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.
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.
Innovate UK
[IUK] Efficient, Structured and Controllable AI Systems
Innovate UK industrial research competition for novel reusable AI mechanisms that are efficient, structured and controllable. Projects start at TRL 1–3. Total eligible costs £50,000–£150,000.
Innovate UK
[IUK] MDI Programme Innovation and Scale-up Hub
Innovate UK Manufacturing Digitalisation Innovation (MDI) competition to establish an Innovation and Scale-up Hub for Frontier 5 manufacturing (advanced materials, aerospace, automotive, batteries, space). Grant £3.8m–£4m over 36 months from 1 April 2027.
Innovate UK
[IUK] Battery Innovation: Concept Development Rd 3
Innovate UK Battery Innovation Programme concept-development strand (Round 3). Grant request £500,000–£4 million for developing and scaling novel battery technologies. Separate from the feasibility-studies strand already in GHL.
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
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