Funding Opportunities: Healthcare/Medtech
GrantUp specialises in helping Med Tech companies secure UK innovation grant funding to accelerate the development of groundbreaking healthcare technologies. With numerous funding opportunities available, from Innovate UK to Horizon Europe, there is significant support for medical device innovations, diagnostic solutions, and digital health platforms. We’ve helped numerous clients navigate these complex funding landscapes and win millions in non-dilutive grant awards. Whether you’re an early-stage startup or an established business, we can guide you to the right funding options for your innovation.
With a proven track record of success, we understand the challenges of securing Med Tech funding and are here to maximise your chances of winning. Our team is experienced in crafting compelling applications that highlight your project’s potential to transform healthcare and deliver real patient impact. From identifying the best grant opportunities to writing winning proposals, we’ll be with you every step of the way, ensuring your innovation has the financial backing it needs to thrive in the competitive healthcare market.
Innovate UK innovation loans future economy: Round 18
This Innovate UK competition offers loans to help businesses overcome barriers to commercialising their innovations, with a focus on driving significant economic impact and sustainable growth. Eligible projects must showcase innovative products, services, or processes significantly ahead of current offerings or utilize existing solutions in novel ways. Applications should include a strong business plan, skilled team, risk management strategy, financial feasibility, and clear economic impact potential to secure funding for accelerated commercialisation and growth.
Mindset extended reality (XR): Digital therapeutics for mental health
Funding to develop digital therapeutic extended reality (XR) solutions to provide mental healthcare services. These solutions will optimally be applied and trialled following an R&D cycle of between 12 to 18 months. Solutions must have the potential to be adopted at scale to form part of the UK’s formal mental healthcare ecosystem.
Innovate UK Smart grants: Nov 2024
Innovate UK Smart grants are funding UK businesses that are developing game-changing innovations with strong commercial potential. Designed to align with the government’s five key missions—economic growth, clean energy, public safety, expanded opportunities, and healthcare improvements—Smart grants foster projects with high impact potential. By funding cutting-edge solutions, Smart grants drive economic prosperity, boost productivity, and ensure that the benefits of growth reach all UK regions.
Prosperity partnerships: advanced therapies safety and toxicity
Apply for funding to foster UK-led research partnerships between businesses and academia, focusing on safety and toxicity in advanced therapies. Projects will co-develop tools and resources to assess and mitigate safety risks, integrating discovery and translational science to advance therapies from research to clinical application.
Scalable Neural Interfaces: Opportunity seeds
This funding supports transformative ideas in the Scalable Neural Interfaces space, aiming to revolutionise understanding of neurological disorders. Proposals should align with or challenge established assumptions, explore innovative brain interfaces, and push boundaries of what’s possible. Projects may range from curiosity-driven research to pre-commercial technologies, fostering bold approaches to redefine the potential and value of neural interfacing at scale.
Developmental pathway funding scheme: stage one
This grant supports academically-led translational projects addressing significant health needs or global health challenges. Eligible projects include developing or refining therapeutics, medical devices, diagnostics, or research tools to enhance intervention efficiency. All diseases and intervention types qualify, spanning early development to phase 2a clinical trials. Proposals should target prevention, diagnosis, prognosis, or treatment advancements, with opportunities for preclinical and early-phase clinical studies.
UKRI Creating opportunities: rethinking economic (in)activity
UKRI seeks a single innovative, interdisciplinary project under its Creating Opportunities, Improving Outcomes theme to address economic inactivity in areas with high rates of ill-health, disability, and informal care. The project will investigate local systemic factors shaping inactivity, identify effective support strategies, bridge research-to-practice gaps through collaboration with policymakers and local partners, and improve access to administrative data for inactivity research.
British Business Bank Investment Fund for Wales
This fund aims to drive sustainable economic growth by supporting innovation and creating local opportunity for new and growing businesses across Wales.
