Semiconductors and components for smart platforms

Key Features

UK registered businesses can apply with CR&D or R&D projects for a share of up to £18.5 million to mature and accelerate the availability of components that include semiconductors or novel technologies ready for integration into Smart Electronic Platforms

Programme:     Innovate UK

Award:     Share of up to £18.5 million

Opens: 27th Mar 2026

Closes: 1st Apr 2026

! This scheme is now closed
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Grant Overview

Innovate UK are investing up to £18.5 million for CR&D and R&D projects. Consortiums that have an academic partner must apply for this competition.

Grant Scope

The aim of this competition is to drive forward the availability of a UK anchored catalogue of components, ready for integration and delivery into next generation smart electronic platforms.

Projects must focus on the development of components ready for integration within smart electronic platforms that are used in industrial automation and autonomy. Specific themes can include:

  • Sense – Sensing components
  • Decide – Processing, AI acceleration, storage and memory components
  • Act – Actuation and physical drive components
  • Platform – Enablement and ancillary components

Eligibility Criteria

When applying for funding, your project must have a grant funding request of between £500,000 and £2 million. Projects must start by 1st August 2026 and end by 31st January 2028, lasting between 12-18 months.

Lead: To lead a project, organisations must be a UK registered business of any size. Consortiums must contain at least 1 UK registered micro, small or medium sized enterprise claiming grant funding on this application. If working alone, organisations must be a UK registered micro, small or medium sized enterprise. Academic institutions cannot work alone.

Project team: To collaborate with a lead, organisations must be a registered business of any size, academic institution, charity, not for profit, public sector or research and technology organisation. Each partner organisation must be invited into the Innovation Funding Service by the lead to collaborate on a project.

Non-funded partners: Projects can include organisations not claiming funding for their own 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 the results outside the UK.

Subcontractors: Subcontractors are allowed in this competition and can be from anywhere in the UK. If using overseas subcontractors, you must state the reasons why you cannot use subcontractors from the UK.

Number of applications: Business can only lead on one application. Businesses, academic institutions, research and technology organisations, charity, not for profit or public sector organisations can only be included as a collaborator in three applications. If a business is leading an application, it can collaborate in up to 2 further applications.

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

Grant Exclusions

The following projects cannot be funded:

  • Projects that do not propose components that will be made ready for integration by a third party for example, by a system integrator, onto a smart electronic platform
  • Projects that do not define a specific target use case supporting industrial automation or autonomy
  • Projects not focussing on the Sense, Decide, Act pipeline or platform enablement components or a smart electronic platform
  • Projects developing standalone technologies that cannot be readily made available for integration into a packed part or on a smart electronic platform’s PCB
  • Projects developing components not being delivered through the procurement of an integrated smart electronic platform
  • Projects developing software that is not a requirement to enable the use of the proposed component within its target smart electronic platform
  • Projects developing components for the primary purpose of external communications module for integration onto the smart electronic platform
  • Projects that include the research and innovation of the AI model, platform level communications module or the software for an end application

Grant Funding

Innovate UK are funding up to £18.5 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 request must not exceed the limits below. For feasibility studies, industrial research, experimental development and innovation support you can receive funding for eligible project costs of:

Category 2 Industrial research projects

Funding available 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

Research participation

Research organisations that are undertaking non-economic activity as part of the project can share up to 30% of the total eligible project costs. If your consortium contains more than one research organisation undertaking non-economic activity, this maximum is shared between them. Of that 30% 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

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

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