Frontier AI: SME Champions, Phase 1

Frontier AI Discovery is the UK's principal attempt to move domestic frontier AI capability out of the lab and into deployable technology, and its two-phase structure is the single most important thing to understand before applying. Phase 1 is deliberately small and fast - GBP 25,000 to GBP 50,000 in eligible costs, funded at 80 percent FEC, over a project of no more than three months. It exists to buy an option, not to fund a research programme. What it buys is eligibility for Phase 2, where awards jump to between GBP 5,000,000 and GBP 10,000,000 delivered through collaborative consortia. Applicants who treat Phase 1 as a standalone feasibility grant are misreading the competition; the assessment is effectively asking whether this team and this idea could plausibly absorb an eight-figure follow-on award. Scope covers frontier artificial intelligence, machine learning and foundation models, with the competition documentation pointing at application domains including healthcare, advanced materials and national security. Phase 1 is open to single applicants only - no consortium is required or permitted at this stage - and any funded organisation must carry out project work in the UK and intend to exploit the results from or in the UK. The 2026 Phase 1 round opened in spring and closed on 10 June 2026 at 11:00am UK time, with funded projects running from 1 October 2026 to 31 January 2027, meaning the current cohort is now in delivery and Phase 2 is the live opportunity for those who came through it. Organisations that missed Phase 1 should monitor the Innovation Funding Service and UKRI opportunity pages for the next cycle, since DSIT has signalled continued frontier AI investment and the programme sits alongside the separate AI Champions and Sovereign AI streams rather than replacing them.