Medicines Manufacturing: Labs of the Future

Key Features

UK registered businesses can apply for a share of up to £7.5 million to support the development and use of digital, automated, and robotic technologies. This aims to improve the speed and efficiency of pharmaceutical process development and manufacturing.

Programme:     Innovate UK

Award:     Share of up to £7.5 million

Opens: 13th Apr 2026

Closes: 27th May 2026

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Grant Overview

Innovate UK will invest up to £7.5 million in this competition to support the Labs for the Future for medicine development and manufacturing.

Grant Scope

The aim of this competition is to support the development and use of digital, automated, and robotic technologies to improve the speed and efficiency of pharmaceutical process development and manufacturing.

Examples of the specific themes are below:

  • AI and machine learning
  • IOT and connectivity
  • Data collection, integration and interoperability
  • AI driven asset management
  • Predictive and autonomous supply chain management

Eligibility Criteria

When applying for funding, your project must have grant funding requests of between £500,000 and £1.5 million. Projects must start by 1st October 2026 and end by 30th September 2028, lasting between 9-24 months. Funded organisations need to carry out their project work in the UK and intent to exploit the project results from or in the UK.

Lead: To lead a project, organisations must be a UK registered grant claiming micro, small or medium sized enterprise. To work alone, organisations must be a UK registered SME.

Project team: To collaborate with the lead, organisations must be a UK registered business of any size, academic institution, charity, not for-profit, public-sector organisation, research and technology organisation or catapult.

Non-funded partners: Projects can include organisations that do not claim funding for their work on the project. These costs will be covered from their own resources and can include UK, EU and other non-UK organisations. Non-UK partners are permitted to carry out project work from within their home countries and exploit results outside the UK. Where non-funded partners have been invited to the application on IFS, their costs will count towards the total eligible project costs.

Subcontractors: Subcontractors are allowed in this competition and can be from anywhere in the UK. If overseas subcontractors have been used, you must state why contactors from the UK could not be used.

Number of applications: UK registered micro, small or medium sized enterprises can only lead on one application but can be included as a collaborator in any number of applications. Organisations not leading on an application can collaborate on any number of applications.

Previous applications: Previously submitted applications can be used in this competition.

Grant Exclusions

The following projects cannot be funded:

  • Projects that do not link to human medicine development and manufacturing
  • Projects not linked to medicines discovery
  • Projects whose primary output is specific product development workflow that results in a new medicine, rather than a technology only enabling the workflow.

Grant Funding

Innovate UK are offering up to £7.5 million to fund innovation projects. Funding will be in the form of a grant.

If your organisation’s work on the project is commercial or economic, funding requests must not exceed the below limits.

For industrial research projects, you can get funding for your eligible project costs of:

  • up to 70% if you are a micro or small organisation
  • up to 60% if you are a medium sized organisation
  • up to 50% if you are a large organisation

For experimental development projects which are nearer to market, you can get funding for your eligible project costs of:

  • 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 Participation

Research organisations undertaking non-economic activities as part of the project can share up to 50% of the total eligible costs. If your consortium contains more than one research organisation undertaking non-economic activity, this maximum is shared between them. Of that 50% you can receive funding for eligible projects 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

Eligibility 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.