Key Features
Women founders or co-founders with UK registered businesses at the late stage start-up phase can apply for a grant of up to £75,000 and bespoke business support, to further their ambitious growth plans.
Programme: Innovate UK
Award: Share of up to £75,000
Opens: 24th Nov 2025
Closes: 4th Feb 2026
Innovate UK, part of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), is offering up to 60 Women in Innovation Awards to women founders and co-founders of micro, small or medium sized enterprises (SMEs) across the UK. This is subject to a sufficient number of high quality applications being received.
Successful projects will receive up to £75,000 of grant funding and bespoke business support for 12 months.
A proportion of highly commended applicants who have not been awarded grant funding in this competition will be offered bespoke business support for 12 months.
The aims of this competition are to support Women in Innovation Award winners:
As a late stage start-up we would expect you to:
Your business must be developing a new or significantly improved product, service, or business model that addresses a specific market need. Your solution must be one of the following:
As an award holder you will receive bespoke business support to enable you to significantly grow your business.
Award holders will be required to commit to a minimum of four hours of role modelling activity to inspire future generations of women innovators over the 12 month duration of the award. See more details about being a role model in supporting information.
Innovate UK want to support a diverse cohort of women innovators from a wide range of different backgrounds, from across the UK.
Portfolio approach
Innovate UK want to fund a variety of projects across Advanced Manufacturing, Digital and Technologies and Life Sciences, and different regions. We call this a portfolio approach.
The Women in Innovation Awards focus on innovations that support three of the UK’s eight high growth sectors:
For information about each of these high growth sectors we strongly encourage you to look through the sector plan for your respective growth sector.
Your innovation needs to align with one of the following growth sectors and associated priority areas:
Your project must:
All projects must commence and finish on the dates stated. Any funded business needs to carry out their project work in the UK and must intend to exploit the project results from or in the UK.
Projects must always start on the first of the month, even if this is a non-working day. You must not start your project until your Grant Offer Letter has been approved by Innovate UK. Any delays within Project Setup may mean we need to delay your project start date.
You must only include eligible project costs in your application. See our overview of eligible project costs. For specific guidance, see the eligibility section in this competition.
You will be made ineligible if you exceed the Minimal Financial Assistance limit. You must submit a complete declaration as part of your application.
To lead a project you must:
You are not eligible to apply for Women in Innovation Awards 2025/26 if you or anyone else from your business have previously received Innovate UK funding from:
More information on the different types of organisation can be found in our Funding rules.
Subcontractors
Subcontractors are allowed in this competition. Subcontracting costs must not exceed 50% of the grant funding amount.
Subcontractors can be from anywhere in the UK and you must select them through your usual procurement process.
You can use subcontractors from overseas but must make the case in your application as to why you cannot use subcontractors from the UK.
You must also provide a detailed rationale, evidence of the potential UK contractors you approached and the reasons why they were unable to work with you.
We expect all subcontractor costs to be justified and appropriate to the total eligible project costs. We will not accept a cheaper cost as a sufficient reason to use an overseas subcontractor.
Number of applications
You can only make one application for yourself. Only one woman working within an organisation can apply.
You can use a previously submitted application to apply for this competition.
If you have previously submitted an application that reached our assessment stage, you can re-apply once more with the same proposal.
If there are minor differences to the proposal, but it is judged by us to be ‘not materially different’, the same rule applies.
Innovate UK will not award you funding if you have:
Innovate UK may withhold a grant payment at any time if you have any outstanding sums due to Innovate UK in relation to other projects.
Innovate UK are not funding projects:
Innovate UK cannot fund projects that:
A maximum of £4.5 million has been allocated to fund innovation projects in this competition. This is subject to us receiving a sufficient number of high quality applications. Funding will be in the form of a grant.
Innovate UK reserve the right to adjust funding allocations for any of our competitions under exceptional circumstances, for example, in response to changes in policy, portfolio funding considerations, or broader government funding decisions.
Your total project costs will be eligible for up to 100% funding subject to MFA subsidy rules. Your total grant funding request must not exceed £75,000.
If successful, the grant funding will be paid in three instalments:
If you are applying for an award funded under European Commission Regulations, the definitions are set out in the European Commission Recommendation of 6 May 2003.
Innovate UK may revoke our decision to provide funding without notice if government commitment for this initiative is withdrawn.
Book an appointment to speak to one of our advisors to discuss your eligibility to apply for this Grant Funding opportunity.
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