Originally written by Anna Jordan on Small Business
Innovate UK has announced that it’ll be giving an extra £125m to businesses across the country.
The cash will be split in two – £100m of the money will be available as part of the Government’s Smart grants programme with the remaining £25m going to late-stage research and development projects.
Smart grants supplies funding for innovative R&D from early stage feasibility (that includes market research), through to technology or prototype testing and development stages up to (but not including) commercialisation.
Previous grantees include a 3D printing company; a machine learning company which was sold to Twitter; and a company who developed a prototype for screening liquids to identify explosives at airports.
The cash boost comes in addition to a new £3m investment accelerator scheme, the Regional Angel Investment Accelerator Pilots. This hopes to encourage business angels from across the country to channel investment and expertise into innovative small and medium-sized companies.
These companies will also receive Government grants to deliver innovation projects with the potential for longer-term angel involvement and future commercial success.
How do I apply Smart grants?
The Smart grants scheme will have a rolling schedule of competitions throughout the year – the latest round of applications is

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