Innovate UK plans to direct its core funding toward three primary areas through 2025: achieving Net Zero, promoting Healthy Living & Agriculture, and advancing Digital & Technology innovations. The objective is to motivate UK enterprises to pursue innovative solutions and attract additional private-sector investments in these key sectors. This strategy complements existing programmes, such as the Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund (ISCF) and the Office for Zero Emission Vehicles (OZEV) led by the Department for Transport.
Priority 1: Net Zero
Innovate UK envisions the UK leading the global transition to net zero, aligning with UKRI’s ambition to build a sustainable, green future.
By 2025, over £1.2 billion will be invested in Net Zero initiatives, with new programmes targeting pivotal themes:
Energy: Create new energy solutions to power transport, heat buildings, and drive industrial processes.
Transport: Transition to electrified and low-emission vehicles while digitising transport systems to cut carbon emissions.
Heating: Phase out reliance on gas for heating in all types of buildings.
Net Zero Communities: Develop innovative products and services that transform living and working spaces into sustainable environments.
Industry Transformation: Advance industries into sustainable, efficient, and responsible systems.
Green Investment: Encourage private financing for environmentally friendly businesses and support their growth.
Resource Resilience: Strengthen supply chains for critical mineral materials.
Priority 2: Healthy Living & Agriculture
Inspired by the Government’s Life Sciences Vision, Innovate UK aims to foster longer, healthier lives and solidify the UK's position as a global leader in life sciences. This focus supports UKRI themes, including health and ageing, tackling infections, sustainability, and improving societal outcomes.
By 2025, Innovate UK will allocate more than £600 million to Healthy Living and Agriculture, driving innovation in:
Healthier Living: Encourage new products and services that improve diets and overall health.
Early Detection: Enable earlier interventions for diseases and address challenges like climate change, food supply disruptions, and global instability.
Disease Prevention: Tackle chronic conditions, infections, and agricultural diseases affecting crops and livestock.
Healthcare Solutions: Advance disease management, innovative medicines, and self-care tools while enhancing medicine production efficiency and food security.
Sustainable Production: Develop sustainable food systems and next-generation pharmaceuticals.
Innovate UK also supports infrastructure for innovation to ensure that, by 2030, the UK becomes the preferred destination for scaling life sciences technologies and manufacturing medicines.
Key to this effort is the expansion of the Biomedical Catalyst (BMC) programme, which offers three funding streams for small and medium enterprises (SMEs):
BMC Accelerator-Feasibility: Supports early-stage businesses in exploring market opportunities and assessing technology viability.
BMC Industry-Led R&D: Provides grants for projects led by industry to drive innovation.
BMC Investor Partnerships: Reduces private investment risks by matching funds for later-stage projects.
Priority 3: Digital and Technologies
Building on national strategies for innovation, artificial intelligence, and cybersecurity, Innovate UK seeks to advance digital and emerging technologies to modernise existing industries, foster new sectors, and address societal and environmental challenges. This supports UKRI’s goal of building a secure and resilient world.
By 2025, Innovate UK plans to invest over £380 million in digital and technology-focused programmes across five areas:
Creative Industries: Catalyse growth and innovation in creative sectors.
AI Integration: Promote the use of Artificial Intelligence in sectors with growth potential but low technological maturity.
Quantum Technologies: Drive the Commercialising Quantum Technologies Challenge as part of the UK National Quantum Technologies Programme.
Professional Services: Enhance the resilience and efficiency of key service industries.
Semiconductors: Position the UK as a global leader in semiconductor technology.