Funding competition UK-Singapore CRD 2026

UK registered businesses can apply for a share of up to £3 million for the purpose of developing innovative proposals with Singapore. You must collaborate with at least one Singapore business applying under the equivalent Enterprise Singapore programme.

• Competition opens: Monday 24 August 2026
• Competition closes: Wednesday 16 December 2026 11:00am

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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 £3 million. This is subject to a sufficient number of high quality applications being received. The aim of this competition is to fund business-led collaborative research and development (CR&D) projects focused on industrial research. Your proposal must focus on one of the following sectors:

• Advanced Manufacturing
• Clean Energy
• Life Sciences
• Digital and Technologies, specifically the frontier technologies including: Semiconductors, Quantum, Artificial Intelligence, Cyber Security, Advanced Connectivity Technologies and Engineering Biology UK registered businesses must collaborate with at least one Singapore non-linked registered business applying under the equivalent Enterprise Singapore programme. UK registered organisations must apply through the Innovation Funding Service (IFS) portal to Innovate UK. Your Singapore partner will not receive any funding from Innovate UK. Singapore partners must apply to and will be funded by Enterprise Singapore for the Singapore component of the project set out in this application. 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. Our experience from similar competitions suggests that you could have a 15% chance of success. 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. The project must be independently selected by both Innovate UK and Enterprise Singapore to be awarded funding.

Funding type

Grant

Project size

UK partners grant funding request can be between £100,000 and £900,000 per project.

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 £100,000 and £900,000
• last between 24 and 36 months
• not start before 1 May 2027
• end by 30 April 2030 The majority of the project work must be undertaken in the UK and Singapore. UK project partners must carry out the majority of their project work in the UK and intend to exploit the results from or in the UK, and spend most of the funding within the UK. The consortium must include at least one business registered in Singapore that is a separate legal entity and not linked to the UK partners. This is to ensure that projects encourage genuine international collaboration, not internal company research. Linked companies are considered a single entity under the parent company. Your project must demonstrate a balanced technological contribution by the participants from both countries and must be equally significant to all participants. No one country or project partner can represent more than 70% of the total project cost. Your proposal must demonstrate a clear intention to commercially exploit the results of the project domestically or globally. You must only include eligible project costs in your application. See our overview of eligible project costs. If your project does not meet our criteria and you have not requested justification approval, your application will be made ineligible and it will not be sent for assessment. UK lead organisation To start an application on the Innovation Funding Service (IFS), your organisation must be a UK registered business of any size. You must collaborate with at least one Singapore registered business applying to the Enterprise Singapore programme, which must be a separate legal entity, not linked to the UK partners. More information on the different types of UK organisations can be found in our Funding rules. UK Project team To collaborate with the lead, your organisation must be one of the following UK registered:
• business of any size
• academic institution
• research and technology organisation (RTO) Only UK registered partners must be listed in the Project Partner section of your application on the Innovation Funding Service (IFS). Your Singapore partner will not receive any of this UK competition funding. Singapore partners will be funded by the Enterprise Singapore programme following a parallel application. Each organisation in your consortium will receive funding from its respective national funding body. Each UK partner organisation must be invited into the IFS by the lead to collaborate on a project. Once accepted, partners will be asked to login or to create an account and enter their own project costs into the IFS. 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. International partners Singapore partners do not need to be invited into Innovate UK’s application on the Innovation Funding Service. Singapore partners will be funded by Enterprise Singapore following a parallel application. Subcontractors Subcontractors are allowed in this competition, but they are limited to no more than 20% of the total eligible costs of the UK participation. Subcontractors can be from anywhere in the UK and you must select them through your usual procurement process. All subcontractor costs must be justified and appropriate to the total eligible project costs. Number of applications An eligible organisation can only lead on one application. Any further applications by the same organisation as lead will be made ineligible. An eligible organisation that is leading an application can be included as a collaborator in a further two applications and if not leading, can collaborate in 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. 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 actually 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 £3 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. Each country will fund its eligible participants according to their national procedure and funding rules. Funding conditions and eligibility criteria may vary between the UK and Singapore. The bilateral joint cooperation between the partners and its added value is an important aspect to be considered within the evaluation. UK Partners If your UK registered 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. 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 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 for UK Organisations The research organisations undertaking non-economic activity as part of the project can share up to 30% 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 30% you can get funding for your eligible project costs of up to:
• 100% of your eligible project costs if you are an RTO or research organisation
• 80% of full economic costs (FEC) if you are an academic institution Eligibility criteria for claiming 80% of FEC funding
• Research organisations must use the Transparent Approach to Costing (TRAC) method as the Je-S form has now been decommissioned.
• We pay 100% of the 80% Full Economic Cost (FEC). On IFS only enter the 80% being claimed. To find out more see our: Cost Guidance for Academics.

Your proposal

The aim of this competition is to fund business-led collaborative research and development (CR&D) projects focused on industrial research. Your project must focus on one of the following sectors

• Advanced Manufacturing
• Clean Energy
• Life Sciences
• Digital and Technologies, specifically the frontier technologies including Semiconductors, Quantum, Artificial Intelligence, Cyber Security, Advanced Connectivity Technologies and Engineering Biology Portfolio approach We want to fund a variety of projects across different technologies. We call this a portfolio approach.

