Accelerating Adoption of Quantum-Enabled Sensing and PNT 2026: £1–£3 Million Innovate UK Grants

Accelerating Adoption of Quantum-Enabled Sensing and PNT 2026: £1–£3 Million Innovate UK Grants

Innovate UK has opened a substantial collaborative grant competition for organisations working to move quantum-enabled sensing and position, navigation and timing (PNT) technologies into real operating environments. The Accelerating adoption of quantum enabled sensing and PNT competition offers a share of up to £14.3 million from UK Research and Innovation. Individual projects must request between £1 million and £3 million in grant funding.

The opportunity is aimed at a specific problem: promising quantum technology often fails to reach customers because of technical, commercial, integration, regulatory, or operational barriers. Innovate UK is looking for projects that identify one or more of those barriers in a defined use case and then demonstrate a credible solution. A proposal should therefore be about adoption as much as invention. A laboratory result without a customer, deployment setting, or practical route through the barrier will be a weak fit.

The competition is open as of this guide’s 20 August 2026 update. The deadline is 16 September 2026 at 11:00am UK time. Successful applicants are due to be notified on 15 October 2026, and projects must start by 1 December 2026. Because the deadline is close, prospective teams should confirm their consortium, project scope, budget, and evidence plan before spending time polishing narrative answers.

Key details

The £14.3 million figure is the competition-wide allocation, not an award promised to every applicant. Innovate UK says it may adjust allocations and may be unable to fund every project, including projects that score highly. The application page gives an indicative success chance of about 30% based on similar competitions; this is not a forecast for this round or a minimum score.

What the grant is designed to fund

The project must focus on a specific quantum-enabled technology, a specific use case, and one or more barriers that prevent customer adoption. The barrier may be technical or commercial. Examples could include proving performance outside a controlled laboratory, integrating a sensor with an existing workflow, showing that a navigation system works when satellite signals are unavailable, or giving an end user enough evidence to buy and operate a new system. Those examples describe the type of reasoning the call invites; applicants must define their own barrier and support it with evidence.

Innovate UK expects the proposed solution to be innovative, competitive, feasible, and commercially viable. Field trials, proof-of-concept demonstrations, and structured engagement with end users should be primary activities alongside necessary technical development. The strongest projects will show why the work changes a real adoption decision rather than simply adding another research milestone.

The technology must be a second-generation quantum technology involving the generation and coherent control of quantum states, including phenomena such as superposition or entanglement. Single-photon generation and detection are also within scope. The published themes are:

• quantum-enabled sensing for healthcare;
• quantum-enabled PNT; and
• quantum-enabled sensing for transport, telecommunications, energy, or defence.

The competition encourages new or significantly extended use cases, co-development with an end user, integration with existing user technology or workflows, and deployment in representative operational settings or difficult environments. Projects that do not identify a specific adoption barrier, duplicate existing work, rely on an existing commercial agreement, or do not use second-generation quantum technology are out of scope.

Who can apply and how the consortium must be formed

This is a collaboration-only competition. The lead organisation must be a UK registered business of any size. An academic institution cannot lead. The consortium must include at least one UK registered SME that claims grant funding in the application.

Other funded partners may be UK registered businesses, academic institutions, charities, not-for-profit organisations, public-sector organisations, or research and technology organisations. The lead invites each partner through the Innovation Funding Service. Once invited, each partner must log in or create an account, enter its own project costs, and complete its own Project Impact questions.

At least two organisations must request funding. The application must explain why they are collaborating and how the collaboration will operate. No single organisation may claim more than 70% of the total project costs, and no single organisation may request more than £3 million in grant funding. Non-funded partners are permitted, including organisations outside the UK, but their costs must come from their own resources. Overseas partners may carry out work in their home countries when they are not claiming grant funding.

Subcontractors are allowed. They may be based in the UK or overseas, but an overseas subcontractor requires a specific explanation of why a UK supplier could not do the work. Innovate UK expects evidence of the UK contractors considered; a lower price alone is not enough. Teams should settle these roles early because the application asks for the contribution and justification of external parties.

