Robotics Adoption Programme skills development

Key Features

UK registered organisations can apply for a share of up to £2.5 million for projects to develop vocational robotics skills courses. This funding is from the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology.

Programme:     Innovate UK

Award:     Share of up to £2.5 million

Opens: 2nd Feb 2026

Closes: 25th Mar 2026

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Grant Overview

Innovate UK are investing a minimum of £2.5 million from the Department of Science, Innovation and Technology and UKRI as part of the £52 million Robotics Adoption Programme.

Grant Scope

The competition is created and deliver course content materials that support skills, talent and training in robotics. It included drones operating on land, sea and air; autonomous plant and service robots; automated machinery that use sensors, actuators and software or automated machinery.

Possible opportunities:

  • Technical Courses and vocational training
  • Upskilling and reskilling existing workforce
  • School engagement
  • Apprenticeship and internship
  • Undergraduate, postgraduate, or continuing professional development

Projects must demonstrate:

  • Strong industrial links and well-defined industry focus
  • Innovative, ambitious and realistic idea to meet a significant robotic skills or talent requirement
  • Planning and commitment to creating and maintaining the resource for a minimum period of 3 years after project completion
  • That new training opportunities or skill resources are provided if not already available in the UK
  • That it has the capacity and capability to be delivered successfully on time
  • Value for money and evidence of return of investment in terms of trained, upskilled and reskilled people.

Projects can focus on one or more of the following – this list is not exhaustive:

  • Producing industry compatible training programs
  • Outreach and engagement material focusing on robotics for all ages and levels in academia and industry
  • Providing training or incentives for specific groups of people or in specific subjects

Eligibility criteria

  • Lead: UK-registered business (any size) or a UK registered RTO. Consortiums must contain at least one UK registered business of any size.
  • Project Team: To collaborate with the lead, organisations must be one of the following: Business of any size, academic institution, charity, not for profit, public sector organisation, research and Technology organisation
  • Non-funded partners: Projects can include organisations who do not claim funding for their work on the project. Their costs need to be covered from their own resources.
  • Subcontractors: Are allowed in this competition and can be from anywhere in the UK. Overseas subcontractors can be used but you must make the case in your application as to why UK subcontractors couldn’t be used.
  • Number of Applications: Organisations can only lead on one application but can collaborate on a further 2 applications.
  • Previous Applications: Previously submitted applications can be used for this competition.

Exclusions

Projects that are not related to robotic skills and training, not focused on robotics CR&D, purely software with no hardware element will not be funded.

Grant Funding

Up to £2.5 million of grant funding has been allocated to fund innovation projects in this competition. Funding will be issued in the form of a grant. If your organisations work on the project is commercial or economic, funding requests must not exceed the limits below.

Funding eligible project costs:

  • up to 45% if you are a micro or small organisation
  • up to 35% if you are a medium-sized organisation
  • up to 25% if you are a large organisation

Research Organisations

Organisations undertaking non-economic activity as part of the project can share up to 70% of the total eligible project costs. Consortiums containing more than one research organisation can share a maximum of 70%. Of that 70%, you can get funding for your eligible project costs of up to:

  • 100% of your eligible project costs if you are an RTO, charity, not for profit organisation, public sector organisation or research organisation
  • 80% of full economic costs (FEC) if you are a Je-S registered institution, such as an academic

Eligible criteria for claiming 80% of FEC funding 

  1. Research organisations using the Je-S system must submit their costs through the Je-S system, which calculates the 80% FEC figure.
  2. On IFS, only the 80% FEC output should be entered at 100% funding.
  3. Applicants do not need to show the remaining 20% on the finance table.

For further information on this competition, please see full details.

Full competition details

Interested in applying for this competition?

Book an appointment to speak to one of our advisors to discuss your eligibility to apply for this Grant Funding opportunity.