Research categories

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

Projects we will not fund

We are not funding projects that:

• do not meet Innovate UK’s eligibility criteria
• do not submit all mandatory documentation
• request grants of less than £100,000 from Innovate UK
• request grants of more than £900,000 from Innovate UK
• do not have an eligible Singapore partner
• pose a risk to the UK's national security, economic security, or strategic interests. Innovate UK reserves the right to withhold funding from such projects, regardless of assessment scores or ranking. We cannot fund projects that are:
• dependent on export performance: giving a subsidy to an organisation on the condition that it exports a certain quantity of its products to another country
• dependent on domestic inputs usage: giving a subsidy to an organisation on the condition that it uses a set percentage of UK components in their product

Important dates

• 24 August 2026: Competition opens
• 27 August 2026: Online briefing event: join at 11am (Briefing slides will be available to download from Supporting Information after the event)
• 16 December 2026 11:00am: Competition closes
• 26 February 2027: Applicants notified
• 1 May 2027: Project start by

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
• that all UK 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).

1. Project details

This section provides background for your application and is not scored. Application team Decide which organisations will work with you on your project and invite people from those organisations to help complete the application. Application details Give your project’s title, start date and duration. Research category Select the type of research you will undertake. Project summary Describe your project briefly and be clear about what makes it innovative. We use this section to assign the right experts to assess your application. Your answer can be up to 400 words long. Public description Describe your project in detail and in a way that you are happy to see published. Do not include any commercially sensitive information. If we award your project funding, we will publish this description. This can happen before you start your project. Your answer can be up to 400 words long. Scope Describe how your project fits the scope of the competition. If your project is not in scope, it will not be sent for assessment. We will tell you the reason why. Your answer can be up to 400 words long.

2. Application questions

The assessors will score all your answers apart from question 1 to 7. You will receive feedback for each scored question. Find out more about how our assessors assess and how we select applications for funding. You must answer all questions. Your answer to each question can be up to 400 words long. You must not include any website addresses or links (URLs) in your answers. Any website addresses or URLs included, will not be viewed or opened. Question 1. Themes (not scored) Select one main theme from the specific themes list in the Specific themes section of this competition. You cannot choose more than one.

• Advanced Manufacturing
• Clean Energy
• Life Sciences
• Digital and Technologies, specifically the frontier technologies including: Semiconductors, Quantum, Artificial Intelligence, Cyber Security, Advanced Connectivity Technologies and Engineering Biology Question 2. Applicant location (not scored) You must state the name and full registered address of your organisation and any UK partners or subcontractors working on your project. We are collecting this information to understand more about the geographical location of all applicants. Question 3. Animal testing (not scored) Will your project involve any trials with animals or animal testing? You must select one option:
• Yes
• No We will only support innovation projects conducted to the highest standards of animal welfare. Further information for proposals involving animal testing is available at the UKRI Good Research Hub and NC3R’s animal welfare guidance. Question 4. (UK applicants only) Permits and licences (not scored) Will you have the correct permits and licences in place to carry out your project? We are unable to fund projects which do not have the correct permits or licences in place by your project start date. You must select one option:
• Yes
• No
• In the process of being applied for
• Not applicable Question 5. International collaboration (not scored) You must provide details of any international collaboration or engagement. You must include a list of the names and the countries, any international project co-leads, project partners, visiting researchers, or other collaborators are based in. You must also include details of any subcontractors or service providers. Question 6. Export licence (not scored) You must indicate whether an export control license is required for this project under the academic export control guidance. You must select one option:
• Yes
• No Question 7. Trusted Research and Innovation (not scored) You must explain if your proposed project work relates to UKRI’s Trusted Research and Innovation (TR&I) Principles, including:
• a list of any dual use (both military and non-military) applications to your research
• a list of the areas where your project is relevant to one or more of the 17 areas of the UK National Security and Investment (NSI) Act
• whether an export control license is required for this project under the academic export control guidance and the status of any applications
• a list of any items or substances on the UK Strategic Export Control List If your proposed work does not relate to UKRI’s TR&I Principles, your answer must confirm this. We may ask you to provide additional TR&I information at a later date, in line with UKRI TR&I Principles and funding terms and conditions. Question 8. Need or challenge What is the business need, technological challenge, or market opportunity behind your innovation? Explain:
• the main motivation for the project
• the business need, technological challenge or market opportunity
• whether you have identified any similar innovation and its current limitations, including those close to market or in development
• any work you have already done to respond to this need, for example, if the project focuses on developing an existing capability or building a new one
• the wider economic, social, environmental, cultural or political challenges which are influential in creating the opportunity, such as incoming regulations Question 9. Approach and innovation What approach will you take and where will the focus of the innovation be? Explain:
• how you will respond to the need, challenge or opportunity identified
• how you will improve on any similar innovation that you have identified
• whether the innovation will focus on existing technologies in new areas, the development of new technologies for existing areas, or a totally disruptive approach
• the freedom you have to operate
• how this project fits with your current product, service lines or offerings
• how it will make you more competitive
• the nature of the outputs you expect from the project, for example reports, demonstrator, know-how, new process, product or service design, and how these will help you to target the need, challenge or opportunity identified You can submit one appendix to support your answer. It can include diagrams and charts. It must be a PDF no larger than 10MB. It can be up to two A4 pages and must be legible at 100% zoom. Question 10. Team and resources Who is in the project team and what are their roles? Explain:
• the roles