Other grant funding opportunities
Design foundations round six
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Innovate UK is providing funding to support innovation projects using people-centred and systemic design methods. This competition aims to identify opportunities, generate new ideas, or improve existing concepts, fostering innovative products, services, and models that benefit people, the planet, and society. It encourages sustainable, impactful design-driven R&D for transformative innovation.
Robotics and Automated Solutions for Sustainable Construction
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This funding by HORIZON supports the development of robotic and automated solutions for sustainable building construction, renovation, and maintenance. Projects should enhance efficiency, reduce errors, minimize environmental impact, and lower costs through automation. Key areas include energy-efficient robotic techniques, digitally assisted design, automated surveying, and worker safety augmentation. Solutions must be tested in at least three prototypes, addressing diverse building types, and contribute to the Built4People network and its innovation clusters.
AI solutions to develop AI competencies in key sectors
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Innovate UK, as part of UK Research and Innovation, is investing in innovative projects aimed at developing responsible and ethical AI-based personalised learning solutions. This funding initiative supports the development of AI competency in key sectors, including construction, transport and logistics, agriculture and food processing, and the creative industries. The goal is to foster AI-driven growth, adaptability, and skill enhancement within these vital sectors.
Collaborative R&D: Creative Catalyst
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This CR&D competition aims to advance the development of collaboration with innovators in the creative industries by funding projects that address industry challenges and support economic growth. Applicants must propose ambitious, market-ready solutions that enhance the creative supply chain, create new revenue streams, and demonstrate significant improvement over existing offerings.
Design for Adaptability, Re-use, and Deconstruction of Buildings
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This funding supports innovative construction and renovation solutions to extend building service life, enhance adaptability, and enable reuse and deconstruction. Projects should develop and validate techniques that improve resource efficiency, use CO2-storing and low-emission materials, and address all building components. Solutions must be tested in diverse environments, involve local value chains, and provide measurable outcomes. Deliverables include guidance for stakeholders, dissemination of best practices, and contributions to standardization through the Built4People network.
Aiming Far and High: New DASA Market Exploration seeks revolutionary uncrewed systems
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This competition seeks uncrewed systems with extended range and modular capabilities for rapid deployment within 12 months. The British Army aims to enhance operational reach with the development of an uncrewed Deep Recce Strike platform capable of operating at ranges greater than 80 kilometers. Solutions must prioritize resilience in contested environments, modularity for iterative upgrades, and reliance on allied supply chains to address evolving battlefield challenges effectively.
India - UK Collaborative R&D for industrial sustainability Rd 2
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Innovate UK and India’s Department of Science and Technology (DST) is funding business-led UK-India collaborations on Net Zero Technologies. Projects must present disruptive innovations with economic potential, strong business and financial plans, and a clear path to commercialization. Proposals should demonstrate mutual benefits for UK and Indian economies, effective IP sharing, and added value from cross-country collaboration. Outcomes must deliver impactful, market-ready solutions post-project completion.
Contracts for Innovation: Accessible Information on Coaches
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This competition by the Department for Transport aims to develop affordable, user-friendly hardware and software solutions for coaches to comply with the Public Service Vehicles (Accessible Information) Regulations 2023. The solutions must provide accessible audio and visual route, destination, and location information, supporting disabled passengers. Proposals should prioritize scalability, compatibility, and affordability while incorporating innovative technologies.
European Space Agency: Maritime Decarbonisation through Autonomy
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This grant supports innovations in maritime autonomy that enhance decarbonisation through improved vessel efficiency, advanced infrastructure, regulatory compliance, and security. It seeks solutions leveraging space data to increase autonomy, improve situational awareness, and protect systems while preparing seafarers for the evolving landscape of human-assisted operations. Focus areas include sustainability, safety, and regulatory integration.
The Content Fund
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The Content Fund is a joint plan between Government and industry to drive growth, build talent and develop skills across the creative sectors.
