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- £25k Accelerator Grant Return for Tees Valley Startups 🚀, Seed Funding for Aspiring Charity Founders 💸, New Wave of Space Funding 🧑🚀
£25k Accelerator Grant Return for Tees Valley Startups 🚀, Seed Funding for Aspiring Charity Founders 💸, New Wave of Space Funding 🧑🚀
Startup Accelerators with Supplementary Grant Funding!
Ben Mushen
October 01, 2025 • Estimated Reading Time: 38 minutes
Hey there,
This month, we added 147 new opportunities to the directory.
We’ve listed those still live below with short summaries for your convenience!
Have a scroll through and see what looks relevant to you and your organisation. Feel free to forward this email to a friend who you think could stand to benefit.
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To make your life easier, below is a handy table of contents of all the opportunities listed in this month’s newsletter.
Just click to skip to the opportunities which tickle your fancy:
This edition's opportunity list
🚀 Accelerators
Breakthrough Founders
Support Type: Business Support, Accelerator, Networking
A national consortium offering tailored support, mentorship, and training for innovative UK founders preparing for venture capital and angel investment opportunities.
Web3 Flagship Accelerator
Support Type: Accelerator, Convertible Investment
A Web3 accelerator program designed for early-stage B2B Web3 startups that provides tailored mentorship, intensive training, networking opportunities, and convertible funding to help transform and scale emerging blockchain ventures.
Funding Available: Up to €150K convertible investment (115K cash + 35K program) with a €250K follow-on possibility
The Forge Programme
Support Type: Accelerator, Grant Funding
A 12-week accelerator for growth businesses in the Tees Valley region offering up to £25,000 in grant funding, mentorship, networking, and access to a co-working space.
Funding Available: Up to £25,000
Cybersecurity & Defence Flagship Accelerator
Support Type: Accelerator Program
A tailored accelerator program offering world-class mentorship, strategic guidance, and convertible investment to boost B2B cybersecurity and defence startups.
Funding Available: Convertible investment up to €100,000, additional €250,000 follow-on opportunity, and potential extra €100,000 for companies registered in Bilbao
SaaS Flagship Accelerator
Support Type: Accelerator Program, Convertible Investment
An accelerator program designed to elevate SaaS startups with tailored mentorship, convertible investment, and a robust network of mentors, investors, and peers.
Funding Available: Up to €100,000 convertible investment (with a €35,000 program cost) plus an additional €250,000 follow-on opportunity
Future Built Assets Accelerator Program
Support Type: Accelerator Program, Investment
Accelerator program for Proptech SaaS startups focused on sustainable innovation in real estate offering mentorship, training, and up to $100,000 convertible investment.
Funding Available: $100,000 convertible investment (with $50,000 disbursed during the program and $50,000 upon completion, plus potential follow-on investment)
Greentech Futures
Support Type: Accelerator Programme
Flagship accelerator programme by CodeBase designed to grow Scotland's climate-tech startup ecosystem through support for early-stage founders and startups working on sustainability, clean energy, circular economy, and environmental innovation.
Fintech Accelerator Program: Waitlist
Support Type: Accelerator Programme, Convertible Investment
A waitlist for the Startup Wise Guys Fintech Accelerator Program, offering tailored mentorship, intensive training, and convertible investment for early-stage B2B fintech startups.
Funding Available: Up to €150K convertible investment (115K cash + 35K program) with a €250K follow-on possibility
Edinburgh Greentech Futures – CodeBase
Support Type: Accelerator programme
Greentech Futures is a flagship accelerator programme delivered by CodeBase that fuels the growth of Scotland’s climate-tech startup ecosystem by supporting early-stage founders and startups in sustainability, clean energy, circular economy, and environmental innovation.
Automation and Robotics Accelerator Programme 2025
Support Type: Grant, Business Support, Accelerator
Funding and support opportunity for UK-based automation and robotics companies to accelerate product maturation and overcome technical, manufacturing, and business challenges from start-up to scale-up.
Funding Available: Up to £200,000
Application Deadline: 05/10/2025
Connected Places Catapult: HS2 Accelerator 8.0
Support Type: Accelerator, Funding, Commercial challenges
HS2 Accelerator 8.0 is a multi-phased programme that supports SMEs to develop innovative technology business cases and funded pilot projects for the HS2 rail scheme, with a current focus on Data and AI challenges.
