Win a Share of GBP 20 Million for Addiction Treatment Innovation: Innovate UK Contracts for Pharma, Digital Health, and MedTech (Deadline May 6, 2026)

There are funding calls that quietly encourage “interesting ideas,” and then there are calls that practically grab you by the collar and say: bring us something that could save lives. This Innovate UK opportunity sits firmly in the second category.

Drug and alcohol addiction care is full of brutal contradictions. We have incredible science, brilliant clinicians, and hard-earned harm-reduction knowledge—yet preventable deaths still happen, treatment access still varies wildly, and “recovery support” can too often mean a patchwork of underfunded services and overstretched staff. That’s not a moral failure on the part of patients; it’s a systems problem. And systems problems are exactly where smart technology and well-designed interventions can make an outsized difference.

This call puts GBP 20 million (inclusive of VAT) on the table for organisations developing pharmaceutical, digital, and MedTech tools that improve treatment, support recovery, and prevent harm and deaths linked to drug and alcohol addiction. It’s not a feel-good pot of money for awareness campaigns. It’s aimed at tangible tools, real-world deployment, and progress you can point to without squinting.

One more thing: this is framed as Contracts for Innovation, which changes the vibe. You’re not just asking for a grant; you’re offering to deliver something valuable. Think of it like being hired—competitively—to build a solution that the public sector genuinely needs. That’s a tougher bar, yes. Also: absolutely worth it if you have a credible product roadmap and the stomach for rigorous delivery.

At a Glance: Key Facts You Need Before You Clear Your Calendar

What This Opportunity Offers (And Why It’s Not Just Another Health-Tech Pot)

Let’s translate the official summary into what it really means for you.

First, scale. A GBP 20 million competition (even split across multiple projects) signals that Innovate UK is looking for more than prototypes that look pretty in a slide deck. They’re putting serious weight behind the idea that addiction healthcare needs new tools—tools that can hold up in the messiness of real life: missed appointments, co-morbid mental health needs, unstable housing, stigma, relapse cycles, and overstretched services.

Second, the scope is refreshingly broad: pharmaceutical, digital, and MedTech. That opens the door to everything from medication and adherence innovations to clinical decision support, remote monitoring, digital therapeutics, overdose prevention technologies, triage tools, and data systems that help services act earlier rather than later.

Third, because these are contracts, there’s usually an unspoken but crucial expectation: delivery discipline. You’ll likely need to show that you can manage timelines, governance, risk, compliance, and real-world implementation. If your team is strong on research but weak on shipping, fix that before you apply (more on how below).

Finally, the mission is explicit: improve treatment, recovery, and prevention of harm and deaths. That gives you a clean north star for your application narrative. You’re not building “a platform.” You’re reducing drop-off between referral and treatment. You’re improving retention. You’re preventing overdose. You’re helping clinicians make safer prescribing decisions. You’re creating earlier alerts for risk. You’re supporting continuity of care after discharge. Clear outcomes win.

What Kinds of Projects Fit Best (With Concrete Examples)

Because the call names three big buckets—pharma, digital, MedTech—it helps to think in “use cases” rather than technologies. Reviewers rarely fall in love with tech. They fall in love with tech that solves a specific pain point without creating three new ones.

Here are examples of the kinds of directions that can fit this brief:

A digital tool that reduces deaths might focus on overdose risk identification and fast intervention pathways (for services, peers, or individuals), while being realistic about connectivity, privacy, and crisis conditions.

A MedTech approach might improve monitoring or engagement—say, more reliable ways to track physiological risk, medication adherence support, or tools that help services triage people into the right intensity of support without forcing everyone through the same bottleneck.

A pharmaceutical innovation angle might aim to improve treatment efficacy, reduce side effects that drive dropout, support safer prescribing, or target populations currently underserved by existing medication options.

And hybrid solutions are fair game, as long as you can explain why the combined approach is necessary and not just “because we can.”

Who Should Apply (Eligibility, in Plain English)

To lead a project, you must be an organisation. This can include companies, charities, research organisations, and other eligible entities. The call explicitly notes that organisations based in the EU, EEA, or internationally can lead—so this isn’t one of those opportunities where you spend two weeks reading fine print only to discover you needed a UK postcode and a miracle.

You can apply alone, or you can work with other organisations as subcontractors. That sounds like a small detail, but it matters strategically. If you’re the prime applicant, you’re the accountable party. Subcontractors can bring specialist muscle—clinical partners, UX researchers with lived-experience design chops, regulatory expertise, data security testing, evaluation partners—without turning the project into a coalition that can’t agree on what day it is.

There is one non-negotiable structural point: contracts will be awarded to a single legal entity only. So even if your project relies on half a dozen partners, Innovate UK will sign the contract with one organisation. That means you need the operational capacity to manage subcontractors: statements of work, deliverables, quality control, payment schedules, IP terms, and the polite-but-firm project management that keeps everyone honest.

