Applications open for BridgeAI Innovation Exchange: Empowering AI Innovation (UK)

Aims

• This competition aims to accelerate AI adoption across the UK, by fostering collaboration between challenge holders in sectors and developers who need data rich environments to advance Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML).

Specific Challenges

• The Bicycle Association:
  • Challenge: Small to medium businesses in the UK cycling industry struggle to access and interpret market intelligence from the Market Data Service (MDS), limiting their ability to make informed decisions. Current dashboard tools are complex, and only larger businesses with analyst resources fully utilise them.
  • Objective: Develop an AI powered solution that simplifies access to MDS insights for non-technical users, allowing them to make data driven decisions on inventory, sales, and supply chain optimisation.
• United Living:
  • Challenge: Manual site reinstatement processes across United Living’s telecoms, oil and gas, and property services projects lead to inefficiencies, delays, and compliance risks. Site assessments, hazard identification, and quality control are labour intensive and prone to human error, increasing project costs and environmental impact.
  • Objective: Develop an AI driven solution that automates site assessments, detects quality defects in real time, and integrates geospatial data to optimise reinstatement processes.
• Sustrans:
  • Challenge: Encouraging people to shift from car use to active travel (walking, cycling, and public transport) is resource intensive and difficult to scale. Identifying the right individuals at key moments of life transition, when they are most open to change, is currently a manual and inefficient process.
  • Objective: Develop an AI powered segmentation and engagement tool to identify individuals likely to switch travel modes and deliver personalised interventions to encourage sustainable transport choices.
• Lichfields:
  • Challenge: England’s planning system is struggling to process the high volume of applications needed to meet government targets of 1.5 million new homes by 2029. A lack of automation, reliance on manual data entry, and fragmented policy frameworks create bottlenecks, increasing legal risks and delays.
  • Objective: Develop an AI powered planning co-pilot that streamlines policy interpretation, automates document analysis, and assists in application assessments.

Funding Information

• They have allocated up to £200,000 to fund innovation projects in this competition.
• Your total project costs will be up to 100% funded, up to the maximum grant of £50,000. Your grant funding request detailed within your application must not exceed £50,000. If your grant funding request exceeds £50,000 then your application will be made ineligible. Your project costs can be higher than your grant funding request.
• You can make reference to any additional voluntary contribution in your application answers. It must not be detailed in the finance section.

Eligible Projects

• Your project must:
  • develop a technically viable AI-driven proof of concept
  • collaborate closely with the challenge holder to ensure effective delivery
  • use real-world or synthetic data for testing and refinement
  • define measurable success metrics such as productivity gains, cost reductions, or efficiency improvements
  • ensure practicality and usability within the challenge holder’s business environment
  • provide a clear scalability plan for future expansion
  • include training, documentation, or guidelines for knowledge transfer
  • comply with sector specific regulations, data governance, and AI ethics standards

Ineligible Projects

• They are not funding projects:
  • that lack a clear AI driven proof of concept or fail to demonstrate technical feasibility
  • without active collaboration with the challenge holder to ensure alignment with business needs
  • that do not use real world or synthetic data for testing, validation, and refinement
  • lacking measurable success metrics, such as productivity gains, cost savings, or efficiency improvements
  • that fail to comply with sector specific regulations, data governance policies, or AI ethics standard
  • that focus purely on theoretical research without a practical, business ready application
  • that do not include training, documentation, or knowledge transfer to support long term use
  • where AI is not central to the solution, or where its role is vague and unproven
  • that lack a structured project plan, with no defined milestones, timelines, or resource allocation
• They cannot fund projects that:
  • involve primary production in fishery and aquaculture
  • involve primary production in agriculture
  • are not allowed under De minimis regulation restrictions
  • are not eligible to receive Minimal Financial Assistance
  • are dependent on export performance, for example, giving an award to a baker on the condition that they export a certain quantity of bread to another country
  • are dependent on domestic inputs usage, for example, if they give an award to a baker on the condition that they use 50% UK flour in their product

Eligibility Criteria

• Your project:
  • Your project must:
    • have a grant funding request between £25,000 and £50,000
    • last between three months and five months
    • carry out its project work in the UK
    • intend to exploit the results from or in the UK
    • start by 1 September 2025
    • end by 28 February 2026
• Lead organization:
  • To lead a project your organisation must be either a UK registered small or medium sized enterprise (SME), or research organisation.

For more information, visit Innovate UK.