Funding limits, eligible costs, and project shape

The grant request must be £1 million to £3 million. Projects must run for 12 to 24 months, start by 1 December 2026, and end by 30 November 2028. Projects start on the first day of a month, and no work may begin until Innovate UK approves the Grant Offer Letter. Any request outside the funding or duration range needs written justification sent to Innovate UK at least 10 working days before the closing date. Without approval, an out-of-range application can be made ineligible.

For commercial or economic work classified as industrial research, the published funding limits are up to 70% of eligible project costs for a micro or small organisation, up to 60% for a medium-sized organisation, and up to 50% for a large organisation. Research organisations doing non-economic activity can share up to 30% of total eligible project costs. Within that share, RTOs, charities, not-for-profits, public-sector organisations, and research organisations can receive up to 100% of eligible costs; academic institutions can receive 80% of full economic costs when they use the required Transparent Approach to Costing method.

These percentages are ceilings, not automatic awards. Each partner must show the costs it will incur, how its contribution will be financed, and why the overall proposal offers value for money. The streamlined subsidy rules also limit the total grant to one enterprise for substantially the same activity or purpose across the relevant three-financial-year period. Teams with existing Innovate UK support should check that limit before finalising the request.

What the application asks for

The Innovation Funding Service divides the submission into project details, application questions, finances, and Project Impact. Project details include the team, project title, start date, duration, research category, a project summary, a public description, and a scope statement. The summary, public description, and scope response can each be up to 400 words. URLs must not be included in application answers; Innovate UK says assessors will not open them.

The scored questions cover the business need or challenge, approach and innovation, team and resources, market awareness, outcomes and route to market, wider impacts, project management, risks, added value, and costs and value for money. Each scored answer can be up to 400 words. Questions about location, animal testing, permits and licences, international collaboration, export licences, trusted research, and the chosen theme are not scored, but they still need complete and accurate answers.

The application permits a two-page PDF appendix for the approach, team, project plan or Gantt chart, and risk register questions. Each appendix must be legible at 100% zoom and no larger than 10MB. Use these appendices to make a compact evidence point visible; do not rely on them to carry an otherwise incomplete answer.

How to prepare a competitive proposal

Start with an adoption sentence that a non-specialist assessor can test: a named user needs a defined capability, but a particular barrier prevents purchase or deployment. Then connect the quantum technology to that barrier. Explain the baseline, the performance or integration gap, the proposed intervention, and the evidence that will show the gap has narrowed.

Build the work plan around decisions rather than a list of experiments. For example, a project might establish a baseline, co-design a system with an end user, perform the required technical development, test it in a representative setting, and produce evidence for procurement or commercial deployment. The milestones should make clear what will be measured, who owns each work package, and what happens if a technical assumption fails.

Give the end user a real role. A letter or statement of interest is useful, but the application should go further: identify the user’s workflow, the decision the user must make, the data or access the user will provide, and the acceptance test that would make the result credible. The call specifically encourages co-development and operational deployment, so a partner that only appears in a support paragraph may not demonstrate enough adoption capability.

Make market claims auditable. Innovate UK asks for target-market size, customer segmentation, supply chains, growth rates, competitors, barriers to entry, the current UK position, and a route to market. Cite the source information in your own working notes and translate it into concise claims in the application, but do not paste URLs into answers. Distinguish an addressable market from the first customer group and explain how the project changes the organisation’s position.

Treat risk as part of the technical argument. Include measurement uncertainty, integration dependencies, data access, permissions, regulatory requirements, supply constraints, security or export-control issues, and end-user availability where relevant. For each material risk, name an owner, an early warning signal, a mitigation, and a fallback. A risk register that merely says “monitor closely” will not show project control.

Finally, explain additionality. The added-value answer must say what public funding changes: faster testing, a new partner, reduced technical risk, a stronger route to market, or work that would otherwise be delayed or reduced. It should also explain other investment or support already considered and why it does not solve the same problem. This is more persuasive than claiming that the grant is generally helpful.

