BridgeAI Deployment Catalyst: 3 Strands – AI for Assurance, Decision Critical Systems & Operational Systems

Eligibility Criteria

To be eligible for this competition your project must have a grant funding request of between £100,000 and £200,000 with projects lasting between three and five months. Projects must stay by 1^st April 2027 and end by 31^st August 2027.

The minimum consortium size for this competition is two organisations: one UK registered micro, small or medium sized enterprise and one eligible UK registered deployer. The maximum consortium size is three. Organisations that receive funding must carry out project work in the UK with results exploited in the UK.

Lead organisation: To lead a collaborative project, organisations must be a UK registered SME with an existing AI or ML solution at technology readiness level 5 or 6 with functioning minimum viable product. You must be able to demonstrate an innovative and substantive use of advanced AL or ML capability with a minimum viable product that may have been piloted or trialled but are not already commercially deployed in the proposed use case. You must intend to exploit project results from or in the UK and be willing to participate in subsequent programme stages if invited. The lead organisation must account for between 40% to 70% of the project’s total eligible costs. Academic institutions cannot lead.

Deployed organisation: Projects must include one UK registered deployer organisation. The deployer organisation must be a UK registered medium or large business, or a UK based public sector organisation. They must operate in an eligible sectoral focus area and provide meaningful operational settings for the proposed deployment. This must account for between 30% and 50% of the project’s total eligible costs. The deployer must operate in one of the following sectors: health and life sciences, financial services, advanced manufacturing, clean energy industries, defence, professional and business services or creative industries.

Project team: To collaborate with the lead and deployer organisation, organisations must be a UK registered business of any size, academic institution, research organisation, research and technology organisation, charity, not for profit, public sector organisation or non-governmental organisation. Consortiums can include no more than one additional project partner, which must account for no more than 30% of the project’s total eligible costs.

Non-funded partners: Projects can include organisations that do not claim any 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.

Subcontractors: Subcontractors are not allowed in this competition.

Number of applications: If the lead applicant, a UK registered SME can only lead on one application and cannot collaborate on any further applications across the three strands. Further applications by the same organisation as lead will be ineligible. UK registered deployer organisations can be involved in up to three applications across three strands, where each application is materially different and related to a distinct deployment use case. Organisations that neither lead SME nor the deployer organisation, if can collaborate in any number of applications across three strands.

Previous applications: Previously submitted applications cannot be used in this competition.