Funding competition Frontier AI Discovery

UK registered organisations can apply for a share of up to £2.5 million to develop feasibility studies for frontier AI and foundation models. This funding is from Innovate UK.

Competition timeline

• 14 April 2026: Competition opens
• 22 April 2026: Live briefing event: watch the recording (Briefing slides are now available to download from Supporting Information.)
• 10 June 2026 11:00am: Competition closes
• 21 July 2026 10:18am: Applicants notified
• 1 October 2026: Project start from

Competition sections

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

Description

Innovate UK, part of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), will invest a minimum of £2.5 million on Frontier AI. This funding is from Innovate UK, part of UK Research and Innovation and is subject to a sufficient number of high quality applications being received. The aim of this competition is to advance the development of frontier Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning (ML) and foundation models in the UK. This competition has 2 phases, the second phase will be available to successful applications from Phase 1. Innovate UK will invest a minimum of £50 million for development of Frontier AI demonstrator projects in Phase 2, delivered by collaborative consortia. Funding for Phase 2 is subject to Business Case approvals. The Frontier AI R&D Consortia programme aims to accelerate and deliver novel UK-led AI capabilities. The programme is bringing together large scale consortia, to develop foundation models and frontier AI solutions aligned with one of the four missions:

1. AI-Enabled Health and Life Sciences: Making the UK the best place to develop and deploy AI across medicines discovery, development and manufacturing, predictive healthcare applications, and clinical trials.
2. Advanced Materials with AI: Building a world leading AI-first materials R&D capability spanning aerospace, net zero technologies, defence materials, semiconductors.
3. Secure AI for National Security and Defence (NS&D). Enable the UK’s defence sector to become a leading integrator of secure AI-enhanced command and control and AI enabled sensors.
4. Fundamental AI: Advancing Foundation Model AI capabilities that can underpin multiple sectors and future applications. In this competition series, Foundation Models refers to highly generalisable AI models or model families. These are designed to adapt across multiple downstream tasks or domains and are anchored to a hypothesis that supports adaptability. In this competition series, Frontier AI refers to be any AI and ML systems that deliver state of the art benchmark performance against or genuinely new to the world capability in a clearly specified area. This advance must be attributable to innovation in one or more of the following:

• model and system architecture
• training methodology
• core control and learning algorithm The Frontier AI Discovery is Phase 1 of the pipeline. We are seeking applications that will assess the feasibility of ambitious collaborative R&D proposals and help build consortia for Phase 2. These proposals must capture opportunities aligned with the thematic priorities by developing new‑to‑the‑world AI and ML capabilities. As part of our funding portfolio, we expect to fund at least 25% of projects on the development of foundation models. Your proposal must deliver:
• feasibility and technical proposal for Phase 2
• business model evaluation
• the development of delivery consortia for Phase 2
• de-risking of the next stage of development through this feasibility study Successful Phase 1 projects will be invited to submit full proposals for collaborative R&D projects with project costs from £5 million to £10 million per project and duration of 24 to 32 months. Funding for Phase 2 is subject to Innovate UK Business Case approvals. Phase 2 Any organisation can lead a Phase 2 project and for your consortium to be eligible your project must:
• have total costs of between £5 million and £10 million
• last between 24 to 32 months
• end by 31 March 2030 Phase 2 project consortium must have minimum participation from:
• large organisations contributing 30% to 40% of the project costs
• SME organisations contributing more than 30% of the project costs
• academic organisation contributing 20% to 30% of the project costs 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 2% 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.

Funding type

Grant

Project size

Your project’s total eligible costs must be between £25,000 and £50,000.

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

Text update 22 May 2026: we have changed the guidance in the funding section for clarity. Your project Your project must:

• have total costs of between £25,000 and £50,000
• last up to three months
• start by 1 October 2026
• end by 31 January 2027 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. For specific guidance, see the eligibility section in this competition. Lead organisation To work alone your organisation must be a UK:
• business of any size
• research organisation
• research and technology organisation (RTO)
• charity
• not for profit
• public sector organisation
• non-governmental organisation (NGO) More information on the different types of organisation can be found in our Funding rules. 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 cannot use subcontractors from overseas. All subcontractor costs must be justified and appropriate to the total eligible project costs. Subcontracting costs are limited to 30% of total project costs. Number of applications A business, research organisation, research and technology organisation (RTO), charity, not for profit, non-governmental organisation (NGO) or public sector organisation can only lead on one application. 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 cannot use a previously submitted application to apply for this competition. 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 to enterprises using the Research, Development and Innovation Streamlined Subsidy Scheme. The Research, Development and Innovation Streamlined Scheme can be viewed on the subsidy database here: SC10780. This is 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

A minimum of £2.5 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. For Feasibility Studies in Research, Development and Innovation Streamlined Subsidy Scheme you can get funding for your eligible project costs of: Category 1 Feasibility studies

• 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 The research organisations undertaking non-economic activity as part of the project can share up to 100% of the total eligible project costs. Of that 100% 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. To find out more see our: Cost Guidance for Academics.

