Introduction According to the 2025 Innovation Barometer by Ayming, a London based innovation funding consultancy specialist, UK businesses surveyed are requesting that the Government provides further targeted support to drive innovation and growth as a lack of funding is holding back research and development (R&D) activities. Currently, only 39% of UK businesses surveyed were able … Read more
We have seen many comments recently on both the work involved and the success rates in applying for Innovate UK grants. It seems that there is some concern over the time and expense involved in putting together applications that receive high scores, but subsequently don’t win any funding. The recent announcement of £948m to Innovate … Read more
Polaron, a British startup spun out from Imperial College London, has secured the prestigious £1 million Manchester Prize for its ground-breaking AI technology that transforms materials development. The company’s innovative approach reduces development time from years to mere days by using microstructural images to rapidly analyse and predict material performance, creating a significant competitive advantage … Read more
Introduction According to new analysis by HSBC Innovation Banking UK and Dealroom, UK innovation businesses were estimated to be worth a combined value of around £1 trillion at the end of 2024. This figure represents a 20% increase year-on-year when compared with 2023 and an overall increase of 9 times (900%) over the past 10 … Read more
Introduction According to a recent research paper from the House of Lords, it is estimated that innovative science and technology activity contributed a total of £91.6bn to the UK economy in 2023. This breakdown includes £71bn for IT and other information service tech activities and £20.6bn for scientific research and development activities across other sectors. … Read more
Introduction In March 2022, the UK Government announced its largest ever research and development (R&D) budget for the period of 2022-2025 at £39.8bn. This means that a significant amount of this money has been made available in the form of innovation grants aimed at businesses who are working in high tech sectors or looking to … Read more
What Is The Catapult Network? The Catapult Network is part of Innovate UK and is a Government backed set of 9 leading innovation centres covering high-tech sectors in 65 locations across the UK. Each Catapult has an industry speciality with a central research hub and supporting local hubs in various strategic locations. Catapults contain cutting … Read more
What Opportunities Can UK Universities Provide for Businesses? According to recent research, it is estimated that UK universities will provide over £11.6bn worth of support, funding and services to start-ups and SMEs over the next 5 years. This includes specialist one-to-one advice, providing access to the latest research equipment and facilities to help push cutting … Read more
Innovate UK has recently rebranded its highly successful Small Business Research Initiative (SBRI) to Innovate UK Contracts for Innovation as part of a drive to include even more businesses of all sizes to participate and apply for funding. What are Innovate UK Contracts for Innovation? Public sector organisations who are looking to address a specific … Read more
Recent figures from a government report show that there has been a 9% drop in the number of UK companies actively innovating, down from 45% in 2018-2020 to 36% in 2020-2022. As always, the detail is important as there are sector and size nuances which we will come back to, but overall this trend coupled … Read more