Deadline Date: September 03, 2026
The UK-Switzerland Collaborative Research and Development (CR&D) Round 3 programme supports joint innovation projects between UK and Swiss organisations to develop commercially viable technologies through international research and development collaboration.
The programme focuses on enhancing UK-Switzerland collaboration and innovation capabilities in the emerging technology fields of Semiconductors, Life Sciences, and Engineering Biology. Proposals must address innovation within one of these technology areas while demonstrating a clear pathway towards the development and delivery of new innovations and applications across a broad range of sectors.
Innovate UK, part of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), together with Innosuisse, the Swiss Innovation Authority, will jointly support eligible collaborative projects. Innovate UK will invest up to £3 million, while Innosuisse will contribute at least CHF 3 million towards the Swiss components of successful projects. Each proposal must be independently selected by both funding organisations to receive support.
UK registered businesses must submit their applications through the Innovation Funding Service (IFS) portal, while Swiss implementation partners must apply separately through the equivalent Innosuisse programme. Swiss partners will receive funding directly from Innosuisse and will not receive funding from Innovate UK.
Eligible UK projects may request grant funding of up to £450,000 and must run for a period of between 18 and 36 months.
Each consortium must include at least one UK registered micro, small or medium-sized enterprise (SME), at least one independent Swiss registered business that is not linked to the UK partners, and one research institute from either the UK or Switzerland. The requirement for a research institute is waived if the Swiss applicant is an individual start-up that is pre-market and employs fewer than 50 full-time equivalent staff.
The majority of project activities must be undertaken in the UK and Switzerland, with UK partners carrying out most of their work within the UK, intending to exploit the project outcomes in or from the UK, and spending the majority of the awarded funding within the UK. Projects must demonstrate balanced technological contributions from participants in both countries, with no single country or partner accounting for more than 70% of the total project cost or person months devoted to the project.
For more information, visit GOV.UK.
