Startup grants closing soon in United Kingdom — 2026

Innovate UK (UKRI)

Amount not published

Department for Business and Trade / Advanced Propulsion Centre / Innovate UK

£150,000,000

Innovate UK (UKRI) / Enterprise Singapore

£3,000,000

Projected from the months this call usually opens — not a date the funder has confirmed.

Projected from the months this call usually opens — not a date the funder has confirmed.

Suspended for now. Reopening projected from the months this call usually opens — not a date the funder has confirmed.

Projected from the months this call usually opens — not a date the funder has confirmed.

Projected from the months this call usually opens — not a date the funder has confirmed.

Suspended for now. Reopening projected from the months this call usually opens — not a date the funder has confirmed.

Projected from the months this call usually opens — not a date the funder has confirmed.

Projected from the months this call usually opens — not a date the funder has confirmed.

Projected from the months this call usually opens — not a date the funder has confirmed.

Projected from the months this call usually opens — not a date the funder has confirmed.

Projected from the months this call usually opens — not a date the funder has confirmed.

Projected from the months this call usually opens — not a date the funder has confirmed.

Projected from the months this call usually opens — not a date the funder has confirmed.

Projected from the months this call usually opens — not a date the funder has confirmed.

Projected from the months this call usually opens — not a date the funder has confirmed.

Projected from the months this call usually opens — not a date the funder has confirmed.

Projected from the months this call usually opens — not a date the funder has confirmed.

Projected from the months this call usually opens — not a date the funder has confirmed.

Projected from the months this call usually opens — not a date the funder has confirmed.

Projected from the months this call usually opens — not a date the funder has confirmed.

Annual cohort call, historically opening in the first half of the year

No new Future Fund: Breakthrough investments are being made. Later-stage deeptech support has moved to the British Business Bank's British Patient Capital and the National Wealth Fund. Check British Patient Capital for current co-investment routes.

Historically ran with two to three cut-offs a year.

Individual schemes have their own deadlines; the Early Detection and Diagnosis Innovation Award has historically had annual or biannual cut-offs.

Eurostars runs two cut-offs a year, typically in the spring (around March) and the autumn (around September).

No new national Made Smarter Innovation competition rounds confirmed. Manufacturing SMEs should instead look at the regionally delivered Made Smarter Adoption programme (digital technology grants and adoption support in most English regions).

Permanently closed as a named programme - it was a time-limited COVID-19 recovery fund. Its role has been taken over by Innovate UK's net zero and sustainability themed competitions.

LEAP will not reopen. Its functions transferred to the Greater London Authority. London business support now runs through the GLA, Grow London / London and Partners, and the borough-level growth hub successor arrangements.

Periodic competition calls, usually one or two per year.

Runs to published competition cut-offs, historically two or three per year.

Runs annual innovation challenge rounds with Discovery, Alpha and Beta phase windows.

Will not reopen under this name. Entrepreneurship support for Oxford founders now runs through the Oxford Saïd Entrepreneurship Centre (contact entrepreneurship@sbs.ox.ac.uk) and, for spin-outs, through Oxford University Innovation and Oxford Science Enterprises. Founders looking for the old Foundry programmes should approach those bodies instead.

Runs cycle-numbered innovation competitions (for example Cycle 8) plus themed challenges, with cut-offs through the year.

Highly variable by council. Many schemes open for short windows and close when the allocation is spent.

Unilever has reorganised its startup engagement several times. Verify the current route before planning around it.

Replaced by Welsh Government / Business Wales successor high-growth support delivered under domestic funding. Contact Business Wales for the current equivalent offer for scaling businesses.

Wellcome restructured its translational funding under its Discovery Research and health challenge strategies; the historic Innovator Awards scheme has been reshaped.

Cohort-based; Zinc has run missions roughly annually with an application window several months ahead of the programme start.