Canada-UK Semiconductors

Key Features

UK registered organisations can apply for a share of at least £1 million for collaboration with Canadian SMEs on joint Semiconductors projects.

Programme:     Innovate UK

Award:     Share of up to £ million

Opens: 12th May 2025

Closes: 15th Oct 2025

Overview

Innovate UK, part of UK Research and Innovation, will work with the National Research Council of Canada Industrial Research Assistance Program (NRC IRAP) to invest at least £1 million in innovation projects.

Scope

In January 2024, the governments of Canada and the United Kingdom (UK) signed a new Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) concerning cooperation over Scientific Research and Innovation with the aim to further strengthen bilateral cooperation that delivers excellence, and impacts across all fields of research and innovation. This MoU highlights semiconductors as a particular area of focus and fundamental to economic growth, prosperity and security.

The aim of this competition is to stimulate the development of innovative semiconductor technologies.

This call for proposals is open to organisations from Canada and the UK who wish to form project consortia to perform collaborative projects focused on developing innovative products, processes, or technology-based services in semiconductors.

We want to fund a variety of projects across the semiconductors sector, and technologies of interest include, but are not limited to:

  • compound, Wide Band Gap semiconductors
  • semiconductor design, intellectual property (IP)
  • advanced packaging
  • heterogeneous, hybrid integration
  • photonics, including silicon photonics
  • emerging materials
  • prototyping and low volume piloting
  • processing or processes
  • simulation tools

Applications are open to all UK businesses focusing on the above technology areas.

Portfolio approach

Innovate UK want to fund a variety of projects across different technologies, markets, technological maturities and research categories. Innovate UK call this a portfolio approach.

Specific Themes

Your project can focus on one or more of the following application areas:

  • high-voltage systems, including utilities, industry and public power systems
  • sustainable technologies, including electric vehicles, batteries, solar, wind
  • communications, including Wi-Fi, cellular 5G and 6G, satellite
  • sensors
  • data centres

Application areas are not limited to the above, this is not an exhaustive list.

Eligibility

Canada specific rules

To be eligible for this competition, Canadian funding applicants must first register and submit an Expression of Interest (EoI) form.

The registration deadline for the Canadian SME is 09 July 2025.

The EoI submission deadline for Canadian SMEs is 23 July 2025.

Canadian funding applicants who do not complete an EoI and have not been invited to proceed will not be eligible for funding through this competition.

Please see the National Research Council of Canada Industrial Research Assistance Program (NRC IRAP) call page for more information in English and French on Canadian eligibility requirements and to register.

UK participants must be part of an application submitted to Innovate UK. Canadian partners must submit a parallel application to NRC IRAP.

UK applications will be assessed by Innovate UK. Your Canadian partners’ proposal is reviewed by NRC IRAP. Innovate UK and NRC IRAP are jointly responsible for the decision to fund your project.

In order to receive any grant funding, your project proposal must be successful on both sides of the consortium. If successful, UK participants will receive grant funding from Innovate UK and Canadian participants will receive grant funding from NRC IRAP.

Your project

Your project must:

  • have a total grant funding request of no greater than £500,000 allocated to UK organisations
  • have a total grant funding request for Canadian partners of no greater than CA$500,000
  • last between 12 and 24 months
  • not start before 1 April 2026
  • end by 31 March 2028

The majority of the project work must be undertaken in the UK and Canada.

The consortium must include at least one Canadian SME in Canada that is a separate legal entity and not linked to the UK partners. This is to ensure that projects encourage genuine international collaboration, not internal company research. Linked companies are considered a single entity under the parent company.

Your project must demonstrate a balanced technological contribution by the participants from both countries and must be equally significant to all participants.

No one country or project partner can represent more than 70% of the total project cost.

Your proposal must demonstrate a clear intention to commercially exploit the results of the project domestically or globally.

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.

Roles and terminology

There must be a ‘project lead’ and this can be either an eligible UK or Canadian organisation. The project lead is responsible for managing the entire project.

The ‘lead applicant’, is the organisation that starts the application on the Innovation Funding Service. This must be a UK organisation.

Your collaboration must involve at least one grant claiming UK registered business and one eligible Canadian incorporated, profit orientated SME.

UK lead organisation

To start an application on the Innovation Funding Service (IFS), your organisation must be a UK registered business of any size.

You must:

  • collaborate with at least one Canadian registered SME, which must be a separate legal entity, not linked to the UK partners

Canadian organisations can be a project lead but cannot start an application on IFS.

Canadian partners must not be invited onto IFS. Their involvement in the project is listed as part of your answers to the questions. If you include a grant claiming Canadian partner in your IFS application you will be made ineligible and your application will not be sent for assessment.

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

UK 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)

Only UK registered partners must be listed in the Project Partner section of your application on the Innovation Funding Service (IFS). Your Canadian partner will not receive any of this UK competition funding. Canadian partners will be funded by the National Research Council of Canada Industrial Research Assistance Program (NRC IRAP)following a parallel application.

Each organisation in your consortium will receive funding from its respective national funding body.

Each UK partner organisation must be invited into the IFS by the lead to collaborate on a project. Once accepted, partners will be asked to login or to create an account and enter their own project costs into the IFS.

To be an eligible collaboration, the lead and at least one other organisation must:

  • apply for funding from their respective funding organisations
  • include rationale for the collaboration and describe the structure in your application
  • ensure any one partner does not account for more than 70% of the total eligible costs

Non-funded partners

Your project can include partners that do not receive any of this competition’s funding. Their costs will count towards the total eligible project costs.

International partners

Canadian partners do not need to be invited into Innovate UK’s application on the Innovation Funding Service.

Canadian partners will be funded by NRC IRAP following a parallel application.

Subcontractors

Subcontractors are allowed in this competition, but they are limited to no more than 20% of the total eligible costs of the UK participation.

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

You can use subcontractors from other countries but must make the case in your application as to why you could not use subcontractors from the countries providing grant funding for the project.

You must provide a detailed rationale, evidence of the potential UK or Canadian 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 a subcontractor from a third country.

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

Number of applications

A UK business can only lead on one application but can be included as a collaborator in one further application.

A UK business that is not leading an application can collaborate on a maximum of two applications.

A Canadian SME may only participate in one application either as a lead or collaborator.

UK Academic institutions or RTOs can collaborate in up to three 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.

Exclusions

Innovate UK are not funding projects that are:

  • fundamental research

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

At least £1 million has been allocated to fund UK participants in innovation projects for this competition. Funding will be in the form of a grant.

Each country will fund its eligible participants according to their national procedure and funding rules. Funding conditions and eligibility criteria may vary between UK and Canada. The bilateral joint cooperation between the partners and its added value is an important aspect to be considered within the evaluation.

UK Partners

If your UK registered 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.

For feasibility studies and 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 for UK Organisations

The research organisations 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:

  • 80% of full economic costs (FEC) if you are a Je-S registered institution such as an academic
  • 100% of your eligible project costs if you are an RTO, charity, not for profit organisation, public sector organisation or research organisation

Canadian SMEs

Eligible Canadian SMEs may receive from NRC IRAP up to 50% reimbursement of eligible project costs up to a maximum total funding amount of CA$500,000.

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.