Contracts for Innovation: Cyber scale in critical sectors

Organisations can apply for up to £300k each to develop, demonstrate and commercialise their cyber security solution in real end user environments within critical sector organisations.

Innovate UK is launching a new Contracts for Innovation competition designed to help cyber security firms scale their innovations while supporting critical sector organisations to trial and adopt advanced cyber solutions in real-world environments.

About the competition

This competition supports cyber security companies to demonstrate the operation, impact and value of innovative solutions within critical sectors, including:

Chemicals, communications, emergency services, energy, food, health, space, transport and water

At the same time, it helps organisations in these sectors reduce barriers to testing and adopting cyber security innovation, strengthening resilience across Critical National Infrastructure (CNI).

Who should apply

Funding is aimed at promising cyber security firms with solutions at Technology Readiness Level (TRL) 7 and strong potential to commercialise and scale.

Projects must address one or more of the following challenge areas:

• Proactive cyber security defence of CNI systems, including operations and incident response
• Advanced detection and eviction of sophisticated threat actors from CNI networks
• Innovative threat hunting solutions for CNI organisations
• Addressing legacy system vulnerabilities within CNI environments

Cyber security firms are expected to work closely with end-users and customers in critical sectors, conducting R&D activities that progress technologies toward commercial deployment.

Key dates

• Competition opens: 1 May 2026

Find out more

The competition will be published on: · Innovation Funding Service (IFS): Competition overview - Contracts for Innovation: Cyber scale in critical sectors - Innovation Funding Service · Innovate UK Business Connect: Opportunities - Innovate UK Business Connect