Types of Innovate UK grants

Innovate UK is the UK’s innovation agency, and along with the seven Research Councils and Research England, forms part of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI). Overall, Innovate UK’s mission is to support business-led innovation across all sectors and technologies across the country, resulting in the development and commercialisation of new products, processes and services. 

Sponsored ultimately by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS), Innovate UK’s budget allocation for 2022-205 is £2,438m, with £970m allocated in 2024/25. Innovate UK grants are highly sought after by innovative companies, universities and the not for profit sector alike, and are accessible through a wide variety of competitions which run throughout the year. Details, eligibility criteria and the individual application processes for each opportunity can be found on the Innovation Funding Service portal. 

Given the variety of grant programmes are available, and the fact that new competitions and funding opportunities open regularly, taking some time to understand the different options is very beneficial so that you are able to focus on the most appropriate ones for your business. To help you, we will explore some of the primary types of Innovate UK grant, what they are intended for, and what type of businesses are eligible for each one, in this blog.

Smart Grants

Innovate UK’s Smart grants programme is designed to support organisations to carry out innovative, disruptive R&D projects that have a high chance of commercial success. Projects can be early feasibility studies, industrial research, or experimental development, and organisations of any size can apply. Available to businesses across the UK, competitions are sector agnostic, and are not tied to a particular technology or innovation, but proposed projects should make sure that they offer an approach that is significantly different to what is already available in the chosen market. Projects funded by Smart should last between 6 and 24 months, depending on the type of project, and whether it is from a single organisation, or whether it is a collaborative proposal.

The Smart programme requires businesses to provide match funding of between 30 and 75% of project costs, dependent on the size of the organisation applying and the type of project they wish to be funded. Further details can be found on the Innovation Funding Service (IFS) website.

The average success rate for Smart grants is around 5%, so leaving enough time to craft a strong application that ensures you meet all of the relevant criteria, is crucial.

Small Business Research Initiative (SBRI)

Where the Smart programme takes a grant, plus company match funding approach, the Small Business Research Initiative (SBRI) programme is focussed on procurement. The focus here is offering businesses the opportunity to work directly with the public sector, collaborating to develop technologies and processes that will support improvements in service provision and the achievement of efficiency targets. Organisations of any size can apply, and Innovate UK also works closely with the public sector to develop and deliver specific challenges which can be found on the Innovation Funding Service portal when opportunities are live. 

Knowledge Transfer Partnerships

Managed by Innovate UK, but with funding also available from additional sources, Knowledge Transfer Partnerships (KTP) is the UK Government’s premier ‘knowledge transfer’ programme, having been established for nearly 50 years. Through the KTP programme, ‘business partner’ organisations are able to access knowledge and expertise held by UK knowledge bases (eg. universities, Catapults) to develop and deliver specific strategic innovation projects that directly result in commercial growth for the business partner. The chosen knowledge base partner leads the application process with input from the business partner, then if successful, recruits a graduate (called a ‘KTP Associate’) to be based at the business partner’s premises (or remotely if the partner is set up that way) to deliver the project, supported by a team of academics. 

For this particular Innovate UK grant, there are usually six competitions per year, all of which are sector agnostic. KTP projects last between 1 and 3 years, and are intended to be very much business-driven, but with the knowledge base partner also receiving benefits to both their research and teaching. In the same way as Smart, this competition requires match funding from the business partner, but for KTP, the requirement is up to 50% of project costs, again  dependent on the size of the organisation making the application.

Contrary to Smart however, the Knowledge Transfer Partnerships programme maintains a very high success rate which is currently around 87%. 

How Finerva can help

Finerva can support your business, not only to navigate the grants landscape and understand whether any of the options above are right for you, but also to help you to create an application that is tailored to the criteria of your chosen funding stream, presenting your business and your project in the best possible way, and giving you the strongest chance of success. Please contact Ben Rule via ben@finerva.com or submit your details via our website.