305 live UK business funding opportunities

Innovate UK

Periodic programme giving businesses funded access to national measurement laboratories (NPL, LGC, NEL) to solve productivity, quality and measurement problems no commercial lab can crack.

Department for Education

For non-levy employers, government pays 95% of apprenticeship training costs — and 100% for small employers taking on eligible young apprentices — plus £1,000 incentive payments in some cases.

British Business Bank

Successor to the Recovery Loan Scheme: government-backed guarantee enabling term loans, overdrafts and asset finance up to £2m for smaller UK businesses through accredited lenders.

Department for Energy Security and Net Zero

The Boiler Upgrade Scheme provides grants to encourage property owners to replace existing fossil fuel heating with more efficient, low carbon heating systems including air source heat pumps, ground source heat pumps and, in limited circumstances, biomass boilers. You can get:£7,500 off the cost and installation of an air source heat pump£7,500 off the cost and installation of a ground source heat pump£5,000 off the cost and installation of a biomass boilerThese grants help property owners overc

West Midlands Combined Authority

Regional business-support service for West Midlands SMEs with funded advice and periodic capital/revenue grant programmes (historically £2.5k-£100k waves) for growth, decarbonisation and digital projects.

Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

Large capital grants (typically £25,000-£500,000) towards robotics, automation, slurry acidification and rooftop solar for farm businesses in England.

Development Bank of Wales

Flexible loans (and equity) from £1,000 to £10m for Welsh businesses — micro loans, growth capital, property and succession finance with patient terms.

Greater Manchester Combined Authority / Growth Company

Fully funded advice plus periodic match-funded grants (commonly £1k-£10k waves) for Greater Manchester SMEs covering growth, digital, net-zero and manufacturing improvement.

Department for Science, Innovation and Technology

Vouchers worth up to £4,500 for SMEs (and homes) in eligible rural areas to cover the cost of installing gigabit-capable broadband.

Department for Business and Trade

90%-subsidised 12-week mini-MBA for senior leaders of SMEs, delivered by accredited business schools with 1:1 mentoring — participant pays only £750.

HM Revenue & Customs

Reduces corporation tax to an effective 10% on profits attributable to patented inventions and certain other IP rights.

HM Revenue & Customs

Corporation tax relief on qualifying R&D expenditure. Merged scheme gives a 20% above-the-line credit (~15-16% net); loss-making R&D-intensive SMEs can claim enhanced support (ERIS) worth up to ~27p per £1 of qualifying spend.

UK Research and Innovation

Collaborative R&D grants under EU Horizon Europe calls, open to UK organisations as associated-country participants — typically 60-100% funded consortium projects.

Innovate UK

Rolling portfolio of themed R&D grant competitions for UK businesses, typically funding 25-70% of project costs across feasibility, industrial research and experimental development.

Innovate UK

Below-market loans of £100,000-£2m for SMEs commercialising late-stage R&D — interest partly deferred during the R&D phase.

Invest Northern Ireland

Supports Northern Ireland businesses at every R&D stage, from feasibility to development — typical intervention 40-50% for SMEs.

Innovate UK

Funds a high-calibre graduate (Associate) plus academic team embedded in your business for 12-36 months to deliver a strategic innovation project. SMEs typically pay ~33% of project costs.

Made Smarter (North West)

Match-funded grants (typically up to £20k, 50% intervention) plus fully funded digital transformation advice for manufacturing SMEs adopting industrial digital technologies (robotics, IIoT, data & AI, additive).

Made Smarter (regional programmes)

Regional Made Smarter programmes (West Midlands, Yorkshire & Humber, North East, East Midlands and others) offering funded digital advice and match-funded technology grants for manufacturing SMEs; amounts vary by region.

Office for Zero Emission Vehicles

The Workplace Charging Scheme provides support for organisations towards the cost of installing up to 40 electric vehicle chargepoint sockets at their sites.The scheme covers up to 75% of the total costs of the purchase and installation of EV chargepoints (including VAT), capped at a maximum of:£500 per socket40 sockets across all sites per applicant – for instance, if you want to install them at 40 sites, you will have 1 socket available per siteIt is open to eligible: businessescharities publi

Department for Transport

Point-of-sale discount on eligible new electric vans (up to £2,500 small / £5,000 large vans) and significantly more for trucks; applied by the dealer.

Innovate UK

100%-funded development contracts (not grants requiring match) where public bodies pay businesses to solve specific challenges — typically £50k-£100k Phase 1, up to £1m Phase 2.

Scottish Enterprise

Discretionary capital/job-creation grants for projects in Scottish assisted areas that create or safeguard jobs — award scales with capex and employment impact.

Department for Education

Flexible 16-week technical training (digital, engineering, construction, green skills) where employers contribute only 10% (SMEs) or 30% (large) of the cost to upskill existing staff.