Timeline and submission checklist

The competition opened on 4 August 2026. Innovate UK held an online briefing on 10 August, and the briefing recording and slides are linked from the official application page. Applications close on 16 September at 11:00am UK time. Applicants are due to be notified on 15 October, and funded projects must start by 1 December.

Before submitting, the lead should check the following:

1. The lead is a UK registered business and the consortium contains a funded UK SME.
2. At least two organisations claim funding, no partner exceeds the 70% project-cost limit, and no request exceeds £3 million.
3. The chosen theme is one of the three listed themes, and the technology is second-generation quantum technology.
4. The project identifies a specific adoption barrier and a named or clearly defined use case.
5. The duration, start date, end date, location of work, and UK exploitation plan meet the rules.
6. All partners have accepted their IFS invitations, completed assigned sections, and entered defensible costs.
7. The appendices are complete, legible, within the two-page and 10MB limits, and consistent with the narrative.
8. Every section is marked complete and the application is resubmitted before the deadline.

If an applicant needs accessibility support or application guidance, Innovate UK recommends contacting it at least 15 working days before the closing date. The published contact route is support@iuk.ukri.org or 0300 321 4357 during the stated UK business hours. A team seeking another partner can also contact Innovate UK Business Connect.

Common mistakes to avoid

The most serious mistake is presenting a general quantum research programme and assuming the adoption case will be inferred. The call requires a specific barrier, a specific use case, and a solution that can be tested for feasibility and commercial viability. A second common problem is putting an academic institution in the lead role or omitting a funded UK SME. Both are structural eligibility issues, not writing problems.

Teams should also avoid treating the £14.3 million as a guaranteed pot for every good application, ignoring the partner cost limits, or budgeting the maximum percentage without confirming eligible costs. A project that begins before approval, exceeds the duration range without prior written approval, or includes an inadequately justified overseas subcontractor can create avoidable eligibility and delivery risks.

Do not hide the route to market behind technical language. The application asks who will use or buy the result, why it matters, how the organisation will profit or improve productivity, and how outputs will be protected and exploited. Keep the quantum explanation precise, but give equal attention to customer evidence, operational constraints, and commercial next steps.

Frequently asked questions

Can an academic institution apply by itself?

No. This is a collaboration-only competition, and the lead must be a UK registered business. An academic institution can participate as a funded collaborator, subject to the research participation and cost rules.

Does every project receive up to £3 million?

No. The project request must be between £1 million and £3 million, but the award depends on eligible costs, funding limits, assessment, and the available portfolio budget. The total competition allocation is up to £14.3 million.

Can a non-UK organisation receive grant funding?

The funded project work must be carried out in the UK, mainly spent in the UK, and intended for exploitation in the UK. Non-UK organisations may participate as non-funded partners and work from their home countries, subject to the competition rules.

Is this suitable for an early laboratory idea?

Only if the proposal can connect that idea to a defined adoption barrier, a specific use case, and a credible industrial research and demonstration plan. The call is not a general-purpose discovery grant.

What if the project needs 30 months?

The normal duration is 12 to 24 months. A team that needs to go beyond the stated duration must request written justification at least 10 working days before the deadline and receive approval; otherwise the application can be made ineligible.

Where is the authoritative application information?

Use the Innovation Funding Service competition overview for the application, detailed eligibility, question wording, supporting information, and current deadline. The UKRI opportunity record provides the official public summary. If the portal changes, the live Innovate UK record takes precedence over this guide.

Official links and next steps

The opportunity is a good fit for a UK business that can assemble a genuine delivery team around a quantum-enabled sensor or PNT technology and demonstrate why a real customer cannot adopt it yet. Before applying, confirm the consortium structure, select one theme, define the barrier in measurable terms, and make sure the project can start by 1 December 2026. Then use the official IFS portal to create the application, invite each partner, complete the finance and impact sections, and resubmit every section before 16 September at 11:00am UK time.

Official sources:

• Innovate UK Innovation Funding Service competition 2539
• UKRI opportunity summary