Sovereign AI

This competition aims to demonstrate Proof of Concept of AI technologies with state of the art performance.

UK registered businesses can apply for a share of up to £1.6 million for the development of Proof of Concept demonstrators of AI technologies with the state of the art performance in areas of strategic importance to the UK.  

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Sovereign AI in short

Project Costs Project Costs

£50,000 - £120,000

Project Duration Project Duration

Between 1 and 3 months

Project Type Project Type

Projects must deliver technologies at TRL3 to TRL5.

Beneficiaries Beneficiaries

Single applicant – UK registered organisation of any size.

Funding Rate Funding Rate

Feasibility studies & Industrial Research projects: 70% micro/small organisations, 60% medium sized organisations, 50% large organisations.

Application Deadline Application Deadline

10 September 2025, 11am

Sovereign AI Themes

Projects must focus on one or more of the following:

Including embodied AI, sensory motor grounded systems, safe by design architectures, multi agent systems, agentic AI, novel architectures including neuro symbolic, neuromorphic and biologically inspired models.

Material discovery and property prediction, generative and physics-MIL hybrid models, automated workflows and closed loop discovery.

including genomics and multi omics models for medicines discovery, foundational patient level health models, foundational bioscience models, scalable and secure monitoring and evaluation of health AI. 

including real time and near real time systems, distributed and decentralised systems, specialised models for critical infrastructure management and cybersecurity. 

AI accelerator chips, neuromorphic hardware, optical backplanes. 

Is your project eligible for funding?

  • Single applicant UK registered organisations of any size can apply.
  • Subcontractors must be in the UK and subcontracting costs are limited to 20% of total project costs.
  • Projects of 1-3 months duration, TRL3-5, and project costs between £50,000 –  £120,000.
  • Projects must include R&D, deliver measurable objectives and be able to scale in principle. 
  • Literature review studies are ineligible for this funding. 

How can PNO UK help with your application?

We specialise in guiding organisations through the intricacies of the funding landscape. Our team is ready to assist you to scope a project and develop a compelling proposal, working with you on every stage of the process.

A few of our Sovereign AI experts

Start your Sovereign AI application

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