The UK’s creative technology sector just got a fresh £10 million pot, and only SMEs can lead the bids. Innovate UK opened Next Wave: Breakthrough Wave 1 on 23 June 2026, and the window closes 49 working days later. If you build digital products that sit between the creative industries and one of the government’s eight Frontier sectors, this one is aimed squarely at you.
Scheme: Innovate UK Next Wave: Breakthrough Wave 1
Funding: Share of £10 million, up to £3 million per enterprise
Deadline: 11:00am UK time, Monday 11 August 2026
Eligibility: UK-registered SME leading a single or collaborative Createch project linked to a Frontier industry
What it is
Next Wave: Breakthrough Wave 1 is a single-stage industrial research competition run by Innovate UK, the UK government’s innovation agency. It funds early-stage Createch projects, meaning digital platforms and services that bring creative-industry tools into one of the eight Frontier industries named in the 2025 UK Industrial Strategy. Those are advanced manufacturing, clean energy, creative industries, defence, digital and technologies, financial services, life sciences, and professional and business services. The point is to push ideas beyond proof of concept, prove they work in the real market, and de-risk follow-on investment.
Who qualifies
You must be a UK-registered SME, that is, a business with fewer than 250 employees and turnover under €50 million, to lead an application. You can apply alone or as the lead of a collaborative project that includes other SMEs, large businesses, or research organisations. Large companies cannot lead. The project must focus on commercial Createch innovation tied to one of the Frontier industries above. Health, education, construction, tourism, and manufacturing applications that do not have a clear Frontier industry link will be ruled out of scope. No single partner can claim more than 70% of total eligible project costs.
How much is available
The total fund is £10 million. The cap for any single enterprise is £3 million, but the practical ceiling sits lower because total eligible project costs must fall between £100,000 and £500,000. Funding intensity follows standard subsidy control rules: micro and small businesses can claim up to 70% of eligible costs for industrial research, medium businesses up to 60%, and large business partners up to 50%. On a £400,000 project, a small SME lead could pull in £280,000 in grant funding and contribute £120,000 in cash or in-kind support.
What you need to apply
- An Innovate UK Funding Service account set up before you start drafting
- A clear, costed project plan with a budget between £100,000 and £500,000
- Evidence the innovation goes beyond what is already on the market
- A route to market that gets a product or service live within 12 months of project end
- Letters of support from collaborators if your bid is a consortium
- A finance form showing your management accounts, bank balance, and three-year forecast
- A signed declaration that the project would not happen at the same pace without grant support
The deadline
Applications close at 11:00am UK time on Monday 11 August 2026. The competition opened on 23 June 2026, so you have around seven weeks of writing time. Successful projects are expected to start on 1 December 2026 and run for between 6 and 18 months. There is no two-stage process, so a weak first draft does not get another chance.
Our take
Innovate UK competitions are competitive. Published success rates have historically sat between 10% and 20%, and Createch is a fashionable space, so a flood of bids is likely. This works best if you already have a working prototype, named customers willing to test it, and a finance lead who can model the cash gap between project spend and the quarterly grant claims. If you are still validating your idea, a Defra round or a regional Combined Authority grant may suit you better. If you fit the brief and can spare 80 hours on a bid, it is worth the swing.
How to apply
Apply through the Innovation Funding Service. Questions go to support@iuk.ukri.org or 0300 321 4357. Innovate UK Business Connect has also run a pre-application briefing recorded on their site.
Grant claims arrive quarterly in arrears, which means you fund the work first and recover the cash later. The finance form in the Innovate UK application asks for the exact numbers a lender or investor would want, and writing it cold is painful. FinanceMOT pulls a Liquidity, Profitability, Efficiency, and Solvency reading from your live accounts and produces a downloadable management report and executive summary that map straight onto the form. It also surfaces the KPI signals reviewers actually probe, like debtor days and cash runway.
