Funding Opportunities

COVID-19 Response Funding Opportunities

Availability: Open

Closing Date: None. Apply at any time

Value: 80% of the full economic cost (fEC) for Research Council funding. For Innovate UK funding, State Aid rules apply.

Duration: Up to 18 months

Eligibility: You can apply for funding to research COVID-19 as part of normal UKRI funding streams and opportunities.

Summary: Proposals are invited for short-term projects addressing and mitigating the health, social, economic, cultural and environmental impacts of the Covid-19 outbreak. Researchers holding existing UKRI standard grants should in the first instance consider whether they could repurpose that funding to address the objectives of this call. You can apply to switch your existing grants.

Location: UK

Availability: Open

Closing Date: No closing date

Value: £80,000

Duration: 3 to 6 months

Eligibility: Applicants must be based at UK research organisations eligible for UKRI funding, demonstrate host organisation support for their proposal, meet the standard eligibility requirements for the council submitted to. Business-led proposals are not eligible for this funding. Business collaboration will be considered on a case by case basis. However, projects must be academic led and business collaboration is subject to the eligibility rules of each research council.

Summary: Apply for funding to support short term time-sensitive collection of data or samples or rapid turn-around research or analysis to either: inform urgent policy or national decision making; secure data for future research use.

All activities funded through this route must not overlap with UKRI’s portfolio of funded research.

Location: UK

Availability: Open

Closing Date: Not specified

Value: None – Accelerator

Duration: Not specified

Eligibility: For people who have a tech solution or innovative idea on how to address one or more of challenges created by COVID-19.

Summary: The partnership focus on ways that existing tech solutions can address the isolation of the vulnerable, reduce noncritical demand into the NHS and aid diagnostics and treatment. Looking for innovations that can slow the spread of COVID-19, enable home-based care, support the wellbeing and morale of NHS staff, and assist those who are most vulnerable and in self-isolation.

Location: UK

Other Funding Opportunities

Availability: Open

Closing Date: 13 October 2021

Value: £500,000 per project

Duration: up to 9 months

Eligibility:The funding competition is open to small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) and organisations from private, public, and third sectors, including charities.

Summary: Recognising the need to support the NHS services, to reset and recover from the pandemic, the programme seeks to address this immediate challenge with a funding competition that will facilitate the implementation of developed innovations in the relevant healthcare settings. Applicants are invited to submit innovative solutions to tackle two main challenges: Reducing NHS workforce pressure and Increasing NHS effectiveness.

Location: UK

Availability: Open

Closing Date: 20 October 2021

Value: £200,000

Duration: 12 months

Eligibility: The principal investigator must be based at the lead organisation, which should be UK-based and one of the following: higher education institution, UKRI-approved independent research organisation or NHS body government-funded organisation (other than an MRC unit or institute), MRC institute, MRC unit or partnership institute, institute or unit funded by other research councils
public sector research establishment (PSRE).

Summary: This MRC funding opportunity will support robust, fast paced, agile, proof-of-concept ‘sprint’ projects that will unlock the potential of AI in biomedical and health research.

Location: UK

Availability: Open

Closing Date: 13 October 2021

Value: £500,000 per project

Duration: up to 9 months

Eligibility: The funding competition is open to small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) and organisations from private, public, and third sectors, including charities.

Summary: Applicants are invited to submit innovative solutions to tackle Mental Health Inequalities in Children and Young People with focus on the following challenges: Mental health service/support improvements and Equity of mental health service access for disadvantaged, marginalised, or BAME Communities.

Location: UK

Availability: Open

Closing Date: 13 October 2021

Value: £50,000

Duration: 12 months

Eligibility: The awards are for female founders, co-founders or senior decision makers working in businesses that have been operating for at least one year. Applicants must be confident, with the support of an award, that they can make a significant contribution to a pressing societal, environmental or economic challenge through their innovative project.

Summary: Innovate UK, as part of UK Research and Innovation, is offering at least 20 Women in Innovation Awards to female entrepreneurs across the UK. The winners will receive a £50,000 grant and a bespoke package of mentoring, coaching and business support. The aim of this competition is to find women with exciting, innovative ideas and ambitious plans that will inspire others.

Location: UK

Availability: Open

Closing Date: 20 September 2021

Value: A share of £3 million

Duration: up to 5 months

Eligibility: To lead a project, you can be an organisation of any size or work alone or with others from business, research organisations, research and technology organisations or the third sector as subcontractors.

Summary: The aim of the competition is to support proof of concept projects to develop an intuitive medical device digital regulatory navigation tool. Projects must demonstrate the principle of an intuitive digital platform that enables users to understand and explore the regulatory pathways for the healthcare product they are developing and provide users with information and access to UK support structures that are relevant to their commercial R&D, for example, standards, UKAS accredited test labs and Notified Bodies.

Location: UK

Availability: Open

Closing Date: 15 September 2021

Value: Up to £4,000,000

Duration: 24 months

Eligibility: To lead a project, you must: be an organisation of any size; work alone or with other organisations as subcontractors; exist wholly to provide benefits for society; have stated commitment to social outcomes for an identified set of beneficiaries related to your social or environmental mission; have objects in your constitutional documents, which form a constitutional lock, that protect your social or environmental mission; have a policy to distribute profits after tax so surpluses are used to achieve social or environmental impacts.

