UK-Singapore CRD 2026

Innovate UK, part of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), will invest up to £3 million. This is subject to a sufficient number of high quality applications being received. The aim of this competition is to fund business-led collaborative research and development (CR&D) projects focused on industrial research. Your proposal must focus on one of the following sectors: • Advanced Manufacturing • Clean Energy • Life Sciences • Digital and Technologies, specifically the frontier technologies including: Semiconductors, Quantum, Artificial Intelligence, Cyber Security, Advanced Connectivity Technologies and Engineering Biology UK registered businesses must collaborate with at least one Singapore non-linked registered business applying under the equivalent Enterprise Singapore programme. UK registered organisations must apply through the Innovation Funding Service (IFS) portal to Innovate UK. Your Singapore partner will not receive any funding from Innovate UK. Singapore partners must apply to and will be funded by Enterprise Singapore for the Singapore 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 a 15% 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 Enterprise Singapore to be awarded funding. Funding type Grant Project size UK partners grant funding request can be between £100,000 and £900,000 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). The aim of this competition is to fund business-led collaborative research and development (CR&D) projects focused on industrial research. Your project must focus on one of the following sectors • Advanced Manufacturing • Clean Energy • Life Sciences • Digital and Technologies, specifically the frontier technologies including Semiconductors, Quantum, Artificial Intelligence, Cyber Security, Advanced Connectivity Technologies and Engineering Biology Portfolio approach We want to fund a variety of projects across different technologies. We call this a portfolio approach . Research categories We will fund industrial research projects only, as defined in the guidance on categories of research . Projects we will not fund We are not funding projects that: • do not meet Innovate UK’s eligibility criteria • do not submit all mandatory documentation • request grants of less than £100,000 from Innovate UK • request grants of more than £900,000 from Innovate UK • do not have an eligible Singapore partner • pose a risk to the UK's national security, economic security, or strategic interests. Innovate UK reserves the right to withhold funding from such projects, regardless of assessment scores or ranking. We cannot fund projects that are: • dependent on export performance: giving a subsidy to an organisation on the condition that it exports a certain quantity of its products to another country • dependent on domestic inputs usage: giving a subsidy to an organisation on the condition that it uses a set percentage of UK components in their product

Your project Your project must: • have a grant funding request of between £100,000 and £900,000 • last between 24 and 36 months • not start before 1 May 2027 • end by 30 April 2030 The majority of the project work must be undertaken in the UK and Singapore. 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 Singapore 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 . If your project does not meet our criteria and you have not requested justification approval, your application will be made ineligible and it will not be sent for assessment. 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 Singapore registered business applying to the Enterprise Singapore programme , which must be a separate legal entity, not linked to the UK partners 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 • 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 Singapore partner will not receive any of this UK competition funding. Singapore partners will be funded by the Enterprise Singapore 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 the 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 the IFS. To be an eligible collaboration, the lead and at least one other organisation must: • apply for funding when entering their costs into the application • include rationale for the collaboration and describe the structure in your application • ensure any one partner does not account for more than 70% of the total eligible 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. International partners Singapore partners do not need to be invited into Innovate UK’s application on the Innovation Funding Service. Singapore partners will be funded by Enterprise Singapore 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. 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 further applications by the same organisation as lead will be made ineligible. An eligible organisation that is leading an application can be included as a collaborator in a further two applications and if not leading, can collaborate in any number of applications. Sanctions This competition will not fund you, or provide any financial benefit to any individual or entities directly or indirectly involved with you, which would expose Innovate UK or any direct or indirect beneficiary of funding from Innovate UK to UK Sanctions . For example, through any procurement, commercial, business development or supply chain activity with any entity as lead, partner or subcontractor related to these countries, administrations and terrorist groups . Use of animals in research and innovation Innovate UK expects and supports the provision and safeguarding of welfare standards for animals used in research and innovation, according to best practice and

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) 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). 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 will not be sent for assessment. We will tell you the reason why. Your answer can be up to 400 words long. 2. Application questions The assessors will score all your answers apart from question 1 to 7. You will receive feedback for each scored question. Find out more about how our assessors assess and how we select applications for funding . You must answer all questions. Your answer to each question can be up to 400 words long. You must not i