Key Features
UK registered organisations can apply for a share of up to £5 million for collaborative projects that enable adoption of the Government’s Software Security Code of Practice to drive growth of secure and resilient software supply chains.
Programme: Innovate UK
Award: Share of up to £5 million
Opens: 16th Mar 2026
Closes: 29th Apr 2026
Innovate UK are investing up to £5 million for Collaborative Research & Development projects. Cyber has been identified as a UK “frontier technology” in the Industrial Strategy 2025, and the Cyber Growth Action Plan shows how cyber‑resilient technologies help drive economic growth.
The aim of this competition is to drive growth of secure and resilient software supply chains within the UK, through the adoption of the Software Security Code of Practice. The SSCoP is designed to support software vendors and their customers in reducing the impact of software supply chain attacks.
Projects must focus on the following:
Please see full competition details for breakdown of specific themes.
When applying for funding, your project must have total costs of between £250,000 and £750,000 with projects lasting between 12-18 months. Projects must start by 1st August 2026 and end by 31st January 2028. Funding organisations need to carry out project work in the UK and exploit project results in the UK. Projects must also start on the 1st of the month – even if the 1st of the month is a non-working day.
Lead: To lead a collaborative project organisation must be UK registered businesses of any size with consortiums containing at least one UK registered micro, small or medium sized enterprise. Academic institutions cannot lead or work alone.
Project Team: To collaborate with the lead, organisations must be a business of any size, academic institution, not for profit, charity, public sector or research and technology organisations. Each partner must be invited into the Innovation Funding Service by the lead to collaborate on a project.
Non-funded partners: Projects can include organisations that do not claim funding for work on the project. These costs must be covered from their own resources and can include UK, EU and other non-UK organisations. Non-UK partners can carry our project work from within their home counties and exploit the results outside the UK. Where non-funded partner have been invited to the application on IFS their costs will count towards the total project costs.
Subcontractors: Subcontractors are allowed in this competition and can be from anywhere in the UK. If overseas subcontractors have been used you must state why contactors from the UK could not be used.
Number of applications: Businesses can only lead on one application.
Previous applications: Previously submitted applications cannot be used in this competition.
The following projects cannot be funded:
Innovate UK are offering up to £5 million to fund innovation projects. Funding will be in the form of a grant.
If your organisation’s work on the project is commercial or economic, funding requests must not exceed the below limits.
For industrial research you can get funding for your eligible project costs of:
Category 2 Industrial research projects
Funding available for your eligible project costs of:
Research participation
The research organisation 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 eligible project costs of up to:
Eligibility criteria for claiming 80% of FEC funding
For further information on this competition, please see full details.
Book an appointment to speak to one of our advisors to discuss your eligibility to apply for this Grant Funding opportunity.
Call 
Back
