Funding Competition: New Innovators in Communication Networks 2024 (UK)

This funding is from the Telecoms Technology Missions Fund programme. In addition to the grant support, you will be offered tailored business support delivered by Innovate UK Business Growth.

The aim of this competition is to provide a package of targeted support to enable ambitious UK registered micro and small businesses to develop affordable, adoptable and investable innovations in the domain of communication networks.

Specific Themes

Your project must focus on one or more of the following:

• optimisation of networks utilising technology such as artificial intelligence (AI) or data analytics to improve performance, reduce energy
• software defined networks, for example, moving network functionality to platforms such as the Cloud
• deployment and use of Open Standards within networks to advance defined use cases
• non-terrestrial networking technologies
• neutral host and or mesh networking technologies

Project Size

• Your project’s total costs and grant funding request must be between £25,000 and £50,000.

Projects they will not fund

They are not funding projects that:

• do not meet the competition eligibility or scope requirements
• purely result in reports, academic papers or similar
• do not evidence potential for the proposed innovation to lead to significant and positive economic or societal impact
• do not evidence value for money

Who can apply?

• Your project
  • Your project must:
    • have total project costs that equal your grant funding request
    • start by 1 October 2024
    • end by 31 March 2025
    • last between three and six months in duration
    • carry out its project work in the UK
    • intend to exploit the results from or in the UK
  • Under current restrictions, this competition will not fund any procurement, commercial, business development or supply chain activity with any Russian or Belarusian entity as lead, partner or subcontractor. This includes any goods or services originating from a Russian or Belarusian source.
• Lead organisation
  • To lead a project your organisation must be a UK registered micro or small business.
  • If your business has been funded directly by Innovate UK previously, you are not eligible to apply for this competition. If however you have received funding directly from Innovate UK Business Growth (previously Innovate UK EDGE) or a Catapult scheme, you are still eligible to apply for this competition.
  • Businesses with directors who have previously received a grant or Innovation Loan from Innovate UK as part of a different company, are eligible to apply but will be considered on a case by case basis.
• Subcontractors
  • Subcontractors are allowed in this competition.
  • Subcontractors can be from anywhere in the UK and you must select them through your usual procurement process.
  • You can use subcontractors from overseas but must make the case in your application as to why you could not use suppliers from the UK.
  • You must also provide a detailed rationale, evidence of the potential UK contractors you approached and the reasons why they were unable to work with you.
  • They expect all subcontractor costs to be justified and appropriate to the total eligible project costs. They will not accept a cheaper cost as a sufficient reason to use an overseas subcontractor.
• Number of applications
  • An eligible UK business can submit one application only. They will only award grant funding to one project per business.
• Use of animals in research and innovation
  • Innovate UK expects and supports the provision and safeguarding of welfare standards for animals used in research and innovation, according to best practice and up to date guidance.

For more information, visit Innovate UK.