Efficient, Structured and Controllable AI Systems

Innovate UK is offering UK-registered SMEs the opportunity to apply for a share of up to £1.66 million to support the development and experimental validation of innovative artificial intelligence technologies.

The competition is aimed particularly at research-intensive AI start-ups, deep-tech SMEs, university spin-outs and pre-commercial businesses developing proprietary AI technology. Its purpose is to advance novel, reusable AI mechanisms that could form the foundations of future generations of more efficient, structured, adaptive and controllable AI and machine learning systems.

Projects should focus on significant technical advances in areas such as new learning mechanisms, adaptive architectures, causal modelling, graph-based learning, compositional systems or technologies that provide measurable control over AI agents.

Individual projects must have total eligible costs of between £50,000 and £150,000 and last between one and three months. Projects must start by 1 April 2027 and finish by 30 June 2027.

For industrial research projects, eligible SMEs can receive substantial support towards project costs, with the level of grant funding dependent on the size of the organisation and applicable funding rules.

Projects must deliver a prototype algorithm, architecture or subsystem alongside an experimental validation environment and evidence demonstrating performance against defined baselines or hypotheses. Applicants must also provide a plan for further development.

This is a competitive funding opportunity particularly suited to innovative SMEs developing genuinely novel AI technologies rather than simply applying existing AI models.

Applications close at 11am on Wednesday 18 November 2026.

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