Dual-use aviation systems and autonomy

UK registered organisations can apply for a share of up to £10 million for the development of aviation technologies and systems that support both civil and military use cases. This funding is from Innovate UK, part of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI).

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In Short

Project Duration Project Duration

8 and 12 months

Project Costs Project Costs

£300,000 - £1.25 million

Application Deadline Application Deadline

3 June 2026

Themes

Your project can focus on one or more of the following themes:

  • swarming technologies in support of strategically important use cases
  • multiplatform operations to safely and efficiently deliver complex aviation operations
  • enabling capabilities that support multiple operators to have visibility of each other and relevant ground based operators
  • heavy lift and vertical take off aircraft systems
  • other themes that support relevant government missions and strategic objectives, and key stakeholder priorities; outline what these are in your application

Examples of enabling capabilities include ground based electronic conspicuity reception, distributed sensing capabilities, integration of existing co-operative and third party data sources. This list is not exhaustive.

Eligibility

Your project must start from 1 September 2026; end by 31 August 2027; carry out all of its project work in the UK, unless specifically stated and pre-approved by Innovate UK; have a maximum of five funded partners; include a UK customer or operator as a partner; you must clearly state in your scope answer which partner meets this requirement. Any funded organisation needs to carry out their project work in the UK and must intend to exploit the project results from or in the UK.

Our Approach

The UK team has a strong track record in securing Innovate UK Contracts for Innovation funding on behalf of its clients, with a full understanding of how a project should be presented to stand the highest chance of success. Based on this extensive experience, through careful project selection and using key insight into how a project should be best positioned, we consistently achieve success rates that are significantly above the typical success rates for UK national schemes.

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