Biomedical Catalyst 2025: Industry led R&D large projects

Key Features

UK registered micro, small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) can apply for a share of up to £25 million for the development of innovative solutions to health and healthcare challenges. This funding is from Innovate UK.

Programme:     Innovate UK

Award:     Share of up to £25 million

Opens: 10th Nov 2025

Closes: 10th Dec 2025

! This scheme is opening soon

Overview

Innovate UK, part of UK Research and Innovation, will invest a minimum of £25 million from the Innovate UK Biomedical Catalyst programme, in innovation projects. This is subject to a sufficient number of high quality applications being received.

Scope

The aim of this industry led R&D competition is to support micro, small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) to develop innovative solutions to address health, and healthcare, challenges.

Your project can include:

  • experimental evaluation (at laboratory scale)
  • use of in vitro and in vivo models to evaluate proof of concept or safety
  • exploring potential production mechanisms
  • prototyping
  • product development planning
  • intellectual property protection
  • a demonstration of clinical utility and effectiveness
  • a demonstration of safety and efficacy, including phase 1 and phase 2 clinical trials
  • regulatory planning

This list is not intended to be exhaustive.

The industry led research and development (R&D) stream of the Biomedical Catalyst programme supports pre-market R&D projects. You must be able to demonstrate existing evidence of commercial and technical feasibility.

Your proposal must show how your project will improve the competitiveness and productivity of at least one UK SME partner involved in the project.

This competition is split into two strands:

  • Biomedical Catalyst 2025: Industry led R&D small projects: up to £500,000 grant funding
  • Biomedical Catalyst 2025: Industry led R&D large projects: over £500,000 grant funding (this strand)

Portfolio approach

Innovate UK want to fund a variety of projects across different technologies, strand or theme and research categories. Innovate UK call this a portfolio approach

Specific Themes

Your project can focus on any health, or healthcare, sector or discipline including but not limited to:

  • advanced therapies (cell, gene, RNA, regenerative)
  • biosciences and platform technologies
  • preclinical tools, target discovery and validation
  • therapeutics and medicine development, including Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) and infectious disease
  • diagnostics and biomarkers, including AMR and infectious disease
  • medical technologies, devices and robotics
  • precision and personalised medicine
  • digital and data driven health
  • healthy ageing and independent living

Eligibilty

Your project must:

  • have total project costs up to £4 million
  • not exceed a grant funding request of between £500,000 and £2 million
  • have at least 50% of the total project costs shared by the micro, small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs), if collaborative
  • last between 6 months and 36 months
  • start by 1 July 2026
  • end by 30 June 2029

Any funded organisation needs to carry out their project work in the UK and must intend to exploit the project results from or in the UK.

Projects must always start on the first of the month, even if this is a non-working day. You must not start your project until your Grant Offer Letter has been approved by Innovate UK. Any delays within Project Setup may mean we need to delay your project start date.

You must only include eligible project costs in your application. See our overview of eligible project costs. For specific guidance, see the eligibility section in this competition.

Lead organisation

To work alone or lead a collaborative project your organisation must be a UK registered micro, small or medium sized enterprise (SME) claiming grant funding in this application.

More information on the different types of organisation can be found in our Funding rules.

Academic institutions cannot lead or work alone.

Project team

To collaborate with the lead, your organisation must be one of the following UK registered:

  • business of any size
  • academic institution
  • charity
  • not for profit
  • public sector organisation
  • research and technology organisation (RTO)

Each partner organisation must be invited into the Innovation Funding Service (IFS) by the lead to collaborate on a project. Once partners have accepted the invitation, they will be asked to login or to create an account in IFS. They are responsible for entering their own project costs and completing their Project Impact questions in the application.

If collaborative the lead and at least one other organisation must:

  • apply for funding when entering their costs into the application
  • include rationale for the collaboration and describe the structure in your application
  • ensure the lead applicant does not account for more than 70% of the total eligible costs

Non-funded partners

Your project can include organisations who do not claim any funding for their work on the project. Their costs will be covered from their own resources. These 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.

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.

Subcontractors can be from anywhere in the UK and you must select them through your usual procurement process.

You can use subcontractors from overseas but must make the case in your application as to why you cannot use subcontractors from the UK.

You must provide a detailed rationale, evidence of the potential UK contractors you approached and the reasons why they were unable to work with you. We will not accept a cheaper cost as a sufficient reason to use an overseas subcontractor.

Extenuating circumstances where overseas work may be allowable include, for example, clinical trials in a specific patient population. The assessors will be asked to judge whether you have sufficiently made a case for the use of overseas subcontractors.

All subcontractor costs must be justified and appropriate to the total project costs.

Number of applications

An SME can only lead on one application but can be included as a collaborator in two further applications.

If an SME is not leading on any application it can collaborate in any number of applications.

A research and technology organisation (RTO), a large business, academic institution, charity, not for profit or public sector organisation can collaborate on any number of applications.

Sanctions

This competition will not fund you, or provide any financial benefit to any individual or entities directly or indirectly involved with you, which would expose Innovate UK or any direct or indirect beneficiary of funding from Innovate UK to UK Sanctions. For example, through any procurement, commercial, business development or supply chain activity with any entity as lead, partner or subcontractor related to these countries, administrations and terrorist groups.

Use of animals in research and innovation

Innovate UK expects and supports the provision and safeguarding of welfare standards for animals used in research and innovation, according to best practice and up to date guidance.

Any projects selected for funding which involve animals will be asked to provide additional information on welfare and ethical considerations, as well as compliance with any relevant legislation as part of the project start-up process. This information will be reviewed before an award is made.

You can use a previously submitted application to apply for this competition.

Exclusions

Innovate UK are not funding projects that are:

  • fundamental research or feasibility studies
  • unrelated to human life sciences
  • focused on products already on the market
  • concerned with laboratory accreditation
  • lacking the highest standards of animal welfare
  • routine business activities without R&D
  • lacking clear innovation
  • lacking patient or commercial impact

Innovate UK cannot fund projects that are:

  • dependent on export performance, for example, giving a subsidy to a baker on the condition that it exports a certain quantity of bread to another country
  • dependent on domestic inputs usage, for example, giving a subsidy to a baker on the condition that it uses 50% UK flour in their product

Funding Costs

A minimum of £25 million has been allocated to fund innovation projects in this competition. This is subject to us receiving a sufficient number of high quality applications. Funding will be in the form of a grant.

Innovate UK reserve the right to adjust funding allocations for any of our competitions under exceptional circumstances, for example, in response to changes in policy, portfolio funding considerations, or broader government funding decisions.

If your organisation’s work on the project is commercial or economic, your funding request must not exceed the limits below. These limits apply even if your organisation normally acts non-economically but for the purpose of this project will be undertaking commercial or economic activity.

You must not claim more than £2 million in grant funding against your total eligible project costs. A minimum of 50% of your total eligible project costs must be incurred by the SMEs if your project is collaborative.

The total grant request in your application cannot exceed £2 million. This is regardless of the individual partner’s grant claims.

The balance between your total eligible project costs and the amount of grant awarded must be funded by the organisation receiving the grant.

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

For more information on company sizes, please refer to the company accounts guidance.

If you are applying for an award funded under State aid Regulations, the definitions are set out in the European Commission Recommendation of 6 May 2003.

Innovate UK may revoke our decision to provide funding without notice if government commitment for this initiative is withdrawn.

Research participation

The research organisations undertaking non-economic activity as part of the project can share up to 50% 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 50% 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.

To find out more see our: Cost Guidance for Academics.