Contracts for Innovation in drug and alcohol addiction healthcare

Key Features

Organisations can apply for a share of £20 million, inclusive of VAT. Projects will advance development of pharmaceutical, digital and MedTech tools to improve treatment, recovery and prevention of harm and deaths for drug and alcohol addictions.

Programme:     Innovate UK

Award:     Share of up to £20 million

Opens: 16th Feb 2026

Closes: 6th May 2026

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Grant Overview

Innovate UK on behalf of the Office for Life Sciences Addiction Healthcare Goals programme are investing a share of up to £20 million in this Contracts for Innovation competition.

Grant Scope

The competition supports the development of pharmaceutical, MedTech and digital treatments for drug and alcohol addiction, recovery, and harm prevention. Funding is from the Office of Life Science.

Up to £1.5 million of funding is expected to be award per project.

Funding is targeted for support of development of innovations with the potential to demonstrate initial efficacy and UK market fit by the end of the project through achieving:

  • Technology Readiness Level (TRL) 6 or 7
  • Establish user acceptability and fit in relevant UK settings.
  • Complete business plan and clear pathway for securing relevant Intellectual Property, regulatory and certification requirements.

Projects must focus on ways to address illicit drug or alcohol use, on improving treatment outcomes and enhancing recovery, reducing harm and death in drug and alcohol addictions. Be either a pharmaceutical, digital health or MedTech solutions for the treatment, recovery, or harm and overdose prevention in drug or alcohol addictions. Please see full briefing for complete list.

Projects must focus on:

  • Cannabis
  • GHB
  • Opioids
  • Stimulants
  • Ketamine
  • Gabapentinoids
  • Benzodiazepines

Eligibility Criteria

Projects must have a total eligible cost of between £200,000 and £1.5 million per project. Projects last up to 24 months and start on 1st October 2026 and end by 30th September 2028.

Lead: Organisations of any size, including those based in the EU, EEA or internationally. Work alone or with the subcontracted skills and expertise of others from business, research or research and technology organisations, or the third sector (charities, social enterprises, and voluntary groups)

Exclusions

The following projects are excluded from funding:

  • Not original scope and duplicate someone else’s work
  • Not pharmaceutical solutions, MedTech or digital health tools
  • Not have clear commercial potential
  • Prevent initiation of addictive substance use
  • Focus on early substance use inventions, prior to addiction diagnosis
  • Not have a clear plan to engage with people with lived experience, treatment or relevant services throughout the project
  • Primarily target the following: nicotine addictions; gambling or behavioural addictions
  • Don‘t engage with statutory bodies, where relevant to identify a pathway to secure regulatory approvals, certification, and assessments
  • Prevent initiation of addictive substance use

Grant Funding

Up to £20 million of grant funding has been allocated across two competitions under the AHG Catalysing Innovation Awards scheme. Funding supports development of pharmaceutical, digital and MedTech tools to improve treatment and recovery, and reduce harm and deaths linked to drug and alcohol addiction.

For MedTech and digital health tools to develop a prototype and undertake field testing, contracts of up to £1 million per project are expected to be awarded.

For projects focussed on pharmaceutical solutions to develop prototypes and undertake field testing, contracts of up to £1.5 million per project are expected to be awarded.

You must select whether you are VAT registered before entering your eligible project costs. If you select you are VAT registered, you must enter your eligible project costs exclusive of VAT. Your total eligible project costs inclusive of VAT must not exceed £1.5 million, per project.

If you are not VAT registered, you must enter eligible project costs exclusive of VAT and no VAT will be added.

Research and Development

Applications must have at least 50% of the contract value attributed directly and exclusively to R&D services, including solution exploration and design. R&D can also include prototyping and field-testing the product or service.

R&D does not include the following:

  • Commercial development activities such as quantity production
  • Integration, customisation or incremental adaptations and improvements to existing products or process
  • Supply to establish commercial viability or to recover R&D costs

For further information on this competition, please see full details.

Full competition details

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.