UK-Netherlands Co-Innovation for Quantum Technology 2026

Eligibility summary: Your project Who can apply Your project Your project must: have a grant funding request of between £250,000 and £400,000 last between 18 and 24 months not start before 1 June 2027 end by 30 May 2029 The majority of the project work must be undertaken in the UK and Netherlands. UK project partners must carry out the majority of their project work in the UK and intend to exploit the results from or in the UK and spend most of the funding within the UK. The consortium must include at least one business registered in Netherlands that is a separate legal entity and not linked to the UK partners. This is to ensure that projects encourage genuine international collaboration, not internal company research. Linked companies are considered a single entity under the parent company. Your project must demonstrate a balanced technological contribution by the participants from both countries and must be equally significant to all participants. No one country or project partner can represent more than 70% of the total project cost. Your proposal must demonstrate a clear intention to commercially exploit the results of the project domestically or globally. You must only include eligible project costs in your application. See our overview of eligible project costs . Roles and terminology There must be a ‘project lead’ and this can be either an eligible UK or Netherlands based organisation. The project lead is responsible for managing the entire project. The ‘lead applicant’, is the organisation that starts the application on the Innovation Funding Service. This must be a UK organisation. UK lead organisation To start an application on the Innovation Funding Service (IFS), your organisation must be a UK registered business of any size. You must collaborate with at least one Netherlands registered for-profit business applying to the Netherlands Enterprise Agency (RVO) programme which must be a separate legal entity, not linked to the UK partners. Netherlands based organisations can be a project lead but cannot start an application on IFS. More information on the different types of UK organisations can be found in our Funding rules . UK Project team To collaborate with the lead, your organisation must be one of the following UK registered: business of any size academic institution charity not for profit public sector organisation research and technology organisation (RTO) Only UK registered partners must be listed in the Project Partner section of your application on the Innovation Funding Service (IFS). Your Netherlands based partner will not receive any of this UK competition funding. Netherlands based partners will be funded by the Netherlands Enterprise Agency (RVO) programme following a parallel application. Each organisation in your consortium will receive funding from its respective national funding body. Each UK partner organisation must be invited into IFS by the lead to collaborate on a project. Once accepted, partners will be asked to login or to create an account and enter their own project costs into IFS. To be an eligible collaboration: the lead and at least one other organisation must request funding you must explain why you’re collaborating and how the collaboration will work no single organisation can claim more than 70% of the total project costs Non-funded partners Your project can include organisations who do not claim any funding for their work on the project. Their costs will be covered from their own resources. These can include UK, EU and other non-UK organisations. Non-UK partners are permitted to carry out project work from within their home countries and exploit the results outside the UK. Where non-funded partners have been invited to the application on IFS, their costs will count towards the total eligible project costs. Netherlands based partners Netherlands based partners do not need to be invited into Innovate UK’s application on the Innovation Funding Service. Netherlands based partners will be funded by Netherlands Enterprise Agency (RVO) programme following a parallel application. Subcontractors Subcontractors are allowed in this competition, but they are limited to no more than 20% of the total eligible costs of the UK participation. Subcontractors can be from anywhere in the UK and you must select them through your usual procurement process. You can use subcontractors from other countries but must make the case in your application as to why you could not use subcontractors from the countries providing grant funding for the project. You must provide a detailed rationale, evidence of the potential UK or Netherlands based contractors you approached and the reasons why they were unable to work with you. We will not accept a cheaper cost as a sufficient reason to use a subcontractor from a third country. All subcontractor costs must be justified and appropriate to the total eligible project costs. Number of applications An eligible organisation can only lead on one application. Any further applications by the same organisation as lead will be made ineligible. An eligible organisation that is leading an application can be included as a collaborator in a further two applications and if not leading, can collaborate in any number of applications. Sanctions This competition will not fund you or provide any financial benefit to any individual or entities directly or indirectly involved with you, which would expose Innovate UK or any direct or indirect beneficiary of funding from Innovate UK to UK Sanctions . For example, through any procurement, commercial, business development or supply chain activity with any entity as lead, partner or subcontractor related to these countries, administrations and terrorist groups . Use of animals in research and innovation Innovate UK expects and supports the provision and safeguarding of welfare standards for animals used in research and innovation, according to best practice and up to date guidance. Applicants must ensure that all of the proposed work within projects, both in the UK and internationally, will comply with the UKRI guidance on the use of animals in research and innovation . Any projects selected for funding which involve animals will be asked to provide additional information on welfare and ethical considerations, as well as compliance with any relevant legislation as part of the project start-up process. This information will be reviewed before an award is made. Previous applications You can use a previously submitted application to apply for this competition. If you have previously submitted an application that reached our assessment stage, you can re-apply once more with the same proposal. If there are minor differences to the proposal, but it is judged by us to be ‘not materially different’, the same rule applies. We will not award you funding if you have: failed to exploit a previously funded project an overdue independent accountant’s report failed to comply with grant terms and conditions Innovate UK may withhold a grant payment at any time if you have any outstanding sums due to us in relation to other projects. Subsidy control (and State aid where applicable) This competition provides funding in line with the Subsidy Control Act 2022. Further information about the Subsidy requirements can be found within the Subsidy Control Act 2022 . Innovate UK is unable to award organisations that are considered to be in financial difficulty. We will conduct financial viability and eligibility tests to confirm this is not the case following the application stage. EU State aid rules now only apply in limited circumstances. See the Windsor Framework to check if these rules apply to your organisation. In the ‘Project details’ section of your application you will be asked questions to indicate if State Aid or Subsidy applies to your organisation. Further Information If you are unsure about your obligations under the Subsidy Control Act 2022 or the State aid rules, you should take independent legal advice. We are unable to advise on individual eligibility or legal obligations. You must not do anything which could cause a breach of Subsidy Control legislation applicable in the United Kingdom. This aims to regulate any advantage granted by a public sector body which threatens to, or actually distorts competition in the United Kingdom or any other country or countries. This award is classified as a Subsidy which does not form part of your Minimal Financial Assistance or de minimis allowance. Funding Up to £1.5 million has been allocated to fund innovation projects in this competition. This is subject to us receiving a sufficient number of high quality applications. Funding will be in the form of a grant. We reserve the right to adjust funding allocations for any of our competitions under exceptional circumstances, for example, in response to changes in policy, portfolio funding considerations, or broader government funding decisions. Each country will fund its eligible participants according to their national procedure and funding rules. Funding conditions and eligibility criteria may vary between UK and Netherlands. The bilateral joint cooperation between the partners and its added value is an important aspect to be considered within the evaluation. UK Partners If your UK registered organisation’s work on the project is commercial or economic, your funding request must not exceed the limits below. These limits apply even if your organisation normally acts non-economically but for the purpose of this project will be undertaking commercial or economic activity. For feasibility studies and industrial research projects, you can get funding for your eligible project costs of: up to 70% if you are a micro or small organisation up to 60% if you are a medium sized organisation up to 50% if you are a large organisation For more information on company sizes, refer to the company accounts guidance . If you are applying for an award funded under State aid Regulations, the defi