Innovate UK Women in Innovation Awards

What it is

Closed 2025/26 award: £75,000 grant plus 12 months of bespoke business support for women founders or co-founders of UK-registered SMEs with an innovation aligned to advanced manufacturing, digital and technologies, or life sciences. No 2026/27 round announced yet.

⚠️ ingest normalisation 2026-08-21: the award is for WOMEN founders/directors — the wizard collects no such signal, so the defining criterion is a heavy preferred rule and unconfirmed businesses score ~67%, never 100%. Re-verified 2026-08-31 on ukri.org opportunity page: status Closed; 2025/26 window ran 26 Nov 2025 (9:30) to 4 Feb 2026 (11:00). Grant was up to £75,000 plus bespoke business support. No 2026/27 competition announced on the official page as of 2026-08-31 (annual pattern is not an announcement; do not state the next window as fact). ⚠️ Core criterion the engine cannot express: applicant must be a WOMAN founder or co-founder of the UK-registered micro/small/medium enterprise (late-stage start-up) — surface this restriction in UI copy.