Deadline: 11-Jun-25
UK registered organisations can apply for the development of next steps in integrated Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems (RPAS) usage.
Aims
- The aim of this competition is to accelerate the development of the UK drone sector, creating growth and meeting the objectives of Department for Transport (DfT) Future of Flight Action Plan.
Specific Themes
- Your project must focus on one or more of the following:
- use cases that deliver economic and social benefit
- regulatory areas; Electronic Conspicuity (EC), Detect and Avoid (DAA), Multiple Simultaneous Operations (MSO), Uncrewed Traffic Management (UTM) or Atypical Air environments (AAE)
Research Categories
- They will fund industrial research projects and experimental development projects, as defined in the guidance on categories of research.
Funding Information
- Up to £3 million has been allocated to fund innovation projects in this competition. Funding will be in the form of a grant.
- Your project’s total eligible grant funding request must be between £250,000 and £500,000.
Ineligible Projects
- They are not funding projects that:
- have no engagement with an end user or operator
- are reliant on any regulatory approvals that are not either already granted or obtainable by a clear and supported route through the regulator within the project timeline
- are developing advances that relate to regulatory areas which are not currently being resourced by the regulator
- are repetitions of work already carried out within industry
- are a development of systems or sub-systems for application to passenger aircraft
- are developing alternative propulsion systems or fuels such as hydrogen fuel cells, hydrogen combustion or sustainable aviation fuels (SAF)
- are developing batteries or charging systems for electric aircraft
- focus solely on defence, space applications or High Altitude Platform Stations (HAPS)
- They cannot fund projects that are:
- dependent on export performance, for example, giving a subsidy to a baker on the condition that it exports a certain quantity of bread to another country
- dependent on domestic inputs usage, for example, giving a subsidy to a baker on the condition that it uses 50% UK flour in their product
Eligibility Criteria
- Your project must:
- last between six and seven months
- carry out all of its project work in the UK, unless specifically stated and pre-approved by Innovate UK
- intend to exploit the results from or in the UK
- start on 1 September 2025
- end by 31 March 2026
- To lead a project your organisation must:
- be a UK registered business of any size
- collaborate with other UK registered organisations
- involve at least one micro, small or medium sized enterprise (SME)
- To collaborate with the lead, your organisation must be one of the following UK registered:
- business of any size
- academic institution
- charity
- not for profit
- public sector organisation
- research and technology organisation (RTO)
- To be an eligible collaboration, the lead and at least one other organisation must:
- apply for funding when entering their costs into the application
- include rationale for the collaboration and describe the structure in your application
- ensure any one partner does not account for more than 70% of the total grant requested
For more information, visit GOV.UK.