Semiconductors and components for smart electronic platforms

Key Features

UK registered businesses can apply with CR&D or R&D projects for a share of up to £18.5 million to mature and accelerate the availability of components that include semiconductors or novel technologies ready for integration into Smart Electronic Platforms

Programme:     Innovate UK

Award:     Share of up to £18.5 million

Opens: 20th Feb 2026

Closes: 1st Apr 2026

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Grant Overview

Innovate UK are investing up to £18.5 million for CR&D and R&D projects focussing on components that include semiconductors required to deliver Smart Electronic Platforms.

Grant Scope

The aim of this competition is to drive the availability of a UK anchored catalogue of components, ready for delivery into next gen smart electronic platforms.

Projects must ensure components are made ready for integration into a smart electronic platform: Sense, Decide, Act pipeline.

Operating Environment

Industrial Edge refers to environments like, energy grids, manufacturing, critical infrastructure

Tactical Edge refers to environments where, connectivity is intermittent, contested or denied or intelligence is delivered locally

Projects must have components that will be ready for integration into a package or deliver an in-package part ready for integration onto smart electronic platforms

Specific Themes

Projects must focus on the development of components ready for integration within smart electronic platforms used in industrial automation and autonomy. Examples of components across the Sense, Decide and Act Pipeline are as follows:

Sense – Sensing components – Components used for providing sensors within the physical world

Decide – Processing, AI acceleration, storage and memory components – Processing elements tailored for real time analysis, decision making, command and control.

Act – Actuation and physical drive components – component drivers required for off platform actuation and platform power regulation

Platform – Enablement and ancillary components – components may include components required for in-package an in-platform data movement, hardware security modules, power management and control components.

Eligibility Criteria

Projects must request between £500,000 and £2 million in grant funding with projects lasting between 12 and 18 months. Projects must start by 1st August 2026 and end on 31st January 2028.

Any funded organisations need to carry out their project work within the UK and exploit the project results from or in the UK.

Lead: To lead a collaborative project your organisation must be registered in the UK and be a business of any size. The consortium must contain at least one UK registered micro, small or medium sized enterprise claiming grant funding on this application.

Project Teams: To collaborate with the lead your organisation must be a UK registered business of any size, academic institution, charity, not for-profit, public-sector organisation or a research and technology organisation.

Non-funded partners: Projects can include organisations who do not claim funding for work on the project. These costs need to be covered by their own resources and can include UK, EU and other non-UK organisations.

Subcontractors: Subcontractors are allowed in the competition and can be from anywhere in the UK. If overseas subcontractors are used, you must make a case as to why UK subcontractors could not be used.

Number of Applications: A business can only lead on one application. A business, academic institution, research and technology organisation, charity, not for profit or public sector organisation can only be included as a collaborator in three applications.

Previous applications: You can use previously submitted applications

Exclusions

The following projects are not being funded:

  • Projects that do not propose a component that will be made ready for integration
  • Does not define a specific target supporting industrial automation or autonomy
  • Does not focus on Sense, Decide, Act pipeline or platform enablement components of a smart electronic platform
  • Develop standalone technologies that cannot be readily made available for integration into a packaged part or smart electronic platform’s PCB
  • Develop components not delivered through procurement of integrated smart electronic platforms
  • Developed software not required to enable the use of proposed component within it’s target smart electronic platform
  • Developed a component designed to act as the external communications module for integration into the smart platform.
  • Include research and innovation of the AI model, platform level communications module or software for the end application.

Grant Funding

Up to £18.5 million in funding has been allocated to fund innovation projects. Funding will be in the form of a grant.

The following funding is available for feasibility studies, industrial research, experimental development and innovation support:

Category 2 Industrial research projects

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 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, this maximum is shared between them. Of that 30% you can get funding for eligible project costs of up to:

  • 100% of your eligible project costs if you are an RTO, charity, not for profit organisation, public sector organisation 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

  1. Research organisations using the Je-S system must submit their costs through the Je-S system which calculates the 80% FEC figure.
  2. On IFS, only the 80% FEC output should be entered at 100% funding.
  3. 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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