Innovate UK Growth Catalyst – Investor Partnerships Round 2

Key Features

UK registered SMEs can apply for grant funding alongside private investment from selected investor partners.

Programme:     Innovate UK

Award:     Share of up to £100m

Opens: 10th Dec 2025

Closes: 3rd Feb 2026

Overview

A minimum of £100 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 Growth Catalyst is an integrated package of funding and support, designed to help accelerate high-potential start-ups on their journey to becoming scale-ups and beyond.

Scope

The aim of this competition is to provide you with support for research and development and access to the capital investment you need to develop and commercialise your innovations.

Your proposal must have a clear route to market, a clear link to innovation and evidence that you can create a team to deliver your proposal.

You must be:

  • registered in the UK as an SME by the time the award is contracted
  • able to complete the aligned investment led by the investor partner needed to qualify for the award, through the issue of new shares or convertible debt

You must also demonstrate that if your project is funded, it will:

  • have significant market impact
  • be able to demonstrate the potential to grow and to scale
  • be attractive to equity investors

Sectors and themes

The scope for this competition reflects the UK’s Modern Industrial Strategy (“Invest 2035”) which identifies key sectors and technologies where innovation and R&D investment can deliver national advantage, productivity gains and global competitiveness.

For Innovate UK purposes, eligible R&D activity should be aligned to one or more of the following strategic sectors as defined by the Industrial strategy or to the Battery Innovation Programme supported by the Department of Business and Trade.

If your technology fits within the “Foundation industries” or “Cross-sector enabling technologies” themes, then you must be able to link it to one of the Industrial sectors. These are the areas where grant support can most effectively catalyse business-led innovation and attract aligned private investment.

Industrial strategy sector – advanced manufacturing

Encompasses process and product innovation across the UK’s high-growth manufacturing industries, with the aim of scaling resilient supply chains and strengthening UK productivity and competitiveness.

These include:

  • automotive
  • batteries and energy storage
  • aerospace
  • advanced materials (including composites, metals, polymers, ceramics, glass, and smart materials)
  • agri-tech (manufacturing and processing technologies for the agri-food value chain)
  • space

Also in scope, when evidenced as essential inputs to sustainable growth of these industries:

  • materials such as steel, cement, ceramics, glass, and composites
  • chemicals and critical minerals
  • infrastructure services supporting industrial resilience, including ports, electricity networks, and construction

Also in scope are projects aimed at improving productivity and competitiveness of advanced manufacturing companies and their supply chains through:

  • development and deployment of new technologies that deliver step-changes in productivity
  • further development of technologies that reduce deployment risk and accelerate cross industry adoption

Industrial strategy sector – clean energy industries

Encompasses innovation to support net-zero energy generation, storage and system efficiency, enhancing the UK’s global competitiveness and energy security.

These include:

  • wind (onshore, offshore and floating)
  • hydrogen production and systems
  • fusion and nuclear fission
  • carbon capture, usage and storage (CCUS) and greenhouse gas removal
  • heat pumps and Electricity networks
  • energy infrastructure, smart-grid integration and digital energy management systems
  • supply-chain innovations supporting localisation and cost reduction
  • grid integration and digitalisation of energy systems

Industrial strategy sector – digital and technologies

Encompasses frontier technologies that underpin productivity, resilience and innovation across every industrial sector, accelerating digital transformation and data-driven growth.

These include:

  • artificial intelligence and machine learning
  • quantum technologies
  • semiconductors
  • cyber security
  • advanced connectivity (5G and 6G, IoT and satellite communications)
  • engineering biology
  • cross-sector digital applications that enable industrial automation, process control and predictive maintenance
  • secure data infrastructure and interoperability across supply chains

Industrial strategy sector – defence

Encompasses dual-use and civil-applicable innovations that strengthen the UK’s advanced engineering and security capabilities while maintaining export compliance and ethical standards. Those technologies should have high civic commercialisation potential.

These include:

  • autonomous systems and robotics
  • advanced propulsion
  • maritime and aerospace capabilities
  • supply-chain and manufacturing innovations that enhance defence resilience
  • other frontier technologies for example, sensors, composites, AI systems, advanced materials

Where projects and business plans have specific defence sector opportunities, we expect to see evidence of defence industry supply chain, including MoD market traction, which we may independently validate.

