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Innovate UK Grants

 

If your business is UK-registered and developing a high-potential innovation, we can help you apply for a range of national grants through Innovate UK.
Although Smart Grants have been paused since January 2025, there are still a wide variety of sector-specific funding calls, Knowledge Transfer Partnerships (KTPs), Innovation Loans and collaborative R&D opportunities available.

 

This grant is designed to support the most promising and innovative projects and is managed by the European Innovation Council.

 

✅   Innovate UK is the UK’s national innovation agency.

 

✅   Funding typically covers 50%–70% of project costs for SMEs and is paid in arrears, tied to project milestones.

 

✅   Projects can be delivered individually or in collaboration with research partners, and must clearly demonstrate market need, technical feasibility, and commercial potential.

 

Knowledge Transfer Partnerships (KTPs)

 

KTPs are a unique way to bring academic expertise into your business. Each KTP connects you with a university or research institution and places a graduate (the KTP Associate) inside your business to deliver the project over 12–36 months.

 

Funding can cover up to 67% of total project costs for SMEs. These costs typically include the Associate’s salary, supervision from the academic partner, and project consumables.

 

KTPs are ideal if you’re looking to:

Develop a new product, service, or process

Improve an existing system or adopt digital tools

Embed long-term innovation capability or strategic thinking into your organisation

Innovation Loans

 

Innovation Loans are designed to help UK SMEs bring late-stage innovations closer to market.

 

If you’re developing a new product, process, or service that has already proven technical feasibility but requires further development, an Innovation Loan could help fund the final stages.

 

✅    Loans typically range from £100,000 to £2 million, with below-market interest rates and flexible repayment terms.

 

✅    To be eligible, projects must show strong commercial potential and a credible plan for both delivery and repayment.

 

Our customers say…

The process of claiming R&D tax relief with ABGi was painless and the outcome exceeded our expectations.Their Technical Analysts’ knowledge is fantastic, they fully understood our engineering business and products, with minimal input from our staff. Everyone at Cajero is really busy running the business, ABGi appreciated this, accommodating the time pressures from our side and kept our work to a minimum.

Alex Harding, CEO
Cajero Limited

We were not aware of any R&D incentives that could be applicable to our company. However after our accountants introduced us to ABGi, we were impressed from day one! The understanding achieved by their analysts of our processes really was significant; few professional bodies we have encountered had their level of engineering expertise, thus giving us the confidence to move forward with a claim.

Jon Pitt, Financial Director
L.M.g. Solutions Ltd

Like with many companies, we are constantly busy and at the start of our journey with ABGI, we weren’t sure if the effort would be worth the benefit. Luckily this wasn’t a feeling that lasted for long, as it was surprisingly straightforward and not as much paperwork as first expected.  We were totally stunned at the amount claimed, we really couldn’t believe it. The tax benefit has since allowed us to reinvest the money, buy new machinery and hire 2 new people.

Rod Wah, Managing Director
Beverston Engineering

Let’s get started

 

For a free consultation and analysis of the potential returns you might expect from your projects, contact the ABGi UK Grant Advisory Team.