Innovate UK Smart Grants is sponsored by Innovate UK (part of UK Research & Innovation). Innovate UK Smart Grants provide funding to UK-registered companies developing original, high-impact innovations ready for commercialization.

Smart Grants funding guidance – UKRI Smart Grants funding guidance - Innovate UK From January 2025, Innovate UK is pausing Smart Grants to develop tailored support, with a new pilot launching in spring 2025 to help startups tackle innovation, sustainability and scaling. The Smart Grants programme is designed to bring original, high-impact innovations into the marketplace.

The innovation must have a solid strategy to generate considerable economic benefits for the UK. The grants are available to all industry and technology areas from science and engineering to the creative industries. The Smart Grants programme is always open for businesses to apply, with quarterly funding rounds each year.

These grants are subject to strict eligibility criteria. Each opportunity will have specific criteria and guidelines attached to the brief.

You must also meet these Smart Grants criteria before applying: all applicants must be UK-registered companies and carry out their project activities in the UK the project must include at least one small or medium-sized enterprise the innovation should be completely new and ahead of anything similar on the market you must be able to demonstrate a clear and sizeable market need you must provide a robust and deliverable plan for quick and successful commercialisation Your idea should be one of the following: a completely new product, service or process a brand-new use for an existing product, service or process Businesses that do not meet these criteria can search for other types of innovation support and advice .

New Smart Grants opportunities are published on the Innovation Funding Service when they are available. You must check the specific criteria and guidelines published with each funding opportunity. Businesses will need to register and apply using the Innovation Funding Service.

You must provide details on how the innovation will contribute to the UK’s economic growth, including job creation, market expansion, and overall economic prosperity.

How we will assess your application We will look for the following when assessing your application: an outline of the need identified and how the innovation meets it an explanation of why the grant is important to your project development evidence of a clear market that will want to buy and use the final product, process or service how you will access and exploit the market Full details of how we assess the applications, including an assessor matrix, will be in the opportunity brief.

Your application will be assessed by three independent assessors. All three of the scores awarded will count towards the total score used to make the funding decision. The standard Innovate UK ‘outlier’ process does not apply.

The final decision regarding a grant offer will ultimately rest with Innovate UK. For Smart Grants April 2024 and all subsequent Smart Grants opportunities (until further notice), the exception process for assessment will be as follows. If the highest or lowest score is 30% or 18 marks away from the next closest score and the funding decision is impacted, we will review your application against this exceptions process.

We will look for one or more of the following: if an assessor marking no to ‘recommend for funding’ is subsequently judged by us not to have marked the questions on the merit of the responses or taken into account the guidance provided if Innovate UK determines the verified assessor skills and content of the application are not an appropriate match If we identify one or more of these, we will replace that assessment.

Ask a question about the Smart Grants programme Last updated: 20 February 2026 This is the website for UKRI: our seven research councils, Research England and Innovate UK. Let us know if you have feedback or would like to help improve our online products and services .