Your proposal

The aim of this competition is to advance the development frontier Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning (ML) and foundation models in the UK. Your project must focus on a feasibility study to develop novel AI and ML technologies and help build the delivery consortia for Phase 2. Your proposal must result in AI driven novel products, processes or services that can make substantial technological improvements in addressing specific priorities from the listed thematic areas. Your proposal must articulate clearly:

• which thematic area and specific priority of this competition you are addressing
• the approach to engage and mobilise diverse stakeholders needed to deliver the feasibility study and Phase 2 if successful
• what new to the world innovation you plan to develop and why your organisation is best placed to lead this work Your project must undertake a feasibility study to:
• build a consortium to develop a technical proposal and evaluate the business model
• confirm the commitment of this consortium if successful and invited to participate in phase 2
• propose the development of novel, new to the world AI and ML driven innovation that addresses opportunities aligned with at least one of the thematic areas in this competition
• produce a technical report outlining the approach you intend to implement in phase 2 Funding will be reserved for projects where AI is the core technical contribution and the main source of operational advantage. To be in scope of this competition your project must clearly describe:
• serviceable market and customers
• background IP and route to defensibility
• technical novelty and benchmarked validation Portfolio approach We want to fund a variety of projects across different organisation types, technologies, markets, technological maturities and themes. We call this a portfolio approach.

Specific themes

Your proposal must fall within one or more of the following themes. You must focus on one specific priority within each theme you select. If your application does not align with the theme and specific priority you select, it will not be sent for assessment. Theme 1: AI Enabled Health and Life Sciences: making the UK the best place to develop and deploy AI for drug discovery, development and manufacturing of medicines, clinical trials and healthcare delivery. You must focus on one of the following priorities:

• medicines discovery
• medicines development and manufacturing process optimisation
• predictive healthcare applications to support healthcare delivery
• clinical trials
• genomics and multi-omics may be used as enabling technologies across any of the above areas, where relevant Theme 2: Advanced Materials with AI: building a world leading AI-first materials R&D capability, including applications in aerospace, net zero technologies, defence and semiconductors. You must focus on one of the following priorities:
• material prediction: generative models and multi objective optimisation
• physics Machine Learning (ML) models for discovery and simulation acceleration
• multimodal knowledge discovery platforms Theme 3: Secure AI for National Security and Defence (NS&D). Enable the UK’s defence sector to become a leading integrator of secure AI-enhanced command and control and AI enabled sensors. You must focus on one of the following priorities:
• AI driven assured multi-source fusion and analytics for distributed heterogeneous information, multimodal systems for decision support
• edge autonomy and robust decision, control AI systems, Low-Swap inference, quantum-AI and semiconductor-AI for novel underwater sensors
• secure and robust AI, ML driven signal processing, AI for acoustic signal processing and digital EW UKRI is committed to maximising the contribution that intellectual and knowledge assets, including intellectual property, arising from research and innovation we fund, can make to supporting national security and defence, including through dual use. Please see UKRI published guidance on National Security and Defence research for more information. Theme 4: Fundamental AI. Advancing foundation model AI capabilities that can underpin multiple sectors and future applications. You must focus on one of the following priorities:
• abstract reasoning and generalisation
• novel AI, ML architectures & methodologies, online learning and world model learning systems
• generalisable explainable AI

Research categories

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

Projects we will not fund

We are not funding projects that:

• do not sufficiently provide a quantified serviceable addressable market
• do not sufficiently provide clear background IP ownership or rights
• do not sufficiently provide a specific defensibility route
• do not align with the competition theme and specific priority areas
• do not sufficiently provide a named baseline with metrics and numeric targets for validation
• do not sufficiently address the scope of the competition
• are primarily literature review studies, requirement gathering, without substantive experimental R&D
• propose routine integration, deployment, orchestration or productisation of existing AI tools or third-party models without novel AI and ML development
• are not delivering measurable and specific objectives
• are primarily routine integration or deployment of existing AI tools without substantive technical innovation
• don’t have clear technical novelty and feasibility challenge
• do not result in defensible foreground IP
• focus primarily on-non AI, ML R&D and development (cross-cutting projects)
• develop fully autonomous targeting
• have the primary purpose of developing hardware, including sensor hardware, quantum hardware, platforms or other enabling infrastructure, where AI is only a secondary feature, add‑on analytics layer or downstream application 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

Before you start

Text update 22 May 2026: we have changed the guidance in the finance section for clarity. 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 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).

Project details

This section provides background for your application and is not scored. Do not include any website addresses (URLs) in your answers. Application team Decide which people from your organisation will work with you on the project and invite those people 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. Your answer must sufficiently explain:

• approach to building consortium
• novelty and intended AI capability you are looking to develop
• how your solution will be defensible
• what new to the world or state of the art AI capability you will validate If your answer is not sufficiently detailed or 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 800 words long.

Application questions

The assessors will score all your answers apart from questions 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. You must not include any website addresses or links (URLs) in your answers. If you do, your application will be made ineligible. Question 1. Themes (not scored) Select one main theme from the specific themes list in the ‘Scope’ section of this competition. You cannot choose more than one.

• Theme 1: AI-Enabled Health and Life Sciences
• Theme 2: Advanced Materials with AI
• Theme 3: Secure AI for National Security & Defence (NS&D)
• Theme 4: Fundamental AI Question 2. Applicant location (not scored) You must state whether your organisation is based in the UK.