Future offshore wind technologies: feasibility studies

Key Features

UK registered organisations can apply for a share of up to £10 million to support Feasibility Studies in Offshore Wind across the two strands of the competition. This funding is from Innovate UK.

Programme:     Innovate UK

Award:     Share of up to £10 million

Opens: 7th Apr 2026

Closes: 3rd Jun 2026

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Grant Overview

Innovate UK are investing a maximum of £10 million across 2 strands of the Offshore Wind competition.

Grant Scope

The aim of this competition is to support early-stage innovation projects within offshore wind, aligned with the Offshore Wind Industrial Growth Plan. Projects must focus on one or more of the following specific themes:

  • Advanced turbine technology
  • Industrial foundations and substructures for deepwater solutions greater than 50m
  • Future electrical systems and cables
  • Smart environmental services
  • Next generation installation and operations and maintenance

Eligibility Criteria

When applying for funding, your project must have total costs of between £50,000 and £250,000. Projects must start by 1st October 2026 and end by 31st March 2028, lasting between 6 – 18 months.

Lead: To lead a collaborative project, organisations must be a UK registered business of any size. Consortiums must contain at least 1 UK registered micro, small or medium sized enterprise claiming grant funding on this application. If working alone, organisations must be a UK registered micro, small or medium sized enterprise. Academic institutions cannot work alone.

Project team: To collaborate with a lead, organisations must be a registered business of any size, academic institution or research and technology organisation. Each partner organisation must be invited into the Innovation Funding Service by the lead to collaborate on a project.

Non-funded partners: Projects can include organisations not claiming funding for their own 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 the results outside the UK.

Subcontractors: Subcontractors are allowed in this competition and can be from anywhere in the UK. If using overseas subcontractors, you must state the reasons why you cannot use subcontractors from the UK.

Number of applications: Business can lead on up to 2 applications but can be included as a collaborator in any number of applications. All eligible partners can collaborate on any number of applications.

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

Grant Exclusions

The following projects cannot be funded:

  • Advanced turbine technology – novel turbine design or redesign
  • Industrial foundations and substructures – foundation designs which are not floating or hybrid or the development of novel materials not related to component applications
  • Future electrical systems and cables – technologies related to onshore transmission systems or onshore and offshore substations
  • Smart environmental services – data collection, surveys and environmental studies of specific lease areas
  • Next generation installation and operations and maintenance – vessel builds or modification, routine service or planned preventative maintenance tasks, system or solutions requiring integration with original equipment manufacturers turbine control software

Grant Funding

Innovate UK are funding up to £10 million for innovation projects. 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 in the form of a grant to any one enterprise in any one competition.

If your organisation’s work on the project is commercial or economic, funding request must not exceed the limits below. For feasibility studies you can receive funding for eligible project costs of:

Category 1: Feasibility studies

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

Research participation

Research organisations that are 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:

  • 100% of your eligible project costs if you are an RTO 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

  • Research organisations using the Je-S system must submit their costs through the Je-S system which calculates the 80% FEC figure.
  • On IFS, only the 80% FEC output should be entered at 100% funding.
  • 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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