Women in Innovation Awards 2025/2026 (up to £75,000)

Deadline: February 4, 2026

Applications for the Women in Innovation Awards 2025/2026 are now open. Innovate UK, part of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), is offering up to 60 Women in Innovation Awards to women founders and co-founders of micro, small or medium sized enterprises (SMEs) across the UK. This is subject to a sufficient number of high-quality applications being received.

The aims of this competition are to support Women in Innovation Award winners:

• whose innovation is aligned to one of the following three high growth sectors defined in the Government’s Industrial Strategy; Advanced Manufacturing, Digital and Technologies and Life Sciences
• who have a late-stage start-up with ambitions to grow a scalable business which will involve raising considerable investment in the next 12 to 24 months

Awards

• Successful projects will receive up to £75,000 of grant funding and bespoke business support for 12 months.

Eligibility

To lead a project you must:

• be a woman founder or co-founder within a UK registered micro, small or medium sized enterprise (SME) that is registered on Companies House
• be a resident in the UK
• engage in a minimum of 10 hours of training and development support
• commit to a minimum of four hours of role modelling activity to inspire future generations of women innovators

Your project must:

• have a grant funding request of up to £75,000
• last for 12 months
• start on 1 July 2026
• end on 30 June 2027

Application

You must read the guidance on applying for a competition on the Innovation Funding Service before you start.

Before submitting, it is your responsibility to make sure:

• that all the information provided in the application is correct
• your proposal meets the eligibility and scope criteria
• all sections of the application are marked as complete
• you have completed all assigned sections and accepted the terms and conditions (T&Cs)

The application is split into four sections:

• Project details
• Application questions
• Finances
• Project Impact

Click here to apply

For more information, visit Women in Innovation Awards.