Industrial strategy sector – creative industries

Innovate UK aims to strengthen the UK’s position as a global creative powerhouse, driving innovation at the intersection of culture, technology and design. The Creative Industries frontier industries contribute significant growth thanks to strengths in their size, employment, and connectedness with other parts of the Creative Industries and wider economy.

Our support will particularly target these high-growth sub sectors, as well as unlocking the emerging, disruptive growth potential of createch.

These include:

  • advertising and marketing
  • film and television
  • videogames
  • music, performing and visual arts

Industrial strategy sector – life sciences

Encompasses health and medical innovation that supports the UK’s ambition to become a global leader in life sciences by 2035, driving productivity, investment, and improved population health outcomes. The focus is on SMEs with strong growth potential and the capability to deliver measurable economic impact through innovation.

These include:

  • pharmaceuticals – therapeutic discovery and development across all modalities, advancing drug discovery and strengthening advanced manufacturing capabilities
  • medical technologies (MedTech) – accelerating development of AI-enabled diagnostics, medical devices, wearable devices, and minimally invasive technologies
  • health data and AI (TechBio) – integration of health data, multi-omics technologies, and digital (including AI) tools to improve patient outcomes and enable personalised medicine

Innovate UK welcome projects that address conditions unique to, disproportionately impact, or manifest differently in women, recognising this as a major growth opportunity for the UK.

Foundation industries

Encompasses the industrial inputs and materials systems that underpin the UK’s manufacturing, energy and infrastructure sectors, supporting the transition to net zero and enhancing resilience.

These include:

  • materials – steel, glass, ceramics, cement, paper and chemicals
  • resource and process efficiency – low-carbon industrial processes and recycling innovation
  • supply-chain modernisation – digitalisation, data management and automation of traditional sectors
  • development of industrial clusters and shared infrastructure to enable decarbonisation
  • cross-sector initiatives improving circularity and resource security

Cross-sector enabling technologies

Across all sectors, Innovate UK funding can support R&D in cross-cutting themes such as:

  • advanced manufacturing and materials
  • data, AI and digitalisation
  • net-zero and sustainability technologies
  • resilience and supply-chain innovation
  • inclusive and responsible innovation practices

Battery Innovation Programme 

Innovate UK, part of UK Research and Innovation, is delivering the Battery Innovation Programme on behalf of the Department for Business and Trade. Funding will be considered to high-quality applications that meet one or more of the following criteria:

  • accelerate the development and commercialisation of state-of-the-art battery technologies in the UK
  • support the growth of the UK battery supply chain and related companies
  • enhance the UK’s competitiveness in the global battery market
  • demonstrate how battery technologies can meet specific application requirements and drive electrification across diverse sectors

Your proposal can address one or more of the following areas:

  • raw materials
  • advanced cell materials
  • cell design and components
  • process and manufacturing tools
  • quality control and diagnostics
  • testing, simulation and digital tools

Your project can target performance requirements for at least one of the listed sectors and can support emerging use cases or cross sector applicability.

Included sectors:

  • defence, aerospace, and battery energy storage
  • automotive sector including on and off-highway vehicles, motorsports and niche automotive
  • aerospace
  • battery energy storage systems
  • rail
  • maritime
  • personal mobility

Innovation and ideas can come from anyone and anywhere. Innovate UK want to see investments unlocked for the diverse and extraordinary talent in the UK.

Innovate UK encourage innovation involving communities that are typically under-represented, including:

  • from regions that have historically accessed lower levels of investment (outside London, Oxford and Cambridge)
  • ethnic minority groups
  • women and other marginalised genders
  • disabled people
  • people with non-traditional education backgrounds

Portfolio approach
Innovate UK want to fund a variety of projects within Investor Partnerships, this includes the Battery Innovation Programme. Our initial funding decision is based on the innovation score, investment additionality, expected leverage and likelihood of investment completion.

Where funding is limited within these specific themes, we may make a funding decision based on the project type and size, grant requested, business stage, location, and sector to ensure portfolio balance and alignment with strategic intent. We call this a portfolio approach.

Innovate UK will also take into account the impact of the grant in accelerating investment and the likelihood of the investment completing within a reasonable time.

Eligibility

The eligibility criteria will depend on your research category.

For feasibility studies projects:

  • your total project costs must be between £50,000 and £300,000
  • the project duration must be between 6 and 12 months

For industrial research projects:

  • your total project costs must be between £100,000 and £1 million
  • the project duration must be between 6 and 24 months

For experimental development projects:

  • your total project costs must be between £250,000 and £2 million
  • the project duration must be between 12 and 24 months

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.

