Medicines Manufacturing: Labs of the Future

UK registered businesses can apply for a share of up to £7.5 million to support the development and use of digital, automated, and robotic technologies. This aims to improve the speed and efficiency of pharmaceutical process development and manufacturing.

• Competition opens: Monday 13 April 2026
• Competition closes: Thursday 28 May 2026 11:00am

This competition is now closed.

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Competition sections

• Summary
• Eligibility
• Scope
• Dates
• How to apply
• Supporting information

Description

Innovate UK, part of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), will invest up to £7.5 million in this competition.

This is subject to a sufficient number of high quality applications being received.

The aim of this competition is to support the development and use of digital, automated, and robotic technologies to improve the speed and efficiency of pharmaceutical process development and manufacturing. These technologies will contribute to the vision of the Labs of the Future for medicines development and manufacturing.

This competition aims to contribute to the following objectives:

• promote the commercialisation of digital and automated medicines manufacturing innovation
• utilise data, AI or robotics to improve productivity, reduce time-to-patient, and allow scientists to focus on higher value work
• advance the integration and adoption of automation, digital, and robotics technologies across manufacturing processes and development
• support the development of a skilled workforce to ensure the effective adoption of these technologies
• promote the launch or market acceleration of new and improved products, processes, and services

In applying to this competition, you are entering into a competitive process. This competition has a funding limit, so we may not be able to fund all the proposed projects. It may be the case that your project scores highly but we are still unable to fund it.

We consider a range of factors when determining whether to provide funding to applicants. This includes an assessment of prior conduct, such as any outstanding payments owed to Innovate UK or UKRI. Such factors may influence the funding decision, potentially resulting in a refusal of funding or an award subject to additional scrutiny.

We also reserve the right to adjust funding allocations for any of our competitions. This may be in response to changes in policy, portfolio funding considerations or broader government funding decisions.

This competition closes at 11am UK time on the deadline stated in this Innovate UK competition brief. We cannot guarantee other government or third party sites will always show the correct competition information.

Funding type

Grant

Project size

Your project’s total eligible grant funding request must be between £500,000 and £1.5 million.

Accessibility and Inclusion

We 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.

You can contact us at any time to ask for guidance.

We recommend you contact us at least 15 working days before this competition’s closing date to allow us to put the most suitable support in place. The support we can provide may be limited if you contact us close to the competition deadline.

You can contact Innovate UK by email or call 0300 321 4357. Our phone lines are open from 9am to 12pm and 2pm to 5pm UK time, Monday to Friday (excluding bank holidays).

Who can apply

Your project

Your project must:

• have a grant funding request of between £500,000 and £1.5 million
• last between 9 and 24 months
• start by 1 October 2026
• end by 30 September 2028

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.

Projects must always start on the first of the month, even if this is a non-working day. You must not start your project until your Grant Offer Letter has been approved by Innovate UK. Any delays within Project Setup may mean we need to delay your project start date.

You must only include eligible project costs in your application. See our overview of eligible project costs.

Lead organisation

To lead a project your organisation must be a UK registered grant claiming micro, small or medium sized enterprise (SME).

To work alone your organisation must be a UK registered SME.

More information on the different types of organisation can be found in our Funding rules.

Project team

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)
• Catapult

Each partner organisation must be invited into the Innovation Funding Service (IFS) by the lead to collaborate on a project. Once partners have accepted the invitation, they will be asked to login or to create an account in IFS. They are responsible for entering their own project costs and completing their Project Impact questions in the application.

To be an eligible collaboration, the lead and at least one other organisation must:

• apply for funding when entering their costs into the application.
• include rationale for the collaboration and describe the structure in your application
• ensure any one partner does not account for more than 70% of the total eligible costs

Non-funded partners

Your project can include organisations who do not claim any funding for their work on the project. Their costs will be covered from their own resources. These can include UK, EU and other non-UK organisations. Non-UK partners are permitted to carry out project work from within their home countries and exploit the results outside the UK.

Where non-funded partners have been invited to the application on IFS, their costs will count towards the total eligible project costs.

Subcontractors

Subcontractors are allowed in this competition.

Subcontractors can be from anywhere in the UK and you must select them through your usual procurement process.

You can use subcontractors from overseas but must make the case in your application as to why you cannot use subcontractors from the UK.

You must provide a detailed rationale, evidence of the potential UK contractors you approached and the reasons why they were unable to work with you. We will not accept a cheaper cost as a sufficient reason to use an overseas subcontractor.

