Frontier AI Discovery
Innovate UK offers a share of up to £2.5 million for UK registered organisations to develop feasibility studies for frontier AI and foundation models.
Key facts
- Funding amount
- Up to £2.5 million overall; individual projects £25,000 - £50,000
- Deadline
- 10 Jun 2026 · 6 days left
- Region
- UK-wide
- Business type
- Innovative businesses & R&D-led teams
Plain English summary
This Innovate UK competition provides grants for UK businesses to explore advanced AI and machine learning. Focusing on feasibility studies for "frontier AI" and "foundation models", it aims to accelerate novel AI capabilities in the UK across sectors like health, materials, and national security. Successful projects will develop technical proposals and build consortia for a larger second phase of funding, with individual project costs between £25,000 and £50,000.
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Who this is best for
- Innovative businesses & R&D-led teams
- Organisations based in UK-wide
- Projects aligned with innovation funding
- Teams seeking funding around Up to £2.5 million overall; individual projects £25,000 - £50,000
Who should not apply
- Individuals applying in a personal capacity (unless explicitly permitted)
- Applicants who cannot meet the official eligibility criteria below
Eligibility checklist
Tick what applies to your organisation before applying.
- UK registered organisations, including businesses of any size, research organisations, RTOs, charities, not-for-profits, public sector organisations, and NGOs.
- Projects must have total costs between £25,000 and £50,000, last up to three months, and start by 1 October 2026 and end by 31 January 2027.
- Work must be carried out in the UK with exploitation of results from or in the UK.
- Subcontractors allowed, but overseas subcontractors are not.
- Subcontracting costs are limited to 30% of total project costs.
- An organisation can only lead on one application.
Official source
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