Summary: This is a Small Business Research Initiative (SBRI) competition funded by UKRI. The aim of the competition is to fund organisations to deliver social impact and address one or more of the 7 themes of the Healthy Ageing Challenge Framework.

Location: UK

Availability: Open

Closing Date: 22 October 2021

Value: up to £25,000 of initial funding

Duration: Not specified

Eligibility: The innovation call is open to anyone working across NHS Scotland and will harness the talent, expertise and first-hand experience of health and social care professionals.

Summary: Scottish Health Innovations Ltd (SHIL) is seeking innovative ideas from health and social care professionals to help transform the quality of people’s lives; and help NHS Scotland adapt to a changing demographic and increase in service use as people become frailer.

Location: Scotland

Availability: Open

Closing Date: 26 August 2021

Value: A share of up to £18 million

Duration: between 12 months and 36 months

Eligibility: To lead a project or work alone your organisation must be a UK registered micro, small or medium-sized enterprise (SME), carry out its project work in the UK and intend to exploit the results from or in the UK.

Summary: UK registered businesses can apply for a share of up to £18 million to develop innovative healthcare products, technologies and processes. Your project can address disease prevention and proactive management of health and chronic conditions, earlier and better detection and diagnosis of disease, leading to better patient outcomes and tailored treatments that either change the underlying disease or offer potential cures.

Location: UK

Availability: Open

Closing Date: 29 September 2021

Value: £6,000,000

Duration: between 12 months and 36 months

Eligibility: To lead a project your organisation must be – a UK registered higher education or further education institution, research and technology organisation or catapult, – collaborate with a UK registered business, of any size, or a not-for-profit organisation.

Summary: UK registered academic institutions, research and technology organisations or catapults can apply for a share of up to £6 million to fund innovation projects with businesses or not-for-profits.

Location: UK

Availability: Open

Closing Date: No closing date

Value: We will fund 80% of the full economic costs of your project. Not specified

Duration: Not specified

Eligibility: Research grants are open to UK higher education institutions, research council institutes, UKRI-approved independent research organisations and NHS bodies with research capacity.

Summary: You can apply for support for high-quality engineering and physical sciences research in line with our healthcare technologies theme and strategy. Funding will cover research into chemistry, engineering, information and communications technologies, materials, mathematical sciences and physics that underpin healthcare.

Location: UK

Availability: Ongoing

Closing Date: None – apply at any time

Value: Part-funded grant.

Duration: 12-36 months

Eligibility: Aimed at partnerships between a UK-based business of any size or non-profit organisation, an academic organisation and a suitably-qualified graduate.

Summary: Aimed at improving business’ competitiveness and productivity through funded partnership with academics and researchers.

Location: UK

Availability: Ongoing

Closing Date: Shortlisting meetings happen every 3 months

Value: Up to £500K or £750K for collaborations

Duration: Usually 2 years, or 3 years for multidisciplinary collaborations

Eligibility: Researchers, individuals and teams from not-for profit and commercial organisations that can be any size, based anywhere in the world (apart from China).

Summary: For researchers who are developing healthcare innovations that could have a major and measurable impact on human health. Proposals should describe global burden of a disease, unmet healthcare need, and the impact of innovation in a patient population.

Location: UK

Availability: Due to a potential change in approach, the 5th Call has been suspended. The challenges will be reviewed to better match Scottish Government ambitions.

Closing Date: Currently working to explore and define potential Calls and their timelines.

Value: SBRI: £10k -£40k per supplier (Phase 1), £50k –200k per supplier (Phase 2); CivTech: £3k per supplier (Exploration Stage), £20k per supplier (Acceleration Stage)

Duration: Suspended

Eligibility: Scottish companies of any size and academic and third sector organisations who can demonstrate how they will commercialise solutions which they develop.

Summary: Funding to support the development of innovative solutions for challenges faced by a Scottish public body where there is no clear fix or current market solution.

Location: Scotland

Available Funding Opportunities

COVID-19 Response Funding Opportunities

Funding for COVID-19 research

UKRI

Expression of interest: emergency route for time-critical COVID-19 research

UK Research and Innovation

Barclays Healthtech Response

Barclay’s, The University of Edinburgh, UCL and CodeBase

Other Funding Opportunities

NHS Reset and Recovery and New Ways of Working

SBRI

Artificial intelligence for better biomedical and health research

Medical Research Council (MRC)

Mental Health Inequalities in Children and Young People

SBRI

Women in Innovation Awards 2021/22

Innovate UK

Digital Regulatory Navigation Platform (Health Products)

SBRI

SBRI – Healthy Ageing Social Ventures industrial research

Innovate UK

Frailty Innovation Call

SHIL

Biomedical catalyst 2021: early and late stage awards

Innovate UK

Knowledge transfer partnerships: 2021 to 2022, round three

Innovate UK

Healthcare Technologies Investigator-Led Grant

Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council EPSRC

Knowledge Transfer Partnership

UK Government

Innovators Awards

Welcome Trust

Innovation Challenge Fund

Can Do (Scottish Enterprise)