SME Technology Adoption Accelerator

Basic digital technology is a proven driver of firm-level productivity, yet UK adoption lags international competitors, particularly among SMEs. SMEs face three barriers: limited awareness and information, resources and skills. A fragmented support landscape fails to address them. The industry-led SME Digital Adoption Taskforce recommends a new public-private initiative with large businesses and No.10 to boost SME digital and AI adoption. The Department for Business, Innovation, Science & Trade (BIST) will fund one delivery partner (or one consortium with a single accountable lead) for a one-year pilot to create a coherent support offer, initially for UK SMEs with 50 or fewer employees in Retail, Hospitality and Leisure, with scope to expand following evaluation. The pilot will provide online support, including curated guidance, sector guides, case studies, webinars, e-learning and content for AI-powered tools, alongside local, in-person support, including events, peer networks and mentoring. It will combine industry and government contributions and use existing brands, networks and platforms, including ‘Backing Your Business’, the Business Growth Service, the Business Academy and Growth Hubs. BIST will test whether a coordinated public-private offer can overcome barriers to SME digital adoption and generate evidence for any future national programme. • Coordinate a fragmented landscape. Link a new, curated service to recognised brands, networks and platforms — ‘Backing Your Business’, Growth Hubs, the Business Growth Service and the Business Academy — so that support reaches SMEs through channels they already recognise and trust, and so that grant funding buys delivery rather than infrastructure. • To address three key digital adoption barriers. SMEs face barriers of lack of awareness and information, resources and skills. The pilot will be designed to help small businesses overcome these three key barriers by delivering curated support both online and locally in-person. • Encourage the industry to offer as much as it can . Convert partner willingness into committed contributions within an offer that is simple and efficient, coordinates the landscape, is vendor neutral, has a local and personal dimension, and builds confidence and changes behaviours. • Generate evidence. Evaluate activities to determine the most effective ways to deliver digital adoption support to UK SMEs, enabling continuous improvement during the pilot and informing decisions on whether to continue, modify or expand the offer.

We welcome applications from organisations that already operate in the SME digital adoption or SME business support space, with an existing record of support activity, expertise and delivery infrastructure. This includes not‑for‑profit, public and private sector organisations, and consortia. If applying as a consortium, you must identify a lead organisation that must complete the application, and will be accountable to BIST for overall delivery, reporting and financial management. We are looking for: • Existing delivery infrastructure: the ability to launch and deliver at pace, building on existing capabilities rather than building from scratch. • Convening credibility: the standing to coordinate contributions from multiple large businesses and government departments into a coherent offer. • Reach into the target group: demonstrable routes to smaller SMEs in Retail, Hospitality and Leisure, nationally and locally. • Delivery capacity and governance: clear governance structure, named leads, and resourcing sufficient to deliver online and in-person across the UK within pilot timelines. • Monitoring and evaluation capability: the ability to collect, manage and report data, and to produce credible interim and final evaluation products. • Data protection capability: information management arrangements that meet public sector expectations. Applicants must be solvent and not subject to insolvency proceedings. Any actual or potential conflict of interest — including commercial relationships with prospective industry partners — must be declared at application.

Follow the Application link to the Grants Hub Portal. Sign up to complete your application.