UK-Netherlands Co-Innovation for Quantum Technology 2026

Description Innovate UK, part of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), will invest up to £1.5 million from the UKRI. This is subject to a sufficient number of high quality applications being received. The aim of this competition is to strengthen collaborative research and development towards commercialising quantum technologies, through Netherlands and UK partnerships. Your proposal must plausibly demonstrate co-innovation, high potential for commercialisation and address a technological challenge and global market exploitation plan. UK registered businesses must collaborate with at least one Netherlands based non-linked registered business applying under the equivalent Netherlands Enterprise Agency (RVO) programme. UK registered organisations must apply through the Innovation Funding Service (IFS) portal to Innovate UK. Your Netherlands based partner will not receive any funding from Innovate UK. Netherlands based partners must apply to, and will be funded by, Netherlands Enterprise Agency (RVO) programme component of the project set out in this application. In applying to this competition, you are entering into a competitive process. This competition has a funding limit, so we may not be able to fund all the proposed projects. It may be the case that your project scores highly but we are still unable to fund it. Our experience from similar competitions suggests that you could have 33% chance of success. We consider a range of factors when determining whether to provide funding to applicants. This includes an assessment of prior conduct, such as any outstanding payments owed to Innovate UK or UKRI. Such factors may influence the funding decision, potentially resulting in a refusal of funding or an award subject to additional scrutiny. We also reserve the right to adjust funding allocations for any of our competitions. This may be in response to changes in policy, portfolio funding considerations or broader government funding decisions. This competition closes at 11am UK time on the deadline stated in this Innovate UK competition brief . We cannot guarantee other government or third party sites will always show the correct competition information. The project must be independently selected by both Innovate UK and Netherlands Enterprise Agency (RVO) programme to be eligible to be awarded funding. Funding type Grant Project size UK partners grant funding request can be between £250,000 and £400,000 per project. Accessibility and Inclusion We welcome and encourage applications from people of all backgrounds and are committed to making our application process accessible to everyone. This includes making reasonable adjustments for people who have a disability or a long-term condition and face barriers applying to us. You can contact us at any time to ask for guidance. We recommend you contact us at least 15 working days before this competition’s closing date to allow us to put the most suitable support in place. The support we can provide may be limited if you contact us close to the competition deadline. You can contact Innovate UK by email or call 0300 321 4357. Our phone lines are open from 9am to 12pm and 2pm to 5pm UK time, Monday to Friday (excluding bank holidays). This competition is open during the Christmas holiday period. However, UKRI and Innovate UK will have limited capacity to respond to queries. We will not respond to queries between 23 December 2026 and 4 January 2027. Responses may also be delayed after 18 December 2026. Submit any queries well in advance of this period to allow sufficient time for a response. Your proposal The aim of this competition is to strengthen collaborative research and development towards commercialising quantum technologies, through Netherlands and UK partnerships. Your project must focus on development, prototyping and testing of commercial quantum technologies in one or more of the following themes: • software or hardware solutions to advance commercial deployment of entanglement based quantum networking • quantum computing algorithms, software applications, and hybrid workflows • the adoption of quantum sensing and imaging for commercial applications in areas, including, life sciences, healthcare and public infrastructure • demonstrate commercially viable industrial manufacturing and assembly processes to build hardware devices such as detectors, control electronics, laser and optical systems, vacuum and cryogenic systems to enable next generation performance for quantum computers and networking applications We encourage projects to include Testbed Providers or pilot production lines in either, or both the United Kingdom or the Netherlands. The participating testbeds may be hosted at either a National lab, Research organisation or University research facility. Testbeds are prototype or development platforms to characterise, advance and demonstrate commercial quantum compute, networking, sensing solutions. Portfolio approach We want to fund a variety of projects acros