Opening up the Environment 2025
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This funding supports pilot projects to enhance diversity in NERC science, attracting a broader talent pool and showcasing diverse skillsets. Up to 20 grants will fund partnerships to develop inclusive plans, test approaches, and inspire underrepresented groups to join the environmental solutions workforce. Projects should identify and engage diverse talent, fostering equitable inclusion and contributing to a more representative NERC community.
Canada-UK Collaborative R&D
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This competition encourages UK-Canada collaboration to develop innovative technologies in life sciences (e.g., biomanufacturing, agri-tech), digital technologies (e.g., AI, quantum), and sustainability (e.g., clean energy, ocean sciences). Open to organisations in both countries, it funds projects creating groundbreaking products, processes, or services across sectors. Proposals should align with previous UK-Canada R&D focuses or areas, fostering advancements in critical and emerging technology fields.
Future-proofing Biosecurity by Strengthening the UK’s Microbial Forensics Capability
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DASA, in collaboration with Dstl, seeks innovative proposals to enhance the UK’s Microbial Forensics Capability. Key focus areas include computational tools to detect anomalies in genome sequencing data, including biological engineering evidence, and technologies to identify or analyze omic signatures for novel forensic applications. Proposals should advance tools and techniques for identifying and interpreting microbial evidence, supporting the UK’s ability to address biological threats and enhance forensic investigation capabilities.
European Space Agency
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You can apply for funding from ESA for the Open Call for Proposals or through specific themed opportunities. Your project must delivered R&D related to the space industry
Innovation Loan
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This is a multi-sector generous loan opportunity of between £100k and £2m for UK registered, highly innovative SMEs with projects lasting up to 5 years.
Creative Growth Finance
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Creative UK have partnered with Triodos Bank on the Creative Growth Finance fund to offer loans of £100,000 to £1m* to businesses that bring change, disruption and new IP to the creative industries, harness creativity with technologies and supporting businesses and are talent led.
SMART: SCOTLAND grants
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The SMART: SCOTLAND grant aims to support high-risk, highly ambitious projects providing support to conduct feasibility studies. It’s only available to small and medium enterprises (SMEs) based in Scotland
Challenge Awards round 15
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NIHR i4i Challenge Awards support the real-world evaluation of medical devices, in vitro diagnostic devices and high-impact patient-focused digital health technologies for us in the NHS or social care system. The i4i Challenge Awards provide funding for collaborative projects with a focus on implementation research on technologies which have demonstrated safety and efficacy, and have a clear pathway towards adoption and commercialisation.
Arts Council National Lottery Project Grants
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Arts Council National Lottery are offering funding to people in England who are creative, or work in the arts, museums or libraries. The fund supports thousands of individual practitioners, community and cultural organisations
Green Hydrogen as a sustainable energy source
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This call seeks proposals for feasibility studies using space technology (SatCom, SatEO, SatNav) to advance green hydrogen as a sustainable energy source. Focus areas include energy, transportation, maritime, and smart cities, addressing challenges in hydrogen production, storage, and distribution. Projects should assess satellite-based solutions for environmental sustainability, efficiency, and cost-effectiveness, engaging user communities to develop proof of concept and pathways for future applications aligned with net-zero goals by 2050.
AHRC responsive mode: UKRI NSF-SBE lead agency
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This funding opportunity supports collaborative arts and humanities research projects, enabling researchers to establish or enhance interdisciplinary and international partnerships, foster early-career researcher development, and maximise the impact of research outcomes through effective communication and knowledge transfer. Proposals should prioritize arts and humanities perspectives while integrating diverse disciplines and sectors. Projects, funded for up to five years, must align with AHRC or NSF-SBE research themes and demonstrate a proportionate commitment from project leads.
AHRC responsive mode: standard research grant
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Apply for AHRC standard research grant funding to support collaborative arts and humanities projects. Projects must involve a UK-based project lead and at least one co-lead to develop and manage the research. These grants aim to foster collaborations within and beyond academia, enhance career development for researchers, and promote effective dissemination of research outcomes. Proposals can involve interdisciplinary or international partnerships and may include individual research components that demonstrably add value to the overall project.