Advanced manufacturing supply chain innovation: CRD

UK registered businesses can apply for a share of up to £6.5 million for collaborative industrial research to make supply chains more productive, resource efficient and resilient.

Registration Details

Opens: 27/04/2026 Closes: 10/06/2026 11:00

Opportunity Type

Collaboration, Funding

Location

• East Midlands
• East of England
• London and the South East
• North East (England)
• North West (England)
• Northern Ireland
• Scotland
• South West (England)
• Wales
• West Midlands
• Yorkshire and The Humber

Award

Your project must have a grant funding request of between £250,000 and £1 million. This can cover up to 70% of costs depending on business size.

Organisation

Innovate UK

Sector

• Agrifood
• Chemistry
• Digital
• Electronics
• Energy
• Manufacturing
• Materials
• Robotics & AI
• Sensors
• Space
• Transport

Innovate UK, part of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), will invest up to £6.5 million into supply chain innovation projects. This is subject to a sufficient number of high quality applications being received.

The aim of this competition is to support collaborative industrial research projects to explore innovative ways of making supply chains more productive, resource efficient and resilient.

Your project must apply one of the competition themes (measurement, sensing and instrumentation; additive manufacturing; digital manufacturing and industrial AI; robotics and intelligent automation; power electronics) to at least two of the Advanced Manufacturing frontier industries (automotive, aerospace, advanced materials, batteries, agri-tech or space). While you may currently operate within a single frontier industry, your product or service must be capable of scaling into adjacent advanced manufacturing frontier industries.

You must clearly describe how your project will improve productivity, resource efficiency, resilience, or a combination of these outcomes, within the targeted industry supply chains, involving at least one named user (OEM, Tier 1, or other organisation further down the supply chain).

Our experience from similar competitions suggests that you could have a 20% chance of success.

Who can apply?

This competition is open to collaborations only.

To lead a collaborative project your organisation must be a UK registered business of any size.

To collaborate with the lead, your organisation must be one of the following UK registered:

• business of any size
• academic institution
• charity
• not for profit
• public sector organisation
• research and technology organisation (RTO)

A business can only lead on one application but can be included as a collaborator in a further two applications.

If a business is not leading any application, it can collaborate in any number of applications.

An academic institution, charity, not for profit, public sector organisation, research and technology organisation can collaborate on any number of applications.

Eligible projects

Your project must:

• have a grant funding request of between £250,000 and £1 million
• last between 12 and 36 months
• start on 1 October 2026
• end by 30 September 2029

You must ensure that no one partner accounts for more than 70% of the total eligible costs.

Any funded organisation needs to carry out their project work in the UK and must intend to exploit the project results from or in the UK.

Scope

The aim of this competition is to support collaborative industrial research projects to explore innovative ways of making supply chains more productive, resource efficient and resilient.

Your project must apply one of the competition themes to at least two of the Advanced Manufacturing Frontier Industries. While you may currently operate within a single frontier industry, your product or service must be capable of scaling into adjacent advanced manufacturing frontier industries.

You must clearly describe how your project will improve productivity, resource efficiency, resilience, or a combination of these outcomes, within the targeted industries’ supply chain.

Your project must:

• be collaborative industrial research
• focus on solutions that are either new or not yet widely used
• address improvements in supply chain productivity, resource efficiency, resilience, or a combination of these
• identify one theme and at least two Advanced Manufacturing frontier industries you are targeting
• address supply chain validation through involvement of at least one named end user in the project, for example, an OEM, Tier 1, or other organisation further downstream in the supply chain

The named end user is the organisation, further along the supply chain, that will use or directly benefit from the innovation. The end user must have a clear, defined role within the project governance or work plan. The involvement of the end user can be in the form of, but is not limited to, being on a project advisory board, or being a non-funded project collaborator or a funded project collaborator.

Government organisations, regulators or academic institutions can only be end users where you provide a clear justification, for example, where they act as a system integrator or service provider for the innovation.

In this competition we will not accept:

• letters of support from the end user
• consultancies as end users

Within your application you must:

• demonstrate a clear route to scale in the UK
• assess commercial, technical and operational viability of your innovation
• explain how this project delivers growth to your company as part of future UK resource efficient and resilient supply chains in UK manufacturing

Specific themes

Your project must focus on one of the following themes:

• measurement, sensing and instrumentation
• additive manufacturing
• digital manufacturing and industrial AI
• robotics and intelligent automation
• power electronics

Your project must focus on at least two of the following Advanced Manufacturing frontier industries:

• automotive
• aerospace
• advanced materials
• batteries
• agri-tech
• space

Briefing, consortia building, and support

The competition briefing took place on Friday 1 May. Watch the recording and download the slides.

The consortia building event took place on Monday 11 May.

If you would like help to find a collaboration partner, contact Innovate UK Business Connect’s Manufacturing team.

Join our advanced manufacturing networking platform and collaborate with manufacturing technology solution providers More than 350 organisations and individuals are open to collaboration around this competition through the B2Match networking platform. If you are looking to trial new technologies, co-develop solutions, or shape innovation projects, this is a valuable opportunity to find the right partners, especially if you are a manufacturer looking for digital technology and industrial AI solutions.

Join community before 10 June 2026 >

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.

For more information

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.

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Programme

This opportunity is part of Manufacturing.

The UK is one of the largest global manufacturing countries; this sector is vital for our economic productivity and growth. Innovate UK helps manufacturers to innovate and innovators to manufacture. We work across technologies connecting you to partners, experts, facilities and funding, working with businesses at all stages from start-up to scale up.

Find out more