropriate to the total eligible project costs. We will not accept a cheaper cost as a sufficient reason to use an overseas subcontractor.

Number of applications

You can only make one application for yourself. Only one woman working within an organisation can apply.

Previous applications

You can use a previously submitted application to apply for this competition.

If you have previously submitted an application that reached our assessment stage, you can re-apply once more with the same proposal.

If there are minor differences to the proposal, but it is judged by us to be ‘not materially different’, the same rule applies.

Innovate UK will not award you funding if you have:

failed to exploit a previously funded project
an overdue independent accountant’s report
failed to comply with grant terms and conditions

Innovate UK may withhold a grant payment at any time if you have any outstanding sums due to Innovate UK in relation to other projects.

Exclusions

Innovate UK are not funding projects:

that are not led by a woman founder or co-founder within a UK registered SME
that are not a late stage start-up and does not have ambitions to grow a scalable business which will involve raising considerable investment in the next 12 to 24 months
whose innovation is not aligned to the Advanced Manufacturing, Digital and Technologies or Life Sciences growth sectors
that do not align with our definition of innovation; a solution that is either new to the market (not currently available) or a significant improvement over existing solutions in terms of performance, efficiency, accessibility, cost or impact
that have a grant funding request that exceeds £75,000
that attribute more than 50% of their costs to subcontractors
that do not intend to use the full award package, for example, requesting just the funding and not the wider support package
that have a negative impact on the environment or society
that have a detrimental effect on equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI)
that are unable to engage in a minimum of 10 hours of training and development support
that are unable to commit to a minimum of four hours of role modelling activity to inspire future generations of women innovators
that have previously received Innovate UK funding from Women in Innovation Awards, Young Innovators Next Steps follow on funding, or Innovate UK Award: Build

Innovate UK cannot fund projects that:

involve primary production in fishery and aquaculture
involve primary production in agriculture
are not allowed under de minimis regulation restrictions
are not eligible to receive Minimal Financial Assistance
are dependent on export performance, for example, giving an award to a baker on the condition that they export a certain quantity of bread to another country
are dependent on domestic inputs usage, for example, if we give an award to a baker on the condition that they use 50% UK flour in their product

Funding Costs

A maximum of £4.5 million has been allocated to fund innovation projects in this competition. This is subject to us receiving a sufficient number of high quality applications. Funding will be in the form of a grant.

Innovate UK reserve the right to adjust funding allocations for any of our competitions under exceptional circumstances, for example, in response to changes in policy, portfolio funding considerations, or broader government funding decisions.

Your total project costs will be eligible for up to 100% funding subject to MFA subsidy rules. Your total grant funding request must not exceed £75,000.

If successful, the grant funding will be paid in three instalments:

50% of grant request within a month of project start date
a further 40% in arrears, after approval of 50% claim and the evidence of spend made, submitted with the claim
the remaining 10% of the grant up to 30 days after Innovate UK receive and approve the final claim

If you are applying for an award funded under European Commission Regulations, the definitions are set out in the European Commission Recommendation of 6 May 2003.

Innovate UK may revoke our decision to provide funding without notice if government commitment for this initiative is withdrawn.

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