Growth Cohorts: Next-gen low carbon concrete cohort entry Round 2

Key Features

UK registered businesses can apply to join a cohort of ambitious businesses. These businesses will develop solutions to decarbonise concrete and access funding and sector specific support, to develop and deliver innovation and growth plans.

Programme:     Innovate UK

Award:     Share of up to £11.5 million

Opens: 21st Oct 2026

Closes: 2nd Dec 2026

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Grant Overview

Innovate UK will invest up to £11.5 million through a two-stage competition to create a cohort of ambitious businesses that will accelerate concrete decarbonisation.

Grant Scope

The aim of this competition is to recruit ambitious businesses to join a Growth Cohort. The Growth Cohort will fund and support UK businesses to accelerate their ambitions to decarbonise concrete and scale their businesses by exploiting their IP in the UK and internationally.

Innovate UK will support businesses who have the right to exploit their IP in the UK and beyond. Relevant IP must be owned by a company that is headquartered in the UK.

Eligibility Criteria

To be eligible for this project you must have a grant funding request of £54,400 with projects lasting for six months. Projects must stary by 1st June 2027 and end by 30th November 2027. You must upload a video in response to the video pitch question in your application. Successful applicants will be able to claim up to £50,000 of a grant towards eligible costs incurred.

Lead organisation: To work along, organisations must be a UK registered business of any size. This competition is open to single applicants only.

Subcontractors: Subcontractors are allowed in this competition and can be from anywhere in the UK. Overseas subcontractors can be used, but you must state why UK subcontractors could not be used in your application.

Number of applications: A business of any size can only apply and receive funding once in this first stage competition.

Previous applications: Previously submitted applications can be used in this competition.

Grant Exclusions

Innovate UK are not funding the following projects:

  • Projects that use fresh fly ash or Ground Granulated Blast Furnace Slag as principal Supplementary Cementation Materials, unless the innovation is actively looking to reduce their use
  • Projects that develop alternative fuels for cement production or focus on aggregate or aggregate replacements
  • Projects that focus on alternative fuels
  • Projects that develop Carbon Capture and Storage applied to cement production where this does not involve the captured carbon being sequestered in concrete
  • Projects focussed on making the steel in reinforced concrete last longer
  • Projects concerned with the replacement of concrete with other building materials
  • Projects solely focussed on additives without considering their use in concrete
  • Projects focussed on enabling systems, methodologies or platforms that do not have a direct effect on the physical flow of materials, products or services within the concrete supply chain
  • Projects that are not original, in scope or duplicates someone else’s work

Funding Costs

Innovate UK has allocated up to £11.5 million in this two stage competition. Funding will be in the form of a grant. A minimum of £200,000 is available in this round of the entry competition, remaining from a total budget of £1 million for the first stage.

Your total project costs will be eligible for up to 100% funding subject to MFA subsidy rules. You must apply for 100% funding. Total project costs detailed within your application must not exceed the maximum project size. If your total project costs do exceed the maximum then your application will be made ineligible.

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

Full competition details