Sectors
Advanced Manufacturing & Novel Materials
Whether you’re engineering next-generation materials, digitising production with Industry 4.0, or redesigning processes for low-carbon manufacturing, non-dilutive funding can accelerate your innovation without sacrificing equity.
We help manufacturers, suppliers, and materials innovators who want to turn strong technical ideas into fundable projects, ranging from early-stage R&D through pilot lines and scale-up.
Grant Funding for Advanced Manufacturing & Novel Materials
Grant funding offers businesses and researchers a unique opportunity to scale their impact while retaining ownership. The benefits include:
- Accelerate technology development and scale-up: Advance novel materials, manufacturing processes, and Industry 4.0 solutions through targeted R&D, validation, and pre-commercial scale-up – without requiring equity dilution.
- Reduce technical and commercial risk in high-cost R&D: Offset the cost of prototyping, pilot production and process optimisation, particularly where capex intensity or long validation cycles create barriers to private investment.
- Enable collaborative, cross-supply-chain innovation: Support consortia that bring together manufacturers, OEMs, SMEs, and research organisations to tackle shared challenges such as industrial decarbonisation, automation, or materials substitution.
- Provide independent validation and market signalling: Winning grant funding acts as third-party confirmation of technical merit and market relevance, strengthening downstream engagement with customers, investors, and supply-chain partners.
Advanced Manufacturing and Novel Materials has been described as the ‘cornerstone of UK industry’, supporting over 760,000 jobs and contributes approximately £82 billion in annual gross value added.
The Advanced Manufacturing Sector Plan sets a ten-year trajectory to nearly double annual business investment to around £39 billion by 2035, supported by up to £4.3 billion of public funding, with up to £2.8 billion targeted at R&D over the next five years.
Priorities are typically organised around six “frontier industries” – automotive, batteries, aerospace, space, advanced materials, and agri-tech – intended to anchor high-value supply chains and accelerate adoption of next-generation production technologies. At the European level, advanced manufacturing and materials are key themes in Horizon Europe – the EU’s €95.5 billion research and innovation programme. Through initiatives like the “Made in Europe” partnership and large collaborative projects, the EU ensures substantial funding is available to keep European manufacturers at the cutting edge of technology.
Success Stories
Advanced Manufacturing & Novel Materials themes for grant funding
- Net-zero and resource-efficient manufacturing: Development of low-carbon production routes, electrified or hydrogen-enabled industrial processes, high-efficiency plant and equipment, and circular manufacturing models that increase material recovery and reduce waste streams.
- Industry 4.0 & Automation: Deployment and integration of Industry 4.0 technologies – including robotics, AI-enabled control, digital twins, IoT sensing, and advanced data infrastructure – to improve productivity, flexibility, and real-time process optimisation.
- Advanced Materials Development: Design, synthesis, scale-up, and validation of novel materials (e.g., composites, nanostructured materials, functional coatings, biomaterials, and lightweight alloys) enabling step-changes in performance, durability, or sustainability.
- Resilient Supply Chains & Skills: Innovations that strengthen industrial resilience through localisation strategies, additive manufacturing, modular production, critical-materials substitution, and workforce upskilling for next-generation production environments.
Advanced Manufacturing & Novel Materials funding programmes and funders
A wide range of funding schemes support R&D in manufacturing and materials across the UK and Europe. Major programmes include:
- EIC Accelerator – up to €2.5m plus optional equity for SMEs scaling near-to-market manufacturing, automation, hardware, or advanced materials technologies.
- EIC Pathfinder – Funds high-risk early research at TRL 1–4, often underpinning breakthrough materials or production concepts.
- EIC Transition – Supports TRL ~4–6 validation and development to move promising materials/processes toward application.
- EIC Advanced Innovation Challenges – Two-stage, challenge-led support for deep-tech routes needing early industrial/demand-side validation.
- EUREKA programmes (e.g. Eurostars) – Industry-led collaborative R&D for innovative SMEs. Co-funded nationally and so funding rates vary by country.
- Innovate UK sector competitions: targeting priorities such as industrial decarbonisation, composites, batteries, aerospace, and automotive supply chains.
- Innovate UK Innovation Loans –Low-interest finance for late-stage innovation and commercialisation, well-suited to capex-heavy manufacturing scale-up.
- Innovate UK Investor Partnerships – Now known as “Growth Catalyst” – Matched public-private funding, grants alongside VC investment for scaling validated manufacturing and ventures.
- Horizon Europe Collaborative (Digital, Industry & Space) – Large consortia grants for smart manufacturing, industrial robotics/AI, circular production, and advanced materials for mobility and energy.
Winning Grant Funding for Advanced Manufacturing & Novel Materials
Successful applications in advanced manufacturing and materials tend to foreground two things: (1) a defensible technical advance beyond current state-of-the-art, and (2) a credible pathway from development to industrial adoption. Given the capital intensity and validation required, strong proposals usually include well-structured plans for TRL progression, pilot or demonstrator activity, verification in representative environments, and supply-chain or end-user engagement.
If you are considering non-dilutive funding for an advanced manufacturing or materials project, we can provide an initial discussion to assess fit against current UK and EU calls, and to outline a realistic route to submission.
Ready to explore funding options? Book a no obligations meeting now.
Alex Chalkley
Director
