Innovate UK Innovation Loans Round 25

Innovate UK Innovation Loans Round 25 is sponsored by Innovate UK. Loans for UK-registered businesses to support late-stage R&D projects with strong commercial potential.

Innovate UK Innovation Loans Round 25 - Innovate UK Business Connect Knowledge Transfer Partnerships Innovate UK Innovation Loans Round 25 Innovate UK Innovation Loans Round 25 UK registered businesses can apply for loans for close to market innovative projects with strong commercial potential. They must significantly improve the UK economy and drive societal benefit.

[taxonomy] => type_of_funding Loans can be between £100,000 and £5 million. You can get a loan of up to 100% of your eligible project costs, with interest rates from 3. 7% to 7.

4% depending on repayment stage.

Agrifood , Biotechnology , Chemistry , Creative Industries , Design , Digital , Electronics , Energy , Geospatial , Health , Industrial Maths , Infrastructure , Investment , Manufacturing , Materials , Photonics , Place , Quantum , Robotics & AI , Sensors , Space , Sustainability , Transport , Water Innovate UK, part of UK Research and Innovation is offering loans to micro, small and medium sized enterprises (SME).

Innovate UK innovation loans are for highly innovative late-stage research and development (R&D) projects with the best potential for the future. There must be a clear route to commercialisation and economic impact. Note: read all the instructions carefully as changes have been introduced to the Innovation Loans programme.

This is to give businesses more flexibility to deliver both R&D and pre-commercial activities as well as increasing the maximum amount of the innovation loan and these are described further down in this section. Your project must lead to innovative new products, processes or services that are significantly ahead of others currently available, or propose an innovative use of existing products, processes or services.

It can also involve a new or innovative business model. Your project must focus on one or more of the future economy areas included in the Innovate UK plan for action . You must be able to show that you: can cover interest payments will be able to repay the loan on time The next Innovate UK Innovation Loans competition is being deferred as we build towards the release of Innovate UK’s prospectus later this month.

Applications are still welcome through our referral routes, working with Investor Partners or Innovation Leads that have supported recent grant projects. const el = $refs['accordion1']; const top = el. getBoundingClientRect().

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scrollTo({ top, behavior: 'smooth' }); To receive an innovation loan for a new project you must: be a UK registered micro, small or medium-sized enterprise (SME) carry out your project from or in the UK intend to exploit the results from or in the UK give evidence that your business is suitable to take on a loan Only single businesses can receive loans, so collaboration with other organisations cannot be funded in this competition.

Individuals, large companies, not for profits, charities, academic institutions, and research organisations are not eligible for innovation loans.

We encourage innovation involving communities that are typically under represented including: from regions that have historically accessed lower levels of investment (outside London, Oxford and Cambridge) women and other marginalised genders people with non-traditional education backgrounds We particularly welcome applications from businesses from these communities.

Your business can only submit one application per round of this competition. You cannot submit an application in this competition at the same time as submitting an application in any other innovation loans or DASA defence innovation loans competition. const el = $refs['accordion2']; const top = el.

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scrollTo({ top, behavior: 'smooth' }); You can apply for a loan of between £100,000 and £5 million to fund your project’s eligible costs. Projects can last up to five years, including both the R&D and pre-commercialisation phases. Projects in round 25 are expected to start from 1 July 2026.

Your exact project start date and first innovation loan drawdown will depend on the timing of the final credit committee decision and completion of loan documentation. const el = $refs['accordion3']; const top = el. getBoundingClientRect().

top + window. pageYOffset - 80; // adjust offset window. scrollTo({ top, behavior: 'smooth' }); Innovate UK innovation loans are for highly innovative late stage research and development (R&D) projects with the best potential for the future.

There must be a clear route to commercialisation and economic impact. Your project must lead to innovative new products, processes or services that are significantly ahead of others currently available, or propose an innovative use of existing products, processes or services. It can also involve a new or innovative business model.

Your project must demonstrate: a clearly expressed and compelling innovative idea a robust and deliverable business plan that addresses and shows evidence of market potential and needs a team with the necessary skills and experience to run and complete the project successfully and on time, and take the outputs forward awareness of all the main risks the project and business will face, with realistic plans to manage, mitigate and minimise the impact of each of these sound, practical financial plans and timelines that represent good value for money and ability to repay the loan why you are unable to fund the project from your own resources or other forms of public or private sector funding a clear, evidence based plan to deliver significant economic impact, return on investment (ROI) and growth through commercialisation, as soon as possible after project completion Your project can include: These can be in environments that represent real life operating conditions.

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scrollTo({ top, behavior: 'smooth' }); Your project must focus on one or more of the following themes or sub-themes: impact of industrial processes and use of materials agriculture and food and other sources of emissions advanced materials and manufacturing artificial intelligence, digital and advanced computing bioinformatics and genomics electronics, photonics and quantum technologies energy and environment technologies robotics and smart machines const el = $refs['accordion5']; const top = el.

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scrollTo({ top, behavior: 'smooth' }); A briefing event for all applicants for round 25 was held on Monday 19 January at 11am – recording and slides are now available to download . This webinar provides an overview of the innovation loans programme and detailed information about the application process. The business and financial submission is a critical part of the application loan in the innovation loans programme.

We hold ‘deep dive’ workshops to enable applicants to consider how an innovation loan may fit within their funding strategy for growth at scale through innovation, and to engage with members of the innovation loans team and other applicants. The online workshops will have a maximum of 45 participants to promote engagement and discussion.

Deep dive workshop 1: Wednesday 28 January 2026, 2pm-3pm Deep dive workshop 2: Monday 2 February 2026, 3pm-4pm Deep dive workshop 3: Thursday 12 February 2026, 10. 30am-11. 30am If you were unable to attend any of the workshops, please contact the Innovation Loans team for advice before applying.

Innovate UK's application and funding process If you need more information about how to apply, please read our funding support pages. For additional support, reach out to our team of innovation experts who are ready to help you navigate the application process and maximise your chances of success.

[url] => /how-we-help/innovation-funding-and-support/ Accessibility and Inclusion Innovate UK welcome and encourage applications from people of all backgrounds and are committed to making our application process accessible to everyone. This includes making reasonable adjustments, for people who have a disability or a long-term condition and face barriers applying to us.

Briefing 19 Jan: workshops 28 Jan, 2 Feb, 12 Feb Innovation Loans Round 25 - Applicant Briefing Webinar and Deep-dive Workshops 05/11/2025 | 10. 00 - 12. 00 Innovation Loans Round 24 - Applicant Briefing Webinar and Deep-dive Workshops This opportunity is part of Innovation Loans.

UK registered SME businesses can apply for loan funding for innovative late-stage research and development projects with strong commercial potential that will significantly boost the UK economy. Connect with Innovate UK Business Connect