R&D funding roundup – September 2026

A roundup of recent funding opportunities for businesses, creative practitioners and researchers.

Innovate UK Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP): 2026 – 2027 Round 3: UK registered academic institutions, RTOs or Catapults can apply for a share of up to £12.5 million to fund innovation projects with businesses (closes 14 October 2026).

AHRC: A guide for the commercialisation of Creative Industries Research: £250,000 of funding to transform the commercialisation of research in the creative industries for a university-led team to collaborate with investors, lawyers and founders to tackle early-stage barriers to commercialisation and develop a new sector-specific university commercialisation guide, with practical frameworks and best practice deal terms (closes 15 October 2026).

EPSRC: Next generation artificial intelligence (AI): explainable AI: Up to £605,000 of funding for projects focused on speculative and high-risk fundamental research with the potential to deliver high reward and a step change in the UK’s capability to design, develop and deploy explainable AI technologies. Applications are particularly welcomed from early and mid-career UK researchers based at UK research organisations eligible for UKRI funding (closes 20 October 2026).

AHRC CoSTAR Satellite Labs: Accessible creative R&D infrastructure: Up to £2 million funding for two CoSTAR satellite labs to reduce barriers to creative businesses’ technology adoption, improve commercialisation support for creative technology businesses and drive scale up and investment. Lead applicants must be based at a UK research organisation eligible for AHRC funding (closes 29 October 2026).

CoSTAR Showcase Labs: Createch infrastructure and commercialisation: Up to £4 million funding for two CoSTAR showcase Labs to reduce barriers to creative businesses’ technology adoption, improve commercialisation support for creative technology businesses and drive scale up and investment. Lead applicants must be based at a UK research organisation eligible for AHRC funding (closes 29 October 2026).

Open calls

AHRC Catalyst awards: applicant-led mode: Funding 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. The full economic cost (FEC) of a project can be up to £300,000. AHRC will fund 80% of the FEC (open call).

AHRC Curiosity Award: Applicant-led mode: Funding for 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. The full economic cost (FEC) of a project can be up to £100,000. AHRC will fund 80% of the FEC (open call).

Arts Council England 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 Museum Unlocking Collections and Universal Library Offers projects (open call). 

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 call).

BFI National Lottery Impact feature fund: Grants to support features from experienced directors with productions budgets of £1m to £15m and debut feature directors with production budgets of £3.5 million to £15 million. Awards will recognise projects that have potential for impact across scale, inclusive representation, audience reach, environmental impact and economic impact of production outside London and the South East of England (open call).

Creative Scotland National Lottery Open Fund for Organisations: Funding of between £1,000 and £100,000 for eligible organisations who seek funding to undertake creative activity such as a specific project or production, a programme of creative work, or a period of research and development (open call).

Creative Scotland Open Fund for Individuals: Funding of between £500 and £50,000 to support the wide range of activity initiated by artists, writers, producers and other creative practitioners in Scotland (open call).

Creative UK Creative Growth Finance Fund: Loans of between £100,000 and £1 million for post-revenue businesses operating in the Creative Industries. Businesses must present promising growth potential and have a minimum annual turnover of £300k (open call.

Creative UK 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).

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 call).

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 call).

Screen Yorkshire: Yorkshire Content Fund: Funding for businesses based in or planning to be based in Yorkshire and the Humber who are unable to raise sufficient finance from existing conventional sources for investment into creative content such as film and television programmes, games, web and mobile applications and interactive media. Applicants must be preserving jobs or creating new jobs in the Yorkshire & the Humber region and be able to demonstrate the ability to repay the investment and provide a profitable exit for investors (open opportunity).

UK Games Fund – Content Fund: Expressions of Interest: Grants of between £100,000 and £250,000 for UK-registered SMEs with a prototype in place for a commercial game for entertainment focus with potential to secure a commercial audience at scale (open call)

Viverse Creator Grants: Funding and tools for indie developers, small teams, studios, and innovators working across interactive storytelling, marketing, or education from the Viverse platform for open world games, developed by HTC (no closing date provided).

Coming soon

BFI National Lottery Discovery Feature Fund: Support of up to a maximum of £1 million for fictional features from debut directors with budgets from £1 million to £3.5 million. Assessment of applications for Discovery funding will focus strongly on the talent involved and their progression, as well as the feature project itself. Through championing under-represented talent earlier in their careers, we can help create a more diverse and inclusive film industry (opens 12 November and closes 16 December 2026).

CoSTAR National Lab Inclusive Multisensory Experience funding call: CoSTAR National Lab Inclusive User Futures team invites creative companies with existing experiences or events to explore the use of multisensory elements with audiences (opening soon – register your interest to receive an update when the call opens).

The Creative Intelligence Award (supported by CoSTAR, the Southbank Centre and UKRI): A joint prize for artists and creative practitioners working at the intersection of art and technology, the Creative Intelligence Award includes a £50,000 support grant, funded jointly by CoSTAR, the Southbank Centre, and UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), alongside a package of practical support (opening soon – register your interest to receive an update when the call opens).

Immersive Arts has secured more than £8.5 million to continue supporting artists working in immersive technologies for the next three years. Further details, including forthcoming funding opportunities, will be shared in the New Year.

Published on 24 September 2026