Real-world fit examples:

• A mid-size digital health company with an existing platform, now adapting it for addiction services with clinical safety, safeguarding, and evaluation built in from day one.
• A MedTech startup that has a validated sensor or device concept and needs funding to run a properly designed pilot with addiction services and a clear path to adoption.
• A pharma-adjacent organisation developing an improvement in formulation, adherence support, or integration with care pathways—paired with strong clinical input and realistic regulatory planning.
• A charity with deep service knowledge that has built something practical (not just a concept) and can contract technical build capacity while staying as the accountable lead.

What You’ll Need to Show (Even If the Listing Doesn’t Spell It Out)

Innovate UK competitions tend to reward applicants who can answer a few uncomfortable questions clearly:

Can you build it? Can you test it ethically and safely? Can real services adopt it without doubling their workload? Can it scale beyond one heroic pilot site? And can you show impact in a way that doesn’t rely on vibes?

If your application can address those points with specifics—sites, users, workflow, safeguarding, training time, clinical governance, data protection, integration plans—you immediately move into the serious pile.

Insider Tips for a Winning Application (The Stuff That Separates Winners From Wishful Thinkers)

1) Make the “harm and deaths” connection explicit, not implied

If your tool reduces admin time, say why that matters clinically. Does it reduce waiting times? Improve follow-up after missed appointments? Increase retention? Help identify high-risk periods (like post-detox, post-release, post-discharge)? Spell out the chain from feature → behaviour → outcome. If you can’t, you don’t have a theory of change; you have a feature list.

2) Treat implementation like a product feature

Addiction services are busy, under pressure, and rightly cautious. If adoption requires three new logins, weekly training, and a champion with 10 spare hours a week, it won’t stick. Strong applications talk about integration with existing workflows, minimal burden, and realistic support. Implementation isn’t an appendix. It’s the main event.

3) Build with lived experience, not just for it

This domain punishes lazy assumptions. The difference between “usable” and “actually used” is often whether people with lived experience shaped the design, language, risk flows, and incentives. Budget for it. Plan for it. Describe how feedback will change the product, not just “be collected.”

4) Show clinical safety and safeguarding thinking early

If you’re dealing with risk scoring, crisis alerts, medication support, or behaviour change, reviewers will look for safety planning: what happens when the tool flags high risk? Who is alerted? How fast? What if no one responds? What if the data is wrong? The best applications name the ugly edge cases and design around them.

5) Be specific about evaluation: outcomes, comparators, and practicality

You don’t need a decade-long RCT to be credible, but you do need more than “users will love it.” Think in measurable outcomes: engagement, retention, adherence, reduced missed appointments, faster time-to-treatment, reduced risky episodes, improved referral completion, fewer near-miss overdoses reported, etc. Also explain how you’ll measure them without turning clinicians into part-time data clerks.

6) Don’t hide the regulatory or compliance work—own it

Digital health and MedTech often trigger questions about medical device classification, clinical risk management, data privacy, and cybersecurity. If you pretend it’s irrelevant, reviewers assume you’re naïve. If you address it calmly with a plan, you look fundable.

7) Use subcontractors to cover your weak spots, but keep the plan clean

Because only one legal entity gets the contract, your subcontractor plan should look intentional: “We are prime because we own the product and delivery. We subcontract clinical evaluation to X, penetration testing to Y, and service design to Z.” Tight roles. Clear deliverables. No chaos.

Application Timeline: A Realistic Plan Backwards From May 6, 2026

The deadline is 6 May 2026 at 11:00 UK time. Treat that as “submit on May 4” and you’ll sleep better.

10–12 weeks before deadline (mid-February to early March 2026): lock the core project concept and confirm your lead organisation is the contracting entity. Line up subcontractors and get draft statements of work. Start your theory of change and map how your tool fits into real care pathways.

8–10 weeks before (March 2026): draft the application narrative and build the delivery plan: milestones, evidence generation, user testing, safeguarding, and technical build. Start budget work early—contracts don’t forgive sloppy numbers.

6–8 weeks before (late March to early April): pressure-test your proposal with outsiders. Not your best friend. Someone who will say, “This is unclear,” and mean it. If you have access to clinicians or service managers, ask them where your plan breaks in practice.

3–5 weeks before (April 2026): finalise subcontractor commitments, tighten your work packages, and make sure your evaluation plan is feasible. This is where you remove anything aspirational that you can’t deliver.

Final 1–2 weeks (late April to early May): polish and submit early. Leave time for portal issues, approvals, and internal sign-off. “We missed the deadline because the upload failed” is not a charming story.

