Counter UAS Technologies

Key Features

UK registered organisations can apply for a share of up to £5 million to develop counter Uncrewed Aerial Systems dual use technologies that can be applied to both civil and military settings. This funding is from Innovate UK.

Programme:     Innovate UK

Award:     Share of up to £5 million

Opens: 5th May 2026

Closes: 3rd Jun 2026

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Grant Overview

Innovate UK are investing up to £5 million to develop counter Uncrewed Aerial Systems dual use technologies that can be applied to both civil and military settings.

Grant Scope

The aim of this competition is to develop new solutions to counter the illegal use of Uncrewed Aerial Systems around civil and military sites, including prisons, airports, schools, public events and critical national infrastructure. Innovate UK are interested in dual-use technologies that can be applied across civil, defence, security and intelligence domains.

Projects must develop and appropriately test, validate and demonstrate one of the following solution types:

  • Solutions that provide protection from UAS across UK defence sites, airports, schools, public events or critical national infrastructure. Focusing on cost effectiveness and scalable solutions appropriate to location. Technology solutions should already be at TRL5 or above with induction and deployment by 2028.
  • Affordable solutions that protect the UK’s prison estate from illegal UAS activity. Early-stage development and technology validation in the laboratory environment of future systems that can adapt to rapidly changing threat environments. Typically, up to TRL4 and aimed for introduction and development by 2030.

Eligibility Criteria

To be eligible for this competition, projects must have total costs of between £300,000 and £1.25 million with projects lasting between 8-12 months. Projects start from 1st September 2026 and end by 31st August 2027 with project work carried out in the UK, unless specifically stated and pre-approved by Innovate UK. Projects must have a maximum of five funded partners.

Lead: To lead a collaborative project, organisations must be a UK registered business of any size or public sector organisation. Consortiums must contain at least one UK registered micro, small or medium sized enterprise claiming grant funding on this application. Academic institutions and RTOs cannot lead.

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

Non-funded partners: Projects can include organisations that do not claim funding for their work on a project. These costs need to be covered from their own resources and can include UK, EU or other non-UK organisations. Non-UK partners are permitted to carry out work from within their home counties with results are exploited outside the UK. Justification for this needs to be provided via email to support@iuk.ukri.org.

Subcontractors: Subcontractors are allowed in this competition, and they can be from anywhere in the UK. Overseas subcontractors can be used, but you must state in your application why UK subcontractors could not be used.

Number of applications: A business or public sector organisation can only lead on one application but can be included as a collaborator in a further one application. If a business or public sector organisation is not leading any application that can collaborate in up to two applications. Academic institutions, research and technology organisations, charity or not for profit organisations can collaborate on up to two applications.

Previous applications: You can use previous applications in this competition.

Grant Exclusions

Innovate UK will not fund the following projects:

  • Projects that do not have a specifically defined end user or use case
  • Projects that rely on technology already in commercial use for counter UAS purposes
  • Projects not compliant with current regulations or current laws
  • Projects not demonstrating the potential for businesses involved to achieve economic growth
  • Projects solely relying on off shelf products with no experimental development
  • Projects that require significant infrastructure or integration to operate
  • Projects that are not scalable or adaptable to real world operations or are high collateral kinetic approaches
  • Projects that include testing or demonstration relying on regulatory approvals not already granted or cannot be obtained within the project timeframe.

Grant Funding

Innovate UK have allocated up to £5 million to fund innovation projects in this competition. Funding will be in the form of a grant.

Under the Research, Development and Innovation Streamlined Route rules, no more than £3 million can be awarded to any one enterprise in any one competition.

For industrial research and experimental development, you can get 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

Category 2 Experimental development projects which are nearer to market

Funding available 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 activity as part of the project can share up to 30% of the total eligible project costs. Consortiums containing more than one research organisation undertaking non-economic activity, this maximum is shared. Of the 30% you can get funding for 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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