Novigo Grants

Innovate UK Smart Grant

Secure grant funding of up to £1 million for your innovative startup without giving up equity in your business or having to repay a debt loan and watch your business take off in 2025
Novigo grant funding

Innovate UK Smart Grant - Transforming Ideas into Innovation

The Innovate UK Smart Grant supports UK-based SMEs with game-changing ideas for innovative products, services, or processes. These grants are designed to accelerate commercialisation, address market needs, and deliver significant economic, societal, or environmental benefits. Successful projects must demonstrate strong market potential, innovation, and alignment with UK government priorities.

What is the Innovate UK Smart Grant

The Innovate UK Smart Grant is the UK government’s leading grant programme, providing £125 million annually to support British businesses across all industries. Designed to fund technology and innovation-driven projects, this competitive grant helps companies develop groundbreaking solutions, accelerate growth, and drive commercial success.

What Are the Grants For?

The Innovate UK Smart Grant supports tech-driven projects lasting 6 to 18 months that demonstrate commercially viable, innovative, or disruptive ideas. Open to businesses across all industries—from arts, design, and media to science, engineering, and creative industries—this funding aims to accelerate the development of groundbreaking technologies.

In essence, the programme is designed to fund new innovations that drive economic growth, helping the UK maintain its position as a leader in technological advancement and industry transformation.

How much can you apply For?

The Innovate UK Smart Grant comes with two levels, depending on how long your project needs to run for. Projects of 6 to 18 months must have total eligible project costs between £100,000 and £500,000 and can be single or collaborative. Projects of 19 to 24 months must have total eligible project costs between £100,000 and £1 million and be collaborative

In this context, collaborative means that the project must involve two or more organisations working together to deliver the innovation. This typically includes partnerships between:

  • Businesses (SMEs or large enterprises)
  • Universities or research institutions
  • Public sector organisations or non-profits
  • Another business of any size that shares some of the innovation risk with you.

A collaborative project requires at least one UK-registered SME as the lead applicant, working alongside other partners to contribute expertise, resources, or research capabilities. These collaborations strengthen the project’s feasibility, enhance innovation potential, and increase the chances of successful commercialisation.

For projects lasting 19 to 24 months, collaboration is mandatory, meaning a single organisation cannot apply alone.

Key Features of the Innovate UK Smart Grant:

Why Apply for the Innovate UK Smart Grant?

Innovate UK’s funding is a vital resource for SMEs aiming to:

Who Is Eligible for a Smart Grant?

How to Apply for an Innovate UK Smart Grant

The application process includes:

Applying for an Innovate UK Smart Grant requires careful planning and attention to detail. Start by ensuring your business and project meet the eligibility criteria, including being UK-registered and focused on a game-changing, innovation-driven idea. Projects must fall within specific funding limits (£100,000–£1 million) and durations (6–24 months). Applications are submitted via the Innovation Funding Service, which provides guidance and structured questions to address your project’s innovation, market potential, impact, and feasibility. Preparing evidence-based responses and detailed financial plans is critical to success.

You can apply for an Innovate UK Smart Grant yourself. The questions are available on the Innovate UK Smart Grant web page published from time to time by the Innovation Funding Service. Here is an example from November 2024. However, the application process can be complex, but professional guidance can significantly improve your chances. 

Writing Your Innovate UK Smart Grant Application Yourself: Pros and Cons

Pros: Writing your application yourself gives you full control over how your project is presented. You are the expert on your innovation, so you can articulate its technical details, market potential, and impact with first-hand knowledge. Handling the process in-house can also save on upfront consultancy costs, especially if you have the time and resources to dedicate to the application. Additionally, completing the application yourself allows you to fully understand the process, which can be useful for future funding opportunities.

Cons: While writing your own application can seem cost-effective, it is often time-consuming and overwhelming. Innovate UK applications require concise, evidence-based responses that address strict scoring criteria, and without experience, it’s easy to miss crucial details. Many self-written applications fail due to vague answers, poor structure, or lack of alignment with Innovate UK’s priorities. Reading and digesting lengthy guidance documents and sourcing market data can quickly become a significant drain on your resources. Without expert insight or a strategic approach, your chances of success may be lower, potentially costing you both time and the opportunity to secure funding.

At Novigo Grant Funding, we specialise in simplifying the process, whether by writing your application, refining your draft, or scoring and providing suggestions to improve the application before submission. We have a tried and tested human process that uses a perfect blend of human experience, understanding and communication with technology to deliver your application much faster than you could do it yourself and with a controllable amount of your time that leaves you free to focus on running your business and raising investment for you innovation.  Leave us to do the legwork. All you need to do is provide information that you probably already have in business plans, pitch decks and market plans etc. and meet once a week to provide specific information that is needed to complete your application. 

Remember that we have three tiers of service depending on what you need. We can write it for you. We can assess and then improve your application for you. Or we can assess the application like an assessor would at Innovate and provide a score with some feedback before you submit it to Innovate so that you can fix any mistakes in advance and submit with confidence. 

By leveraging our expertise, you can confidently submit a high-quality application that stands out to Innovate UK assessors. Contact us today to learn more about how we can support your success. 

Innovate UK evaluates applications based on novelty, feasibility, market potential, and economic impact. Up to five experienced innovation assessors review and score proposals, ensuring a fair and transparent process. We are here to help you prepare your application and our experienced team will make sure that it has the best chance of being selected by Innovate UK for funding. 

Innovate UK funding specialists for your business

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