About us
A UK team that has won hundreds of grants
Our team has spent more than a decade helping deep tech and life sciences companies raise non-dilutive funding. Between us we have written and won hundreds of grant applications, including Innovate UK grant competitions and Horizon Europe bids, and supported clients across more than £190m in awarded funding.
GrantUp exists because the same discipline wins across the whole UK and European funding landscape, whether the call is an Innovate UK competition, an EIC Accelerator or a KTP. The programmes differ; the craft of framing technical risk, evidencing commercial potential and writing for a scoring panel stays the same.
We are academically led. Our writers hold PhDs, many with postdoctoral research experience, with a particularly deep bench in the life sciences. That means you brief a person who understands your assay, your device or your model.
Several of our consultants also serve as grant assessors and expert reviewers, so we know how applications are scored from the inside. You can meet the team and read our core values.
Selective by design
Why our success rate stays above 90% per engagement
We are not a volume shop. Our success rate is above 90% per engagement, and above 80% on the individual applications we write, and we often secure the highest scores in competitive rounds. That number is not an accident: it comes from being honest on the first call about which companies, innovations and competitions can genuinely win.
If the business, technology or timing is not framable to the funder's published requirements, we say so rather than take the fee. Turning a project away costs us less than a weak submission costs you, and it protects the win rate on the bids we do run.
We only put companies forward for opportunities they can truly win. That means the brief is a clear match, the project is technically credible, the commercial case stands up, and the competition timeline is realistic. When those gates are met, we write the bid with the confidence that it belongs in the funded pile.
Specialist depth, across more than one lane
Deep science expertise without being locked into a single sector
We are not generalist copywriters with a template. Our writers hold PhDs and postdoctoral research experience, and each bid is matched to a specialist in that field: life sciences, medtech and diagnostics, quantum and semiconductors, wireless, advanced manufacturing, energy, AI, transport and more.
What single-sector boutiques cannot do is follow a company across the whole funding landscape. The same business is often best served by an Innovate UK competition this year, Horizon Europe or ESA next, and a defence or ARIA route after that. We know those routes because we write into all of them every month, and the assessor psychology transfers directly.
If your field is one where we do not have genuine depth, we say so on the first call rather than take the work. Turning a project away costs us less than a weak submission costs you.
Every engagement runs to written service standards, including a named lead writer, a second specialist reviewer, an independent finance check before submission and a fixed fee agreed up front with no equity and no percentage of the award. Our client wins are named and published where clients agreed to be referenced, and our reviews are public rather than curated.
Trusted partner
GrantUp is an official partner of SETsquared, the university enterprise partnership behind the UK's top-ranked startup incubation network (Bath, Bristol, Cardiff, Exeter, Southampton and Surrey). SETsquared ventures are supported by GrantUp with grant funding and R&D tax relief.
GrantUp is an official partner of Grow London Local, part of London & Partners, the Mayor of London's growth agency. London's small businesses are referred to GrantUp for grant writing and R&D tax relief support.
GrantUp is an official partner of Stotles, the public sector opportunities platform, where GrantUp supports businesses competing for government contracts and funding.
How we run every engagement
The standards you can hold us to
Grant deadlines are unforgiving, so the way a consultancy is run matters as much as the writing itself. These are our operating commitments on every project, in writing, before you pay anything.
A named lead and a named reviewer
Every project is staffed with a lead writer matched to your technology plus a second specialist who scores the draft against the published criteria. Nothing rests on one person's judgement or availability.
A written schedule from day one
You get every draft date, review window and internal deadline at kick-off, with an internal submission target that sits ahead of the funder deadline, never on it.
Independent finance check before submission
Costings, headcount, intervention rate and total project cost are checked against your finance form by a second pair of eyes, then signed off by you in writing.
Reachable people, rebooked within a day
Direct email to your lead writer throughout. If a call ever has to move, it is rebooked within one working day, and anything unresolved escalates to a director the same day.
No equity, no percentage, no hidden fees
The fee is quoted before any work starts, with no percentage of the award. For qualifying companies, a no-win-no-fee option is also available. If a bid is unsuccessful we review assessor feedback line by line and support a resubmission at reduced scope and fee.
Selective intake, every project pre-screened
Every enquiry is pre-screened for funder fit, impact potential and technical credibility before we quote, and we cap live applications per writer per round. Projects that do not meet the bar are declined on the first call, which is how our success rate stays high and your budget stays out of the bin.
Ready to get started?
Talk to us about your grant funding plans and we'll help you make it happen through effective, results-driven grant writing.