The next round of Innovate UK Smart Grants is open for applications

Innovate UK, part of UK Research and Innovation, is investing up to £25 million to deliver disruptive R&D innovations that can significantly impact the UK economy. The smart grants aim to offer funding where other opportunities are not available or appropriate, and where timing is key to ensure swift and successful commercialisation post-project completion.

The next round of the competition, known as ‘Innovate UK Smart Grants: April 2022’, is now open and offers grants of up to 70% of project costs, depending on your business’ size. The application questions for this round have been updated to ensure that the projects have real economic benefit from public funding.

Applications can come from any area of technology and be applied to any part of the economy, such as, but not exclusively:

• net-zero
• the arts
• design and media

To be eligible, your project must:

• follow specific rules dependent on their duration
• include at least one micro, small or medium-sized enterprise (SME) as the lead or a collaborative grant claiming partner
• carry out all of its project work in the UK
• intend to exploit the results from or in the UK
• start by 1 January 2023 and end by 31 December 2025 

The end by date is the date by which all funding for this round of the competition must end and your contracted project end date will not be extended. If your project’s duration is 6 to 18 months, it must have total project costs of between £100,000 and £500,000 and can be single or collaborative. If your project’s duration is 19 to 36 months, it must have total project costs of between £100,000 and £2 million and must be collaborative.

This round of the competition closes on Wednesday 27 July 2022 at 11:00am. You can read more about the application criteria and details on how to apply here.

If you need any support with grant funding or the various tax reliefs available, please email our EQ Technology team on technology@eqaccountants.co.uk.