Who can apply Your project Your project must: • have a grant funding request of between £250,000 and £400,000 • last between 18 and 24 months • not start before 1 June 2027 • end by 30 May 2029 The majority of the project work must be undertaken in the UK and Netherlands. UK project partners must carry out the majority of their project work in the UK and intend to exploit the results from or in the UK and spend most of the funding within the UK. The consortium must include at least one business registered in Netherlands that is a separate legal entity and not linked to the UK partners. This is to ensure that projects encourage genuine international collaboration, not internal company research. Linked companies are considered a single entity under the parent company. Your project must demonstrate a balanced technological contribution by the participants from both countries and must be equally significant to all participants. No one country or project partner can represent more than 70% of the total project cost. Your proposal must demonstrate a clear intention to commercially exploit the results of the project domestically or globally. You must only include eligible project costs in your application. See our overview of eligible project costs . Roles and terminology There must be a ‘project lead’ and this can be either an eligible UK or Netherlands based organisation. The project lead is responsible for managing the entire project. The ‘lead applicant’, is the organisation that starts the application on the Innovation Funding Service. This must be a UK organisation. UK lead organisation To start an application on the Innovation Funding Service (IFS), your organisation must be a UK registered business of any size. You must collaborate with at least one Netherlands registered for-profit business applying to the Netherlands Enterprise Agency (RVO) programme which must be a separate legal entity, not linked to the UK partners. Netherlands based organisations can be a project lead but cannot start an application on IFS. More information on the different types of UK organisations can be found in our Funding rules . UK Project team To collaborate with the lead, your organisation must be one of the following UK registered: • business of any size • academic institution • charity • not for profit • public sector organisation • research and technology organisation (RTO) Only UK registered partners must be listed in the Project Partner section of your application on the Innovation Funding Service (IFS). Your Netherlands based partner will not receive any of this UK competition funding. Netherlands based partners will be funded by the Netherlands Enterprise Agency (RVO) programme following a parallel application. Each organisation in your consortium will receive funding from its respective national funding body. Each UK partner organisation must be invited into IFS by the lead to collaborate on a project. Once accepted, partners will be asked to login or to create an account and enter their own project costs into IFS. To be an eligible collaboration: • the lead and at least one other organisation must request funding • you must explain why you’re collaborating and how the collaboration will work • no single organisation can claim more than 70% of the total project costs Non-funded partners Your project can include organisations who do not claim any funding for their work on the project. Their costs will be covered from their own resources. These can include UK, EU and other non-UK organisations. Non-UK partners are permitted to carry out project work from within their home countries and exploit the results outside the UK. Where non-funded partners have been invited to the application on IFS, their costs will count towards the total eligible project costs. Netherlands based partners Netherlands based partners do not need to be invited into Innovate UK’s application on the Innovation Funding Service. Netherlands based partners will be funded by Netherlands Enterprise Agency (RVO) programme following a parallel application. Subcontractors Subcontractors are allowed in this competition, but they are limited to no more than 20% of the total eligible costs of the UK participation. Subcontractors can be from anywhere in the UK and you must select them through your usual procurement process. You can use subcontractors from other countries but must make the case in your application as to why you could not use subcontractors from the countries providing grant funding for the project. You must provide a detailed rationale, evidence of the potential UK or Netherlands based contractors you approached and the reasons why they were unable to work with you. We will not accept a cheaper cost as a sufficient reason to use a subcontractor from a third country. All subcontractor costs must be justified and appropriate to the total eligible project costs. Number of applications An eligible organisation can only lead on one application. Any f

Before you start You must read the guidance on applying for a competition on the Innovation Funding Service before you start. Before submitting, it is the lead applicant’s responsibility to make sure: • that all the information provided in the application is correct • your proposal meets the eligibility and scope criteria • all sections of the application are marked as complete • that all UK partners have completed all assigned sections and accepted the terms and conditions (T&Cs) • that projects submitted in the UK and Netherlands share the same project title You can reopen your application once submitted, up until the competition deadline. You must resubmit the application before the competition deadline. What we ask you The application is split into four sections: • Project details. • Application questions. • Finances. • Project Impact. Accessibility and Inclusion We welcome and encourage applications from people of all backgrounds and are committed to making our application process accessible to everyone. This includes making reasonable adjustments for people who have a disability or a long-term condition and face barriers applying to us. You can contact us at any time to ask for guidance. We recommend you contact us at least 15 working days before this competition’s closing date to allow us to put the most suitable support in place. The support we can provide may be limited if you contact us close to the competition deadline. You can contact Innovate UK by email or call 0300 321 4357. Our phone lines are open from 9am to 12pm and 2pm to 5pm UK time, Monday to Friday (excluding bank holidays). This competition is open during the Christmas holiday period. However, UKRI and Innovate UK will have limited capacity to respond to queries. We will not respond to queries between 23 December 2026 and 4 January 2027. Responses may also be delayed after 18 December 2026. Submit any queries well in advance of this period to allow sufficient time for a response. 1. Project details This section provides background for your application and is not scored. Application team Decide which organisations will work with you on your project and invite people from those organisations to help complete the application. Application details Give your project’s title, start date and duration. Research category Select the type of research you will undertake. Project summary Describe your project briefly and be clear about what makes it innovative. We use this section to assign the right experts to assess your application. Your answer can be up to 400 words long. Public description Describe your project in detail and in a way that you are happy to see published. Do not include any commercially sensitive information. If we award your project funding, we will publish this description. This can happen before you start your project. Your answer can be up to 400 words long. Scope Describe how your project fits the scope of the competition. If your project is not in scope, it wil