R&D funding roundup – December 2025

A roundup of recent funding opportunities for researchers, companies and creatives.

Innovate UK Innovation Loans Round 24: Loans available for UK registered businesses for close to market innovative projects with strong commercial potential. They must significantly improve the UK economy and drive societal benefit (closes 7 January 2026).

Media Cymru Immersive Challenges Fund: Loans of up to £15,000 per project for Welsh businesses and freelancers to research and develop experiences with immersive and XR technologies (closes 20 January 2026).

AHRC and BBC New Generation Thinkers 2026: An opportunity for five early career researchers to work with programme makers at BBC Radio 4, appear on a number of episodes and shadow the production process to understand how ideas get on air. Successful applicants will also take part in learning and development opportunities with AHRC around working with the media, engaging the public with research and how to work with policymakers (closes 28 January 2026).

Knowledge Transfer Partnership: 2025 to 2026 round five: UK registered academic institutions, RTOs or Catapults can apply for a share of up to £10 million to fund innovation projects with businesses (closes 4 February 2026).

Women in Innovation Awards 2025/26: Women founders or co-founders with UK registered businesses at the late stage start-up phase can apply for a grant of up to £75,000 and bespoke business support, to further their ambitious growth plans (closes 4 February 2026).

Local Innovation Partnerships Fund: Earmarked Strand: A minimum of £30 million of funding is earmarked to 10 regions to unlock regional economic growth. This is an invitation-only funding opportunity for triple helix partnerships between civic leadership institutions, businesses and universities in ten regions identified by the UK Government (closes 6 February 2026).

Local Innovation Partnerships Fund – Competed strand: Triple helix partnerships across the UK, excluding places in receipt of an Earmarked Award can apply for a maximum of £20 million to drive economic growth, deliver impact at scale and build long-lasting innovation capacity to support places to increase their competitive advantage. Projects must have a distinct focus on near-to-market research and innovation with strong potential for commercial application, industry adoption and scalable impact (closes 12 February 2026).

AHRC responsive mode: Catalyst awards: Awards to support researchers without prior experience of leading a significant research project to accelerate their trajectory as independent researchers, to unlock their potential, build leadership and convenor experience (open – no end date).

AHRC responsive mode: Curiosity awards: Flexible awards to fund fundamental research that leads to new research agendas, networking activity and idea generation, which enables the development of further research opportunities and new research agendas (open – no end date).

British Film Council Film Festival XR Showcase Travel Grants: Grants to help Short and Feature filmmakers, and XR creatives, travel to international events where their work is being screened (open – no end date).

Creative Growth Finance Fund: Scale-up loans for UK businesses in the Creative Industries (open – no end date).

Daphne Jackson Fellowship Grants: Fellowships for those looking to return to a research career after a break of two or more years for family, health or caring reasons. The aim is to give participants the confidence and skills they need to make a successful return to research (open – no end date).

Knowledge Transfer Partnerships: Funding to help businesses to partner with an academic organisation, research organisation or a Catapult, or to employ a graduate with the skills and knowledge that can help the business to innovate and grow (open – no end date).

Arts Council National Lottery Project Grants: Grants of between £1,000 and £100,000 to support individual practitioners, community and cultural organisations working on arts, libraries and museums projects. Priority is currently given to Supporting Grassroots Music, Museum Unlocking Collections and Universal Library Offers projects (open call – no end date). 

Creative Enterprise Business Builder: Grants of up to £2,500 from Creative UK to support companies who work in moving images for storytelling, spanning film television, games, animation and immersive industries (open call – no end date).

Coming soon

BFI Doc Society Features and R&D Funds: As part of the BFI National Lottery Funding Plan 2026-2029, the BFI has committed to invest £7.2m in documentary funding and talent development over three years. Doc Society is working with the BFI on a proposal for this funding and expects details of funding opportunities to be communicated from early 2026.

XR Network+ Future Fan Experiences R&D Challenge: A research and development challenge led by XR Network+ in partnership with MusicFutures and ACC Liverpool that will provide funding and support for academic and industry-led R&D projects to leverage infrastructure and facilities to develop prototypes that enhance fan experiences across live music, sport and cultural events (opens early 2026, date to be announced).

Pre-announcement: Future Leaders Fellowship: round 11: A £110 million fund to support ambitious research and innovation across UK Research and Innovation (UKRI)’s remit. The opportunity is aimed at early career researchers or innovators who are either looking to establish or transition to independence, or developing their own original and ambitious plans within a commercial setting (opens 6 February 2026).

Pre-announcement: EPSRC Prosperity Partnerships 2027: A £40 million fund to support ambitious, collaborative research programmes (Prosperity Partnerships) that must be business-led, co-created and co-delivered by business and academic partners and aim to create long-term prosperity for the UK, for example by bringing jobs and revenue growth, or addressing broader societal and sustainability issues (opens February 2026, date to be announced).

Published on 16 December 2025