Free innovation support for organisations in South Yorkshire that want to develop ideas, improve a process, reach new markets or launch a new product. Support includes academic consultancy, technical projects, innovation audits, student projects and placements, access to university equipment, and funded help to put an existing or off-the-shelf innovation solution in place.
Amount
Fully funded support (programme backed by £3 million from SYMCA)
Deadline
Open all year
Area
South YorkshireRating 8/10Local Landscape rating 8 out of 10
For all of Yorkshire and the Humber, or the whole North 7 schemes
Police-led centre that helps small and medium-sized businesses, charities and public sector organisations in North East England and Yorkshire and the Humber improve their cyber security, with fully funded training and Cyber PATH services for subscribers.
Amount
Free membership; fully funded Security Awareness Training and Cyber PATH services for subscribers
Deadline
Open all year
Area
North East England, Yorkshire and the HumberRating 9/10Local Landscape rating 9 out of 10
A fully funded eight-week course for managers who run digital projects in Yorkshire-based SMEs, covering leadership skills, Industry 4.0 technologies and a business implementation plan.
Amount
Fully funded (no amount stated)
Deadline
Open all year
Area
Yorkshire and the HumberRating 8/10Local Landscape rating 8 out of 10
Funded internships for 2nd, 3rd and 4th year undergraduates and postgraduate students to work in manufacturing SMEs on digital transformation projects for up to 12 weeks.
Amount
Fully funded; grants are paid retrospectively
Deadline
Open all year
Area
Yorkshire and the HumberRating 8/10Local Landscape rating 8 out of 10
A fully funded nine-week course for senior and emerging leaders in Yorkshire-based SMEs who want to drive digital change. Participants attend all sessions and complete a project to shape their firm's growth plan.
Amount
Fully funded
Deadline
Open all year
Area
Yorkshire and the HumberRating 8/10Local Landscape rating 8 out of 10
Help for small and medium manufacturers in Yorkshire and the Humber to adopt digital technology: a free assessment and digital roadmap, intensive technical support from consultants with up to 50% match funding, and digital technology grants of up to £20,000 (50% match funded). Grants are paid after you spend.
Amount
Up to £20,000
Deadline
Open all year
Area
Yorkshire and the HumberRating 8/10Local Landscape rating 8 out of 10
Fully funded cyber security training for manufacturers in Yorkshire and the Humber, delivered with Sheffield Hallam University across four levels from awareness to ISO 27001 certification.
Amount
Fully funded
Area
Yorkshire and the HumberRating 8/10Local Landscape rating 8 out of 10
National schemes 48 schemes
Open to businesses across England or the UK, including Rotherham.
iX programme, Innovation Exchange, Innovate UK, Innovate UK Business Connect
A competition to find innovators who can build a configurable industrial software solution for MBSE simulation within openSPDM. Winners get a chance to pitch and then apply for a grant of up to £60,000 for a 3 month project.
Amount
Up to £60,000
Deadline
Closes 6 November 2026 at 5pm (5 days)
Area
United KingdomRating 8/10Local Landscape rating 8 out of 10
iX programme, Innovation Exchange, Innovate UK Business Connect, Innovate UK
Tekh is seeking a hardware development partner to design and prototype a series of low SWaP-C computing boards for Edge AI inference. Open to established businesses, academic institutions, start-ups, SMEs and individual entrepreneurs that are UK based or intend to set up a UK base.
Amount
Up to £60,000
Deadline
Closes 6 November 2026 at 5pm (5 days)
Area
United KingdomRating 9/10Local Landscape rating 9 out of 10
Innovation Exchange, Innovate UK Business Connect, Innovate UK
A challenge seeking a secure, cost-effective way to use cloud-based AI, engineering and manufacturing tools with sensitive customer and defence data. Open to established businesses, academic institutions, start-ups, SMEs and individual entrepreneurs.
