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Welcome to UK Defence Innovation!

UK Defence Innovation
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Welcome to UKDI

Dear John

Thank you for joining the UK Defence Innovation (UKDI) mailing list! We are delighted that you would like to know more about UKDI and be kept up to date with our latest news.

Current Funding Opportunities

At any given time UKDI has a variety of different funding opportunities available. Below is a selection of current and recent opportunities, you can see the full selection of what we have available right now on our website.

The Security Open Call is one of the funding competition mechanisms UKDI uses to find proposals that address security challenges faced by government stakeholders.
It seeks proposals for innovations from UK industry and academia which can have realistic impact across the UK security landscape in line with one of the Competition Focus Areas.

Stage 2 of the current cycle closes 29 October 2026
Run on behalf of the Ministry of Defence, this competition seeks an integrated, Counter-Uncrewed Aerial System (C-UAS) force-protection capability. This competition is available to UK based innovators only.

Up to £5million of funding is available immediately.

Competition closes 23 September 2026

Run on behalf of the Ministry of Defence, this competition seeks proposals with a clear route to operational deployment. Solutions must combine technical excellence with affordability, manufacturability and the ability to scale quickly to get into operational use within 12 months of the end of the project.

Up to £1 million (excluding VAT) is available.

Competition closes 22 September 2026

Run on behalf of Dstl, this themed competition is seeking proposals that develop early-stage novel and disruptive science and technology (S&T) that may give rise to future game-changing advances in Defence robotics and autonomous systems. This competition is available to UK based innovators only.

Up tp £600k funding is available for Phase 1.

Competition closes 17 September 2026

Opportunities in the Pipeline

Below you can see a list (not extensive) of potential upcoming challenge areas. Please note that this is not confirmation of the launch of these competitions.
  • Oct 2026 - Tactical Power: Seeking innovative solutions to help the Army meet the demand for electricity at the unit tactical level on exercises or operations.
  • Date TBC - The Defence Technology Exploitation Programme (DTEP)

How to work with UKDI

For full details about how you can work with us and get involved in current opportunities please see our website here.
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