Innovate UK, part of UK Research and Innovation has opened a new Collaborative Research and Development (CR&D) competition, offering UK businesses a share of up to £12 million to accelerate the industrial adoption of advanced materials innovations.
The competition is the first round of collaborative industrial research funding delivered through the National Materials Innovation Programme (NMIP). Applicants can request between £500,000 and £1 million for projects focused on a significant materials innovation with a clear route towards commercialisation, deployment and scale-up in the UK.
Projects must address at least one sub-theme within four opportunity areas:
- Future Healthcare Solutions: biocompatible and regenerative materials; bioelectronic materials.
- Structural Materials Innovation: sustainability; surface engineering; design and deployment; extreme environments.
- Power Electronics and Connectivity: wide and ultra-wide bandgap materials; advanced connectivity materials.
- Metamaterials and Metasurfaces: future telecommunications and connectivity; convergent electronic-photonic technologies; thermal, acoustic and mechanical metamaterials; energy security and net zero; and healthcare.
The first three themes are high-growth opportunities identified through the National Materials Innovation Strategy, while Metamaterials and Metasurfaces has been included as an additional strategic opportunity.
Proposals must demonstrate how the materials innovation will improve performance, functionality, productivity or sustainability. Applicants must also identify the relevant growth-driving sector, demonstrate a credible route to commercial adoption and explain how the innovation could contribute to UK net zero objectives. Projects focused primarily on digital tools such as artificial intelligence or machine learning, rather than on the materials innovation itself, are outside the competition’s scope.
Who can apply?
Applications must be collaborative and led by a UK-registered business. Each consortium must include:
- at least one UK-registered micro, small or medium-sized enterprise claiming grant funding
- at least one additional funded project partner
- a named downstream end user with a clearly defined role in the project.
Universities, research organisations, charities, not-for-profit bodies, public sector organisations and research and technology organisations can participate as project partners.
Projects must last between 18 and 30 months and start by 1 February 2027. Innovate UK can fund up to 70% of eligible costs for micro and small organisations, 60% for medium-sized organisations and 50% for large organisations. Funded work must be undertaken in the UK, with the results intended to be exploited in the UK.
Briefing Webinar and applicant support
Innovate UK Business Connect is holding an online briefing on 3 September 2026, from 10.30am to noon. The session will cover the competition’s scope, objectives, eligibility requirements and assessment criteria. Attendees will also be able to join an online networking platform to identify potential collaborators and develop consortia.
Two online drop-in clinics will follow on 11 September and 7 October, both from 10.30am to noon, providing opportunities for potential applicants to put questions directly to Innovate UK.
About the National Materials Innovation Programme
The National Materials Innovation Programme is a wider £80 million government programme running from 2026 to March 2030. Announced through the UK’s Modern Industrial Strategy and Advanced Manufacturing Sector Plan, it aims to establish a more nationally coordinated approach to advanced materials innovation and accelerate the translation of promising technologies into industrial applications.
Delivered primarily through UK Research and Innovation, the programme seeks to reduce fragmentation across disciplines and sectors, strengthen UK resilience and security, and support growth across the eight growth-driving sectors identified in the Industrial Strategy.
Facilitated by the Henry Royce Institute and informed by contributions from more than 2,000 experts across industry, academia and government, the Strategy provides a long-term framework for turning the UK’s strengths in materials research into economic, environmental and societal benefits.
The competition closes at 11am on 28 October 2026. Projects must start by 1 February 2027.