All subcontractor costs must be justified and appropriate to the total project costs.

Number of applications

A UK registered micro, small or medium sized enterprise (SME) can only lead on one application but can be included as a collaborator in any number of applications.

Organisations not leading an application can collaborate on any number of applications.

Sanctions

This competition will not fund you, or provide any financial benefit to any individual or entities directly or indirectly involved with you, which would expose Innovate UK or any direct or indirect beneficiary of funding from Innovate UK to UK Sanctions. For example, through any procurement, commercial, business development or supply chain activity with any entity as lead, partner or subcontractor related to these countries, administrations and terrorist groups.

Use of animals in research and innovation

Innovate UK expects and supports the provision and safeguarding of welfare standards for animals used in research and innovation, according to best practice and up to date guidance.

Applicants must ensure that all of the proposed work within projects, both in the UK and internationally, will comply with the UKRI guidance on the use of animals in research and innovation.

Any projects selected for funding which involve animals will be asked to provide additional information on welfare and ethical considerations, as well as compliance with any relevant legislation as part of the project start-up process. This information will be reviewed before an award is made.

Previous applications

You can use a previously submitted application to apply for this competition.

If you have previously submitted an application that reached our assessment stage, you can re-apply once more with the same proposal.

If there are minor differences to the proposal, but it is judged by us to be ‘not materially different’, the same rule applies.

We will not award you funding if you have:

• failed to exploit a previously funded project
• an overdue independent accountant’s report
• failed to comply with grant terms and conditions

Innovate UK may withhold a grant payment at any time if you have any outstanding sums due to us in relation to other projects.

Subsidy control (and State aid where applicable)

This competition provides funding in line with the Subsidy Control Act 2022. Further information about the Subsidy requirements can be found within the Subsidy Control Act 2022 (legislation.gov.uk).

Innovate UK is unable to award organisations that are considered to be in financial difficulty. We will conduct financial viability and eligibility tests to confirm this is not the case following the application stage.

EU State aid rules now only apply in limited circumstances. See the Windsor Framework to check if these rules apply to your organisation.

In the ‘Project details’ section of your application you will be asked questions to indicate if State Aid or Subsidy applies to your organisation.

Further Information

If you are unsure about your obligations under the Subsidy Control Act 2022 or the State aid rules, you should take independent legal advice. We are unable to advise on individual eligibility or legal obligations.

You must not do anything which could cause a breach of Subsidy Control legislation applicable in the United Kingdom.

This aims to regulate any advantage granted by a public sector body which threatens to or distorts competition in the United Kingdom or any other country or countries.

This award is classified as a Subsidy which does not form part of your Minimal Financial Assistance or de minimis allowance.

Funding

Up to £7.5 million has been allocated to fund innovation projects in this competition. This is subject to us receiving a sufficient number of high quality applications. Funding will be in the form of a grant.

We reserve the right to adjust funding allocations for any of our competitions under exceptional circumstances, for example, in response to changes in policy, portfolio funding considerations, or broader government funding decisions.

If your organisation’s work on the project is commercial or economic, your funding request must not exceed the limits below. These limits apply even if your organisation normally acts non-economically but for the purpose of this project will be undertaking commercial or economic activity.

The balance between your total eligible project costs and the amount of grant awarded must be funded by the organisation receiving the grant.

For industrial research projects, you can get funding for your eligible project costs of:

• up to 70% if you are a micro or small organisation
• up to 60% if you are a medium sized organisation
• up to 50% if you are a large organisation

For experimental development projects which are nearer to market, you can get funding for your eligible project costs of:

• up to 45% if you are a micro or small organisation
• up to 35% if you are a medium sized organisation
• up to 25% if you are a large organisation

For more information on company sizes, refer to the company accounts guidance.

If you are applying for an award funded under State aid Regulations, the definitions are set out in the European Commission Recommendation of 6 May 2003.

Innovate UK may revoke our decision to provide funding without notice if government commitment for this initiative is withdrawn.

Research participation

The research organisations undertaking non-economic activity as part of the project can share up to 50% of the total eligible project costs. If your consortium contains more than one research organisation undertaking non-economic activity, this maximum is shared between them. Of that 50% you can get funding for your eligible project costs of up to:

• 100% of your eligible project costs if you are an RTO, charity, not for profit organisation, public sector organisation or research organisation
• 80% of full economic costs (FEC) if you are an academic institution

Eligibility criteria for claiming 80% of FEC funding

1. Research organisations must use the Transparent Approach to Costing (TRAC) method as the Je-S form has now been decommissioned.
2. We pay 100% of the 80% Full Economic Cost (FEC). On IFS only enter the 80% being claimed.
3. Applicants do not need to show the remaining 20% on the finance table.

