Updated 31 October 2026
Grants and funding for research organisations and science businesses
Schemes open today that name research organisations and science businesses in their published criteria, or fund the kind of work research organisations and science businesses do. Read from the funders' own pages and re-checked daily.
Research funding in the UK splits into two things that are easy to confuse. Research grants are competitive awards you apply for before the work, usually with a deadline and a panel. R&D tax relief is claimed after the work, through your accounts, and is not competitive at all. A company doing qualifying work can often use both, and the type is shown against every scheme below so you can tell which is which.
Eligibility is the part that catches people out. Some schemes are open only to universities and research institutes; others are open only to companies; a large number require a collaboration between the two. Each scheme here keeps the sentence from the funder's own page that sets the rule, so you can see who it is actually for before spending a day on an application.
Award sizes vary by orders of magnitude, from a few thousand pounds of feasibility funding to multi-year programme grants. The amount and the closing date are shown against each scheme, and the list is re-checked daily, so nothing here is open because a page was written a year ago and never revisited.
5 open today. Whether your business qualifies for any of them depends on your legal form, your size, your age and where you are, which is what the check does.
Which of these can you actually get?
Enter your company number. We read each funder’s own page against your business and tell you which fit, which do not, and why.
Check my businessWhat kind of funding these are
- Loans
- 2
- Grants
- 1
- In-kind and free support
- 1
- Tax reliefs
- 1
A grant is money you keep. A tax relief lowers a bill rather than arriving as cash. In-kind support is training, credits or expert time instead of money. Loans and equity have to be paid back or bought back, and are worth treating as a different decision entirely.
Who can apply
Every one of these has published criteria. Across the 5, the conditions that come up most are that you must:
- be under a headcount limit2 of 5
- be at a particular stage1 of 5
- be a particular kind of organisation1 of 5
- be under a turnover limit1 of 5
Which of them you meet depends on your legal form, size, age and where you are registered. That is what the check reads for you, scheme by scheme, and it quotes the funder’s own sentence beside each answer.
What the money is for
- Research and development 3
- Innovation and new products 2
- Staff recruitment 2
- Business growth 2
- Net zero and decarbonisation 1
- Premises 1
- Property improvements 1
- Staff training 1
How to apply
You apply to the funder, never to us. Every scheme above links straight to its own page, and that page is the only thing that decides whether you get it.
Before you spend an afternoon on a form, three things are worth checking: that you are inside the deadline — 1 of these close within the month; that you have not already started or paid for the work, which a great many grants refuse; and that you can fund the share they expect you to.
Most refusals are not close calls. They are a rule the applicant never saw, in a sentence on the funder’s own page.
Where else to look
The government publishes its own list, free, and you should use it. What is above is wider than that list, because it also holds council schemes, tax reliefs and in-kind support that Find a Grant does not carry — but if you only want a list, start there.
Find a grant, on GOV.UKThe 5 open today
Loan
Midlands Engine Investment Fund II – Debt Fund
Department for Business and Trade
Up to£2,000,000
A flexible debt fund providing loans between £100,000 and £2 million to established SMEs trading business to business across the East and West Midlands, to support growth plans such as working capital, asset purchase, product development, new staff and marketing. It cannot be used to refinance existing debt.
RollingThe funder’s page
Grant
National Space Innovation Programme - Call 3
UK Space Agency
Up to£2,000,000
A co-funded grant programme from the UK Space Agency supporting UK-based space R&D projects, split into two strands: Kick Starter for early-stage disruptive innovation (TRL 1-4) and Major Projects for near-commercial work (TRL 5-9). Up to £20 million is available across roughly 15-30 grants, awarded through a two-stage outline-then-full-proposal process.
Closes 12 November 2026The funder’s page
Loan
Regional Growth Loan Scheme - East of England
The FSE Group
Up to£500,000
A loan scheme run by The FSE Group offering growth finance to established SMEs across the East of England. Loans range from £50,000 to £500,000 for businesses with turnover of at least £100,000 and a clear plan for significant growth.
RollingThe funder’s page
In-kind support
Isambard-AI and Dawn AIRR supercomputers: Gateway route
UK Research and Innovation
A rolling, no-deadline route giving UK researchers and organisations, including businesses of any size, up to 10,000 GPU hours of compute time on the Isambard-AI and Dawn supercomputers for AI-related research and development. It provides compute resource rather than cash, and businesses must fund the remaining share of project costs themselves.
RollingThe funder’s page
Tax relief
UK Investment Zones Tax Site Incentives
Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade
Businesses investing in one of 13 UK Investment Zones get access to a 10-year package of tax reliefs on designated sites plus support for skills, infrastructure and innovation. On designated tax sites this includes full Stamp Duty Land Tax relief, zero-rate employer National Insurance on new employees' earnings up to £25,000 a year for 36 months, a 100% first-year capital allowance on plant and machinery, an enhanced structures and buildings allowance, and full business rates relief for eligible new or expanding businesses.
RollingThe funder’s page