National Materials Innovation Programme: Feasibility Studies Round 2

Overview

Innovate UK has launched Round 2 of the National Materials Innovation Programme: Feasibility Studies competition, providing up to £2 million in grant funding to accelerate advanced materials innovation across the UK.

The competition forms part of the UK’s broader Modern Industrial Strategy and aims to strengthen the UK’s global position in advanced materials development by supporting feasibility studies that enable faster industrial adoption of innovative material technologies. The programme focuses on translating cutting-edge materials research into commercially viable applications across key growth-driving sectors.

Projects funded through this competition are expected to support innovation adoption, improve sustainability and contribute towards broader UK net zero targets through advances in materials performance, efficiency and resource utilisation.

Competition Scope

The competition is focused on feasibility studies that support the translation of advanced materials innovations into industrial use cases. Projects must align with one of the programme’s three high-growth opportunity themes or the strategic opportunity area focused on metamaterials and metasurfaces.

Applicants must clearly demonstrate:

• The industrial sector and application area being targeted
• The market opportunity for the technology
• The barriers and challenges to future adoption
• How the innovation contributes towards sustainability and net zero objectives

Projects must also include a signed letter of support from an end user operating within one of the UK’s eight identified growth-driving sectors under the Modern Industrial Strategy.

Priority Themes

Theme 1: Future Healthcare Solutions

Projects may focus on:

• Biocompatible materials for targeted therapies
• Bioelectronic materials for disease prevention, diagnostics and rehabilitation

Theme 2: Sustainable Structural Systems

Innovation areas include:

• Circularity in high-value structural materials
• Surface engineering and tribological solutions
• Structural materials for extreme environments
• Improved deployment and durability of advanced structural materials

Theme 3: Power Electronics and Connectivity

Projects may focus on:

• Wide and ultra-wide bandgap materials
• Materials innovations supporting advanced communication systems including 5G, 6G, optical and RF technologies

Theme 4: Metamaterials and Metasurfaces

The programme is also supporting innovation in:

• Advanced telecommunications
• Electronic-photonic integration
• Energy security and net zero applications
• Healthcare technologies using metamaterials and metasurfaces

Projects within this category must align with recognised definitions developed by the UK metamaterials community and UKRI Metamaterials Network.