Photonics & Advanced Materials grants
Optics, lasers and materials innovation across UK and EU funders
Photonics and materials cut across every funder because they enable everyone else's roadmap. That breadth is an advantage if you sequence funders deliberately, and a trap if you send the same proposal to all of them.
£190m+ won by our team
PhD-level specialists who have won these awards themselves.
Funders funding photonics & advanced materials
- EPSRC
- Dstl
Programmes that fit photonics & advanced materials companies
Innovate UK CR&D competitions
Optical components, integrated photonics and imaging systems.
EIC Transition
Materials and photonics moving from lab-validated results towards market readiness.
ESA open calls
Directed energy, LIDAR, IR sensing and hardened optics for space applications.
What assessors actually score
- Measured optical performance against a named commercial benchmark
- Manufacturability and yield addressed, not deferred to a later stage
- Clear identification of the system-level customer
Where we work in photonics & advanced materials
Photonics & Advanced Materials grants in our directory
Live programmes from the UK grant directory that suit photonics & advanced materials projects. Deadlines move between rounds, so each listing links through to the current detail.
Horizon Europe
[Horizon - Industry & Digital] Advanced and Innovative hardware components for Virtual Worlds (RIA) (Virtual Worlds Partnership)
Expected to open. Advanced XR hardware for Virtual Worlds - headsets, microdisplays, wearables, haptics, sensors, brain-computer interfaces; 8 RIAs of EUR 4.8-5.6m; opens 17 Nov 2026, deadline 18 Mar 2027.
Horizon Europe
[Horizon - Industry & Digital] Advanced integrated photonic devices for extended features and ultra-low power consumption (RIA) (…
Expected to open. Advanced integrated photonic devices and circuits with extended features and ultra-low power consumption (Photonics Partnership); 6 RIAs of EUR 3-5m, lump sum, TRL 3-6; opens 17 Nov 2026, deadline 18 Mar 2027.
UKRI
[UKRI] Hydrogen R&D competition
Expected to open. Funding opportunity to target innovations in the hydrogen for storage space, with a focus on technology-agnostic innovations such as compressors, materials, sensors, supporting hydrogen storage scale-up within early 2030s timescales. Part of the Research and Development Missions Accelerator Programme.
Innovate UK
Collaborative R&D (CR&D) competitions
Mission-led competitions under the Innovate UK plans (e.g. Clean Energy Superpower Mission) funding partnerships between businesses and research organisations.
Innovate UK
Knowledge Transfer Partnerships (KTP)
Three-way partnership between a business, an academic institution and a graduate to deliver a strategic innovation project.
ARIA
[ARIA] Precision Mitochondria: ST&R Partners – Request for Proposal
Agnostic to institution type: established service providers, research and metrology institutes, national centres, consortia across institutions, startups, or organisations proposing a new body. Needs biological, measurement and experimental-design expertise plus standards/inter-lab/reference material/method-transfer experience; independent partner with no stake in technical approaches.
Relevant client wins
Grants our team has won for companies solving comparable technical problems.
£452,654
For composite production leap
Mayku
Advanced manufacturing: composites
Read the case study
Phase 3 awarded
Large-scale live trials funded
Butterfly
Clean tech: indoor air quality
Read the case studyPair your grant with R&D tax credits
R&D tax relief can recover part of the match funding a grant asks you to cover. Our R&D tax credit specialists plan both together. Use the R&D tax relief calculator to see what your spend could return, or read accountant vs R&D tax specialist.
Fund your photonics & advanced materials R&D
Talk to us about your grant funding plans and we'll help you make it happen through effective, results-driven grant writing.