Innovate UK opens a £12m materials call covering power electronics, 6G and metamaterials, closing 28 October

Innovate UK has opened the first collaborative research round of the National Materials Innovation Programme, with up to £12 million available and individual grant requests set at between £500,000 and £1 million per project. Applications close at 11am UK time on Wednesday 28 October 2026.

The competition opened on Tuesday 1 September. Innovate UK states that the money is part of the National Materials Innovation Programme, “announced as part of the Advanced Manufacturing Sector Plan in the UK’s Modern Industrial Strategy”.

Two of the four themes sit squarely in electronics and connectivity rather than heavy industry, which makes this call more relevant to deep-tech and hardware companies than the word “materials” suggests.

What is in scope

Theme 3, Power Electronics and Connectivity, covers materials that “enable the generation, conversion, transmission, processing, sensing or thermal management of electrical, optical or electromagnetic signals”. Innovate UK names silicon carbide, gallium nitride, diamond, gallium oxide, integrated photonic materials, RF and microwave materials, low loss dielectrics and thermal interface materials. Its two sub-themes are wide and ultra wide bandgap materials, and advanced connectivity materials spanning 5G, 6G, optical, RF, infrared and radar applications.

Theme 4, Metamaterials and Metasurfaces, uses the definitions set by the UK Metamaterials Network, and its sub-themes are future telecommunications and advanced connectivity, convergent electronic-photonic technologies, and thermal, acoustic and mechanical metamaterials. An innovation fundamentally based on a metamaterial or metasurface must be applied for under Theme 4.

The remaining two themes are Future Healthcare Solutions, covering biocompatible, regenerative and bioelectronic materials, and Structural Materials Innovation, with sub-themes for sustainability, surface engineering, design and deployment, and extreme environments.

Who can apply, and at what rate

The lead organisation must be a UK-registered business of any size, and the consortium must contain at least one UK-registered micro, small or medium-sized enterprise claiming grant funding. Partners can be UK-registered businesses of any size, academic institutions, charities, not-for-profits, public sector organisations or RTOs.

For an eligible collaboration, the lead and at least one other organisation must request funding, and no single organisation can claim more than 70% of total project costs. Subcontractors are limited to no more than 30% of total eligible costs. A business can lead on one application and be a collaborator on two more.

For industrial research, Innovate UK will fund up to 70% of eligible project costs for a micro or small organisation, up to 60% for a medium-sized one and up to 50% for a large one. Research organisations doing non-economic work can share up to 30% of total eligible project costs, at up to 100%, or 80% of full economic costs for an academic institution. Under the Research, Development and Innovation Streamlined Route, no more than £3 million can be awarded to any one enterprise in any one competition. The award is classified as a subsidy that does not form part of an applicant’s Minimal Financial Assistance allowance.

The condition most likely to catch applicants out is the end user rule. Every project must involve at least one named end user operating within one of the eight growth driving sectors in the Modern Industrial Strategy, with “a clear, defined role within the project governance or work plan”. RTOs, academics and consultancies are explicitly barred from acting as the end user. Innovate UK also states that end user involvement “cannot be demonstrated solely through written evidence of a business relationship”, ruling out letters of support, emails, purchase orders, memoranda of understanding and supply agreements as the only evidence.

Dates, odds and a warning about the deadline

Projects must last between 18 and 30 months, start by 1 February 2027, end by 31 July 2029, and begin on the first of a month. Innovate UK held a briefing event on 3 September 2026 and is running clinic sessions on 11 September and 7 October. Applicants will be notified on 2 December 2026.

Innovate UK publishes its own view of the odds in the brief: “Our experience from similar competitions suggests that you could have a 20% chance of success.”

It also carries an unusual warning about its own deadline. “This competition closes at 11am UK time on the deadline stated in this Innovate UK competition brief,” the brief states. “We cannot guarantee other government or third party sites will always show the correct competition information.” That matters here: UKRI’s own opportunity listing for the same competition gives the closing time as 4:00pm on 28 October, five hours after the brief says the door shuts.

It is one of several Innovate UK routes open to technology companies this autumn, alongside the £15 million Investor Partnerships competition for chip and connectivity startups, closing 14 October. Grant funding sits alongside, not instead of, the tax and equity routes deep-tech companies use, including R&D tax relief.