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Innovate UK Frontier AI Discovery

Innovate UK·United Kingdom

Short discovery projects of £25,000 to £50,000 total eligible costs to advance frontier AI, machine learning and foundation models in the UK; the 2026 round has closed.

What you get

Not publishedCash

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

Equity takenNone, non-dilutive

Can you apply

VC backingnot stated
Referral or partnerNot required
Registered companyRequired
IndividualsNot eligible
Open sourcenot stated
CountriesUnited Kingdom
Before you applyRegister and apply using the Innovation Funding Service.

UK registered organisations can apply, including businesses of any size, research organisations, research and technology organisations, charities, not-for-profits, public sector organisations and NGOs.

When

Not open right now, and no next round has been announced.

Past rounds

  • Frontier AI Discovery 2026closed 10 Jun 2026

What Innovate UK funds

Innovate UK, part of UK Research and Innovation, funds UK-registered businesses to bring high-impact innovations to market through competitive, time-boxed grant competitions, including a recent series of frontier AI and sovereign AI competitions run with DSIT.

Everything Innovate UK funds →

Details

Part of Innovate UK's Frontier AI R&D Consortia series. Projects run up to three months, must start by 1 October 2026 and end by 31 January 2027. A minimum of £2.5 million was allocated to this competition. Amounts shown are total eligible project costs, not the grant itself; Innovate UK funds a percentage of eligible costs.

Apply on Innovate UK