Sovereign AI Strategic Assets Grants Programme

The Sovereign AI Strategic Assets Grants Programme published its full public eligibility criteria on 16 May 2026, opening a rolling expression-of-interest process that closes on 5 June 2026 . The programme is open to UK-registered companies, charities, universities and research organisations. Stage 2 requires a minimum score of 4 out of 5 on each of four dimensions, a threshold closer to ARIA's gating than to Innovate UK's traditional grant evaluation model. The four-dimensional minimum-floor structure means weakness in one area cannot be compensated by strength in another, implying DSIT wants recipients who are demonstrably strong across all four vectors.

The grants programme is the SAIU's first public-criteria intake, following a closed first cohort of seven companies selected through an undisclosed process that attracted cross-party parliamentary scrutiny in May 2026. Publishing scored criteria with minimum thresholds creates a paper trail that makes first refusals under the programme judicially reviewable, constraining DSIT's ability to apply informal discretion in the way it did for the first cohort. The 5 June deadline arrives four days before London Tech Week opens on 9-12 June, where Liz Kendall has pre-announced the AI Hardware Plan; the sequencing suggests DSIT wants to announce a first grants cohort at Tech Week to anchor the Hardware Plan launch.

The programme runs alongside ARIA's £100m Scaling Compute programme, including a £50m Scaling Inference Lab, without published additionality guidance on whether SAIU grant recipients can simultaneously access ARIA compute. Priority targets, reading the criteria document closely, are SRAM and in-memory compute startups with defence and dual-use applications; the shape is consistent with the Fractile profile that closed its Series B outside the SAIU the same week .