National Materials Innovation Programme: Feasibility studies Rd 2

UK registered businesses can apply for a share of up to £2 million for feasibility studies. These studies aim to speed the translation of advanced materials innovations in three prioritised high growth themes and one strategic opportunity theme.

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In Short

Project Duration Project Duration

~ 9 months

Project Cost Project Cost

£50,000 - £100,000

Application Deadline Application Deadline

24 June 2026

Themes

We are seeking material innovation projects for:

  • biocompatible materials: this includes the development, characterisation and validation of biocompatible materials with application specific properties for targeted therapies (medical use)
  • bioelectronic materials: this includes the development, characterisation and validation for medical use of bioelectronic material solutions that enable systems to directly interface with biological systems (in-vivo or in-vitro) to help prevent, diagnose, monitor and treat disease and to support patient rehabilitation

We are seeking material innovation projects for:

  • circularity: this includes circularity in high value structural materials such as speciality grade steels and other performance metals, high performance metallic alloys and fibre reinforced polymer composites
  • surface engineering: this includes materials innovations that enable improved performance of surface protection materials and tribological solutions to extend technology, asset or infrastructure lifetime, and control surface or bulk degradation of structural materials in real world conditions
  • design and deployment: this includes innovations to improve the predictability, design and deployment of high performance structural materials, enabling enhanced resistance to surface or bulk degradation
  • extreme environments: this includes the development and refinement of high performance structural material systems and functional materials for specific extreme and multi-extreme conditions such as thermal and radiation extremes

We are seeking material innovation projects for:

  • wide and ultra-wide bandgap materials: this includes the development and integration of wide and ultra-wide bandgap materials to enable higher temperature and voltage operation over current generation materials
  • advanced connectivity: this includes the development of materials innovations for advanced connectivity and communication systems enabling high efficiency (energy, capacity, coverage and spectrum use) in communication systems including 5G, 6G, optical, RF, IR and RADAR
  • Strategic opportunity theme

We are seeking material innovation projects enabling commercialisation, growth and dual use outcomes of metamaterials and metasurfaces.

  • Proposals in any of these sub-themes should address relevant aspects of the value chain. This could include, for example, demonstrating technology concepts for application and market opportunity, addressing technical barriers or enablers in relevant manufacturing or design and metrology tools and methods to enable efficient adoption.
  • future telecommunications and advanced connectivity: this includes the scaling, commercialisation and application of reconfigurable, intelligent metamaterial and metasurface solutions and related devices and coatings
  • convergent electronic-photonic technologies: this includes innovations in metamaterials and metasurfaces to enable integration with semiconductors and photonics
  • thermal or mechanical metamaterials: this includes thermal or mechanical metamaterials (large or small length scales) to enable applications in, for example, robotics and autonomous systems
  • energy security and net zero: this includes metamaterials or metasurfaces enabling advances in renewable energy sources and energy storage
  • healthcare: this includes metamaterials or metasurfaces enabling advances in healthcare such as biosensors, biomonitoring, imaging, diagnostics, biomedical devices, stimuli responsive systems, advanced prosthetics or acoustic management in clinical settings

Eligibility

Your project must: have a grant funding request of between £50,000 and £100,000; be no more than nine months in duration; start by 1 November 2026 and end by 31 July 2027; provide a letter of support for the project from an end user working within one of the eight growth driving sectors identified in the UK’s Modern Industrial Strategy (IS-8). 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. You can use a previously submitted application to apply for this competition.

Our Approach

The UK team has a strong track record in securing some of the most competitive national and European grants on behalf of its clients, with a full understanding of how a project should be presented to stand the highest chance of success. Each year in the UK alone, we are responsible for the submission of more than 100 funding applications across all sectors and priority areas. 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 more than 5 times the typical success rates for UK national schemes and EU programmes.

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