To find out more see our: Cost Guidance for Academics.

Your proposal

The aim of this competition is to support the development and use of digital, automated, and robotic technologies to improve the speed and efficiency of pharmaceutical process development and manufacturing. These technologies will contribute to the vision of the Labs of the Future for medicines development and manufacturing.

Labs of the Future refers to the transition of traditional laboratory environments into highly efficient, intelligent, data driven laboratories where automation, robotics, artificial intelligence, and connectivity will converge to accelerate research, development and manufacture of medicines. These labs will have the potential to operate 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

Your project must:

• develop technologies and solutions that contribute to an integrated and intelligent Lab of the Future for medicines development and manufacturing
• include expected success metrics and highlight the expected value creation, including improvements in productivity, cost, quality, speed, or other relevant metrics
• demonstrate that the innovation will integrate with, or across, existing digital, automation, and data systems to ensure seamless functionality
• consider, where appropriate, how the innovation can be flexible, scaled or adapted across multiple medicine modalities and different workflows
• identify and embed regulatory requirements relevant to the proposed innovation into the design, from the outset
• develop, or align with relevant data standards, ontologies, and interoperability frameworks where appropriate
• have a starting TRL no lower than TRL 4 and progress to TRL 6, or higher, with a realistic demonstrator that validates the technology in representative conditions, either during the project or beyond; this is for your main technology as you may have multiple areas of innovation
• commit to upskilling and reskilling the workforce involved in the innovation, including plans to engage effectively with new technologies and support adoption efforts

This programme is committed to supporting the training, upskilling, and reskilling the medicines development and manufacturing workforce in alignment with innovation, commercial strategies, and technical advancements.

Portfolio approach

We want to fund a variety of projects across different technologies, markets, technological maturities, research categories, commercialisation readiness and adoption potential. We call this a portfolio approach.

Specific themes

Your project can focus on one or more of the following:

• artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML)
• data driven insights and decision making
• data collection, integration and interoperability
• Internet of Things (IoT) and connectivity
• technologies to enable continuous, 24 hour a day laboratory operations for intelligent labs
• laboratory automation, robotics, co-bots
• digital twins
• AI driven asset management
• predictive and autonomous supply chain management
• process analytical technology (PAT)

This is not an exhaustive list.

Research categories

We will fund industrial research projects and experimental development projects, as defined in the guidance on categories of research.

Projects we will not fund

We are not funding projects:

• that do not link to human medicines development and manufacturing
• linked to medicines discovery
• where the primary output is specific product development workflow resulting in a new medicine, rather than a technology enabling the workflow

We cannot fund projects that are:

• dependent on export performance, for example, giving a subsidy to a baker on the condition that it exports a certain quantity of bread to another country
• dependent on domestic inputs usage, for example, giving a subsidy to a baker on the condition that it uses 50% UK flour in their product

Timeline (definition list)

• 13 April 2026 – Competition opens
• 17 April 2026 – Online briefing event: watch the recording (Briefing slides are available to download from Supporting Information)
• 28 May 2026 11:00am – Competition closes
• 24 June 2026 – Invite to interview
• 13 July 2026 – Interview panel starts
• 17 July 2026 – Interview panel ends
• 22 July 2026 10:23am – Applicants notified
• 1 October 2026 – Project start from

Before you start

You must read the guidance on applying for a competition on the Innovation Funding Service before you start.

Before submitting, it is the lead applicant’s responsibility to make sure:

• that all the information provided in the application is correct
• your proposal meets the eligibility and scope criteria
• all sections of the application are marked as complete
• if collaborative, that all partners have completed all assigned sections and accepted the terms and conditions (T&Cs)

You can reopen your application once submitted, up until the competition deadline. You must resubmit the application before the competition deadline.

What we ask you

The application is split into four sections:

1. Project details.
2. Application questions.
3. Finances.
4. Project Impact.

Accessibility and Inclusion

We 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.

You can contact us at any time to ask for guidance.

We recommend you contact us at least 15 working days before this competition’s closing date to allow us to put the most suitable support in place. The support we can provide may be limited if you contact us close to the competition deadline.

You can contact Innovate UK by email or call 0300 321 4357. Our phone lines are open from 9am to 12pm and 2pm to 5pm UK time, Monday to Friday (excluding bank holidays).