Amount
Up to £60,000
Deadline
Closes 6 November 2026 at 5pm (5 days)
Area
United KingdomRating 8/10Local Landscape rating 8 out of 10
Feasibility study funding for UK registered SMEs developing frontier artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) technologies with a clear route to defensible scale-up. Part of a three-phase pipeline.
Amount
£150,000 to £250,000
Deadline
Closes 11 November 2026 at 11am (10 days)
Area
United KingdomRating 10/10Local Landscape rating 10 out of 10
Funding of up to €30,000 and a 9-month training programme for early-stage founders with pre-incorporation business concepts in Materials and Built Environment (fashion and architecture). Includes an in-person Startup Sprint and an online Spark Incubation Programme.
Amount
Up to €30k per project (up to €30,000 in funding per selected venture)
Deadline
Closes 16 November 2026 at 5pm (15 days)
Area
United KingdomRating 7/10Local Landscape rating 7 out of 10
UK registered research and technology organisations or academic institutions can apply for up to £4 million to establish a hub improving the targeting and commercial impact of grant-funded manufacturing digitalisation activity.
Amount
From £3,800,000
Deadline
Closes 18 November 2026 at 11am (17 days)
Area
United KingdomRating 8/10Local Landscape rating 8 out of 10
Funding for UK SMEs to experimentally validate prototype novel reusable AI mechanisms for efficient, structured and controllable AI systems. Projects must start at TRL 1, 2 or 3.
Amount
£50,000 to £150,000
Deadline
Closes 18 November 2026 at 11am (17 days)
Area
United KingdomRating 10/10Local Landscape rating 10 out of 10
EEuropean Space Agency (ESA), ESA Business Applications
A non-competitive BASS call for operational solutions using space-enabled technologies to improve the resilience of electricity grids.
Amount
Up to 50% of activity costs can usually be funded for UK applicants. Proof-of-concept studies up to €600,000 max cost per project: case-by-case assessment for pilot projects.
Deadline
Closes 27 November 2026 (26 days)
Area
United KingdomRating 9/10Local Landscape rating 9 out of 10
A Department for Education challenge seeking scalable, cost-effective digital tools and methods to capture structural condition data from school buildings immediately before demolition and analyse it for defect trends. The successful applicant(s) may be invited to pilot the methodology in up to 3 schools scheduled for demolition.
Deadline
Closes 4 December 2026 at 5pm
Area
United KingdomRating 8/10Local Landscape rating 8 out of 10
Funds consortia to develop innovative AI deployment use cases for assurance and compliance systems, progressing towards full deployment and replication. Lead organisations must be businesses or other eligible UK organisations, with a deployer in a listed sector.
Amount
£100,000 to £200,000
Deadline
Closes 8 December 2026 at 11am
Area
United KingdomRating 10/10Local Landscape rating 10 out of 10
Funds consortia to develop innovative AI deployment use cases in the Decision Critical Systems strand, progressing towards full deployment and replication. A UK deployer organisation in an eligible sector must be part of the consortium.
Amount
£100,000 to £200,000
Deadline
Closes 8 December 2026 at 11am
Area
United KingdomRating 10/10Local Landscape rating 10 out of 10
Funds consortia to develop innovative AI deployment use cases in the Operational Systems strand, progressing towards full deployment and replication. The deployer must operate in one of the listed sectors.
Amount
£100,000 to £200,000
Deadline
Closes 8 December 2026 at 11am
Area
United KingdomRating 10/10Local Landscape rating 10 out of 10
A UK Space Agency grant call to fund innovative, near-to-market commercial solutions that use space-enabled technologies to improve the identification, monitoring, reporting and verification of emissions and environmental impacts for non-space UK businesses. Projects should involve an end-user business piloting a space-derived solution.
Amount
Up to £400,000
Deadline
Closes 11 December 2026 at 4pm
Area
United KingdomRating 8/10Local Landscape rating 8 out of 10