Required Materials: What to Prepare (And How to Make It Less Painful)

The listing points you to the Innovation Funding Service, where the full requirements live. While exact documents can vary by competition, plan to assemble the following types of materials:

• Project description / proposal narrative explaining the problem, your solution, who uses it, and why it will reduce harm and deaths. Write like a human. You’re persuading reviewers, not filing taxes.
• Work plan with milestones and deliverables that shows you know how to ship. Break the project into phases (build, test, iterate, evaluate) with decision points.
• Budget that is consistent with your plan. If your timeline says heavy development, your budget should show engineering effort. If your plan relies on evaluation, budget for it properly.
• Team capability evidence (key staff, relevant experience, and delivery track record). If you’re new to addiction healthcare, show how you’ve brought in domain expertise.
• Subcontractor details if applicable: what they’ll do, why them, and how you’ll manage them under a single prime contract.

Preparation advice: start with a one-page “truth document” you can share internally: the user, the setting, the key metric you’ll improve, and the minimal version you can deliver within the project period. If you can’t summarise it that simply, your project is still fog.

What Makes an Application Stand Out (How Reviewers Think)

Strong applications tend to do three things extremely well.

They show need and fit: not just “addiction is a problem,” but why this specific intervention fits a real gap in care, and why now.

They show credibility: a realistic delivery plan, a team that has built comparable products, and a clear understanding of the clinical and operational setting. If you’re making a digital tool for services, show you’ve actually observed services.

And they show measurable impact: a plan to demonstrate improvements that matter—harm reduction, safety, engagement, continuity of care—without hand-waving.

A reviewer should finish your application thinking, “Even if this needs iteration, these people know what they’re doing and will produce something usable.”

Common Mistakes to Avoid (And How to Fix Them)

Mistake 1: Writing a technology love letter instead of a healthcare solution

Fix: lead with the patient/service problem, then the workflow, then the tool. Your algorithm is not the hero; the outcome is.

Mistake 2: Ignoring what happens when things go wrong

Addiction care involves risk. Tools fail. People relapse. Devices get lost. Alerts are missed. Fix: include failure modes and mitigation. It makes you look competent, not pessimistic.

Mistake 3: Treating evaluation as “we will collect feedback”

Fix: define metrics, time points, and data sources. Explain who collects what, and how you’ll avoid burdening staff.

Mistake 4: Overpromising scale with no adoption path

Fix: name the buyer/user, procurement realities, training needs, integration points, and support model. “NHS-ready” is meaningless unless you explain what readiness looks like.

Mistake 5: Letting partnerships become a tangled mess

Fix: keep one accountable lead and tightly scoped subcontractors. If you need a consortium, structure it like a machine, not a committee.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is this a grant or a contract?

It’s a contract-style innovation funding opportunity (Contracts for Innovation). Practically, that means you’re proposing to deliver defined work and outcomes, with Innovate UK contracting with one legal entity.

Can an organisation outside the UK apply?

Yes. The eligibility summary indicates the lead can be based in the EU, EEA, or internationally. You still need to follow the competition’s detailed rules on the Innovation Funding Service.

Can I apply as an individual clinician or researcher?

Not as the lead. The lead must be an organisation. If you’re an individual with a strong idea, partner with an eligible organisation (a company, charity, university unit, or similar) that can contract and deliver.

Can we collaborate with other organisations?

Yes, but structurally the contract goes to one legal entity. Other organisations can participate as subcontractors, which the lead manages.

What kinds of solutions are eligible?

The call is aimed at pharmaceutical, digital, and MedTech tools that improve treatment, recovery, and prevention of harm and deaths related to drug and alcohol addiction. The full scope and any exclusions will be described in the official competition guidance.

How competitive is it?

Expect it to be competitive. GBP 20 million is sizeable, but addiction healthcare is a priority area and many capable teams will apply. The best defense is specificity: clear user, clear setting, clear outcomes, credible delivery.

What if we have an early-stage prototype but not clinical evidence yet?

That can still be viable if you propose a realistic plan to generate evidence during the project and you’ve handled safety, ethics, and implementation considerations. “We’ll validate later” won’t fly; “Here’s exactly how we’ll validate, with whom, and with what measures” might.

Where do we find the full application requirements?

On the Innovation Funding Service, linked from the official UKRI opportunity page. That’s where you’ll find the definitive rules, forms, and submission steps.

How to Apply (Plus the Next 48 Hours Checklist)

Start by reading the full opportunity guidance, because the Innovation Funding Service details will tell you the precise eligibility rules, assessment criteria, and what the application form demands. Then do something unglamorous but decisive: confirm your lead contracting entity and assign one person to own submission logistics. Great projects lose funding every year because nobody owned the admin.

Next, sketch your project as a delivery plan, not a research proposal. What will exist at the end? Who will have used it? What evidence will you have? Which risks did you reduce? Then pull in subcontractors to cover gaps (clinical evaluation, lived-experience design, regulatory support, security testing) and get written alignment on scope and timelines.

Finally, write the application like a confident adult: plain language, specific outcomes, and no magical thinking.

Ready to apply? Visit the official opportunity page here: https://www.ukri.org/opportunity/contracts-for-innovation-in-drug-and-alcohol-addiction-healthcare/