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.
Grant funding for Advanced Manufacturing & Novel Materials
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 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.
Funding in the UK
Advanced Manufacturing & 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.
Funding in the EU
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
Tonus Tech: Soft Robotics Actuation Sensing Technology embedded in garments
Tonus Tech has created an AI system in smart wearable garments that not only can track key movement metrics directly but can analyse the quality of movement using Machine Learning, providing an overall Motion Score.
Total Funding: £265K
Advanced Manufacturing & Novel Materials themes for grant funding
Grant funding in this area supports projects that transform how products are made and what they are made from. The themes below outline the priority areas where innovation can deliver economic, environmental, and industrial impact.
- 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
Advanced Manufacturing projects are eligible for several types of R&D grant funding, including Innovate UK Innovation Loans and several EIC-backed schemes.
Available funding for Advanced Manufacturing & Materials innovators includes:
| Programme | Funder | Grant value | Stage | Who can apply |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| UK funding | ||||
| Sector competitions, e.g. industrial decarbonisation, composites, batteries, automotive supply chains | Innovate UK | Varies by competition | Feasibility to development | UK businesses |
| Innovation Loans | Innovate UK | Up to £5m | Late-stage, pre-market; suits capex-heavy scale-up | UK SMEs |
| Growth Catalyst | Innovate UK | Up to £2m grant + equity | Scale-up | UK SMEs with investor backing |
| European funding | ||||
| Eurostars | EUREKA | Varies by country | Collaborative R&D | SMEs in an international consortium |
| Innowwide market feasibility | EUREKA | €60k | Market feasibility | Single applicant with international subcontractors |
| EIC Pathfinder | European Innovation Council | Up to €4m | Early-stage research (TRL 1–4) | Consortia, incl. UK |
| EIC Transition | European Innovation Council | €2.5m (+ €50k booster grants) | Validation (TRL 4–6) | Single applicants or consortia, incl. UK |
| EIC Advanced Innovation Challenges | European Innovation Council | Varies (two-stage) | Challenge-led, early industrial validation | Deep-tech innovators |
| EIC Accelerator | European Innovation Council | €500k–€2.5m grant + up to €10m equity | Scale-up, near-to-market | SMEs (UK: grant only) |
| Pillar II Cluster 4: Digital, Industry & Space collaborative calls | Horizon Europe | Varies, often multi-million | Collaborative R&D | Consortia, incl. UK |
| Other funding options are also available. Grant values are indicative and vary by call. | ||||
Winning Grant Funding for Advanced Manufacturing & Novel Materials
“Successful applications in advanced manufacturing and materials tend to foreground two things: a defensible technical advance beyond current state-of-the-art, and 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.”
Malu Avila, PhD
Advanced Manufacturing Sector Expert
Ready for the next steps?
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-obligation meeting now.
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