R&D Funding Roundup – October 2024

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

Innovate UK Smart Grants: UK registered organisations can apply for a share of up to £25 million for game-changing and commercially viable research and development innovations that can significantly impact the UK economy (closes 13 November).

BFI Early Development Fund: Grants of between £3,000 and £5,000 to support writers developing their debut feature (closes 19 November).

Immersive Arts (round one applications): A £6 million, three year national programme that will support artists and SMEs from across the UK to explore the possibilities of immersive technology with a new research & development programme – focusing on skills and the creative potential of the art form (closes 2 December).

Media Cymru Scale Up Round 2: UK registered organisations based in Wales, can apply for a grant funding request between £100,000 and £250,000. The organisations must develop innovative products, services or experiences for the media sector (closes 4 December). 

Round 4 Knowledge Transfer Partnerships 2024/25 (round 4): UK registered academic institutions, RTOs or Catapults can apply for a share of up to £9 million to fund innovation projects with businesses or not for profits (closes 4 December).

EPSRC Open Fellowships: Personal, career development focused awards for individuals with either a PhD and some years of additional research experience or more than four years experience in a relevant field by the start of their fellowship. Individuals must be hosted and supported by an eligible UK research organisation during their fellowship which must focus on research in one or a combination of; discovery science, innovation, instrumentation and technique development, and software engineering (closes 12 December).

EPSRC Open Plus Fellowships: The same criteria as EPSRC Open Fellowships but with an additional focus on enhancing the research environment and culture (closes 12 December).

AHRC responsive mode: Curiosity Award: round six: Flexible awards of up to £100,00 will be available to fund fundamental research projects that lead to new research agendas, networking activity and idea generation, which enables the development of further research opportunities and new research agendas (closes 30 January 2025).

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).

Creative UK: Creative Enterprise Business Builder: Grants to support companies who work in moving image for storytelling, spanning film television, games, animation and immersive 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).

Coming soon

Mindset extended reality (XR): Digital therapeutics for mental health: UK registered businesses can apply for a share of up to £3.7 million for R&D projects that provide digital therapeutics for mental health solutions (opens 4 November).

Media Cymru Greening the Screen Film Fund: A two stage content funding call with a specific focus on the development of innovative climate content (opens November 2024).

Published on 30 October 2024