Innovate UK opens three £5m BridgeAI calls for AI deployment

Innovate UK opens three £5m BridgeAI calls for AI deployment

13 October 2026: Innovate UK will open three grant competitions on 21 October 2026 at 9:30am UK time for UK AI companies that already have a working product and a larger organisation ready to deploy it. Each competition has £5 million, each project asks for £100,000 to £200,000, and all three close on 8 December 2026 at 11:00am. They form Phase 1 of the BridgeAI Deployment Catalyst, for which Innovate UK expects to make up to £52 million available across three phases.

Not yet independently verified. Innovate UK says funding for this phase and the later ones is subject to UKRI approving the full business case; the Phase 2 and Phase 3 amounts are indicative. We will update this when it can be confirmed, and remove this note.

Three competitions, one set of rules

The competitions differ only in what the AI does:

• AI for Operational Systems: solutions that "perform, control or coordinate operational activity".
• AI for Decision Critical Systems: solutions that support consequential judgements, recommendations or decisions.
• AI for Assurance and Compliance: solutions that monitor, test, verify or evidence compliance with requirements, standards or controls.

In each, a project must last three to five months, start by 1 April 2027 and end by 31 August 2027. Towards the end, the consortium is expected to demonstrate the solution on representative deployer data and systems in a representative operational environment.

Who has to be in the consortium

The lead must be a UK-registered micro, small or medium-sized enterprise with an AI or machine learning solution at technology readiness level 5 to 6: a functioning minimum viable product with evidence of development beyond concept. The lead accounts for 40% to 70% of total eligible costs, and academic institutions cannot lead.

Every application must include one deployer, a UK-registered medium or large business or a UK public sector organisation, operating in a sector named in the UK Industrial Strategy 2025: health and life sciences, financial services, advanced manufacturing, clean energy industries, defence, professional and business services, or creative industries. One further partner is allowed, so a consortium has two or three members.

For an AI startup, the hard part is the deployer. Innovate UK wants the deployer to commit to later phases if invited, so a pilot customer that only wants a free trial will not carry the bid.

What comes after Phase 1

Phase 1 is for defining and evidencing the deployment case: readiness on both sides, and the technical, operational, commercial, assurance and regulatory barriers. Phase 2, of about six months, prepares deployment, with an indicative maximum of £1 million per consortium. Phase 3, of about 22 months, funds live deployment with the first deployer and replication at two more organisations, with indicative funding of up to £2 million per consortium. Both later phases are expected to need co-investment from the consortium, and Phase 3 needs committed co-investment from UK-based investors.

The assurance and compliance strand sits close to the EU's new AI Act quality standard: a UK supplier whose tool tests or evidences AI controls could use Phase 1 to build the evidence a regulated deployer would need.

Sources

• UKRI funding finder: BridgeAI Deployment Catalyst, AI for operational systems, 13 October 2026
• UKRI funding finder: BridgeAI Deployment Catalyst, AI for decision critical systems, 13 October 2026
• Innovation Funding Service: BridgeAI Deployment Catalyst, AI for Assurance and Compliance, competition 2597 (read 2026-10-19), 19 October 2026
• Innovation Funding Service: BridgeAI Deployment Catalyst, AI for Decision Critical Systems, competition 2598 (read 2026-10-19), 19 October 2026
• Innovation Funding Service: BridgeAI Deployment Catalyst, AI for Operational Systems, competition 2599 (read 2026-10-19), 19 October 2026