Your organisation

This competition is open to single applicants only. To apply your organisation must:

  • be a UK registered micro, small or medium sized business (SME)
  • carry out its project work in the UK
  • intend to exploit the results from or in the UK
  • be invited to apply by your investor partner
  • have discussed and agreed your proposal with your investor partner before submitting your application

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

Subcontractors

Subcontractors are allowed in this competition.

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 provide a detailed rationale, evidence of the potential UK contractors you approached and the reasons why they were unable to work with you. We will not accept a cheaper cost as a sufficient reason to use an overseas subcontractor.

All subcontractor costs must be justified and appropriate to the total eligible project costs

Number of applications

An SME can only submit one application into this round of the competition.

Sanctions

This competition will not fund you, or provide any financial benefit to any individual or entities directly or indirectly involved with you, which would expose Innovate UK or any direct or indirect beneficiary of funding from Innovate UK to UK Sanctions. For example, through any procurement, commercial, business development or supply chain activity with any entity as lead, partner or subcontractor related to these countries, administrations and terrorist groups.

Use of animals in research and innovation

Innovate UK expects and supports the provision and safeguarding of welfare standards for animals used in research and innovation, according to best practice and up to date guidance.

Any projects selected for funding which involve animals will be asked to provide additional information on welfare and ethical considerations, as well as compliance with any relevant legislation as part of the project start-up process. This information will be reviewed before an award is made.

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

Exclusions

Innovate UK are not funding projects that are:

  • not carried out by SMEs
  • collaborative R&D projects
  • not part of a company’s growth plan
  • unable to prove there is potential for return on investment and growth
  • large capital infrastructure
  • not invited by a specified investor partner

Innovate UK cannot fund projects that are:

  • dependent on export performance, for example, giving a subsidy to a baker on the condition that it exports a certain quantity of bread to another country
  • dependent on domestic inputs usage, for example, giving a subsidy to a baker on the condition that it uses 50% UK flour in their product

Funding Costs

A minimum of £100m 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.

You will only receive Innovate UK grant funding if you also secure aligned investment at or above the minimum required for the relevant research level.

Your investor partner must also submit a “Declared Minimum Aligned Investment”, which you must confirm with your investor partner.

Before any funding decision, we will ask the investor partner to confirm the “Declared Minimum Aligned Investment”. If the “Declared Minimum Aligned Investment” is higher than the minimum required for the relevant research level, it will be treated as greater leverage and will strengthen our assessment of additionality unless there is a strong justification not to.

However, at the same time, the confirmed “Declared Minimum Aligned Investment” becomes the new “Minimum Aligned Investment”. Your project cannot start until this amount has been secured.

Innovate UK will decide which projects are eligible and in scope to receive grant funding.

The decision will be based on three factors:

  1. Innovation: Assessed by independent assessors based on your application.
  2. Additionality: Based on the impact of the grant in accelerating your innovation and leveraging the aligned investment. Assessed by the Investor Partnerships Team based on information provided by your named Investor Partner.
  3. Traction: Based on the likelihood of the investment completing within a reasonable timeframe. Assessed by the Investor Partnerships Team based on information provided by your named Investor Partner.

To be successful in this competition, you must score strong across all three factors.

We will ask your confirmed Investor Partner to provide an update on the progress of your investment prior to making our funding decision. Our assessment of the additionality and traction will be based on this update. It is therefore important that you liaise with your Investor Partner and that their response represents your understanding of the investment position at that time.

If you are successful, you will receive grant funding to cover a proportion of the costs of your project. The project will only be allowed to commence once the agreed aligned investment has been confirmed.

Your business must have sufficient capital resources, including through investment from the investor partner and the grant funding, to enable you to meet all your project’s eligible costs.

All recipients must act commercially, and your funding request must not exceed the limits specified.

Feasibility studies and industrial research projects

For feasibility studies and industrial research projects, Innovate UK will fund:

  • up to 70% of eligible project costs for micro or small organisations
  • up to 60% for medium sized organisations

The absolute minimum aligned investment led by the Investor Partner must always be at least equal to the grant funding.

Experimental development projects

For experimental development projects Innovate UK will fund:

  • up to 45% of eligible project costs for micro or small organisations
  • up to 35% for medium sized organisations

The absolute minimum aligned investment led by the Investor Partner must always be at least twice as much as the grant funding.

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