Innovate UK
UK government innovation agency replacing open-competition grants with a portfolio management model from April 2026.
Innovate UK replaced open-competition grants with a DARPA-style Velocity portfolio model in April 2026, then kept running scheduled competitions through the summer, closing its £10m Createch round on 20 July.
Last refreshed: 22 July 2026 · Appears in 1 active topic
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UK Startups and InnovationBackground
In April 2026 Innovate UK published a new operating prospectus that replaced open-competition grant programmes with a portfolio-management model, styled by the agency on DARPA rather than a traditional grant body. Its centrepiece, the Velocity programme, gives dedicated Growth Sector Teams an ongoing, relationship-based mandate to scout deep-tech companies across six priority sectors rather than waiting for applications.
Sector-specific grant competitions kept running alongside the new model through the summer: £93m combined across rail and agritech schemes in May, £27m for offshore-wind testing infrastructure in June, and a rolling calendar of smaller rounds culminating in Createch's £10m close and Advanced Connectivity Technologies' opening in July.
Innovate UK is part of UKRI and has been the UK's principal government-backed business-innovation funder since 2004, supporting more than 200,000 businesses over that period. The shift to active scouting reflects a government view that Britain has been too conservative in identifying and backing national champions before private capital arrives, even as overall UK grant award counts fell to a ten-year low in the same cycle.