Funding Available: Phase 2: £5,000 per finalist; Phase 3: up to £50,000 per winner
Application Deadline: 31/10/2025
Digital Catapult: Digital Twin Adoption Accelerator
Support Type: Accelerator, Grant
The programme will support partnerships between tech SMEs and industry to fast-track digital twin adoption in the maritime, aerospace, and defence sectors.
Funding Available: Up to £100,000
Application Deadline: 10/10/2025
Impact Heroes
Support Type: Acceleration Program, Non-financial Support, Leadership Program
Earth Company selects up to ten exceptional changemakers from the Asia-Pacific region to join a year-long Lead-to-Regenerate Acceleration Program, with one being named Impact Hero of the Year to receive an additional 2.5 years of customized support.
Funding Available: US$90,000-150,000 (dependent on project fundraising outcomes)
Application Deadline: 06/10/2025
📈 Business Support
OpenAI for Startups
Support Type: Business Support, API Support
A program designed to help startups leverage OpenAI's APIs, tools, resources, and community to build and scale AI-powered products.
Funding Available: Free API credits for eligible startups through partner VC networks
Global Business Innovation Programme – Battery Tech, Germany
Support Type: Business growth, Collaboration, Training and resources
Innovate UK's exclusive programme for innovative companies to explore battery technology opportunities in Germany, featuring a 9-12 month intensive three-phase support including preparation workshops, market visits, and tailored exploitation guidance.
Funding Available: Funding covers flights, accommodation, in-market travel, conference fees, and support for reasonable adjustments. A refundable commitment fee of £1000 per delegate is also required upon acceptance.
Application Deadline: 26/10/2025
TMF AI ICURe Discover - January 2026
Support Type: Business growth, Funding, Training and resources
TMF AI ICURe Discover is a part-time online market discovery programme designed to support researchers, technicians and research students in exploring the potential market for their AI-led research, with financial support of up to £2,500 for testing assumptions and market discovery activities.
Funding Available: £2,500
Application Deadline: 08/12/2025
Innovate UK Biomedical Catalyst Accelerator – Hospital to Community
Support Type: Business growth, Training and resources, Other
The programme supports up to 10 early stage startups working on remote monitoring, at-home diagnostics, new community care models, and digital tools that ease hospital pressure by providing investment-readiness support, expert-led workshops, tailored one-to-one mentoring, and access to healthcare leaders, investors, and a healthtech ecosystem.
Application Deadline: 31/10/2025
Global Business Innovation Programme - AI Enhanced Manufacturing, USA (Boston & Pittsburgh)
Support Type: Business growth, Other, Training and resources
Innovate UK is inviting ambitious innovative companies to participate in its Global Business Innovation Programme, which includes a tailored 5-day market visit to the USA (Boston & Pittsburgh) featuring workshops, matchmaking events, and bespoke support to build R&D collaborations and accelerate global growth.
Funding Available: Funding covers flights, accommodation, in-market travel, and conference fees; a commitment fee of £1000 is required and refundable upon programme completion.
Application Deadline: 14/11/2025
Global Business Innovation Programme - Manufacturing Digital Supply Chain Ecosystem, Singapore
Support Type: Business growth, Training and resources
Innovate UK invites ambitious UK-based innovative companies to participate in a 9-12 month programme aimed at growing business in the Singapore market through bespoke workshops, market visits, and collaboration opportunities.
Funding Available: Funding covers flights, accommodation, in-market travel, and conference fees; a refundable commitment fee of £1000 is required upon acceptance.
Application Deadline: 20/10/2025
Trailblaze at Northumbria
Support Type: Workshop, Business Support, Enterprise Support
Trailblaze at Northumbria encompasses three programmes – Spark., Shape., and Start. – designed to help students and graduates develop essential enterprise, employability, and business skills through a series of engaging workshops.
Supply Connect
Support Type: Business Support, Training
Supply Connect helps small businesses become contract-ready by providing practical training, expert guidance, and access to public and private sector contract opportunities.
Pre-Flight Workshop for Tees Valley Startups
Support Type: Workshop, Business Support
A two-day workshop designed to prepare business ideas for an incubator programme by focusing on value proposition, ad lib statement, and pitching techniques.
Capacity Building Programme
Support Type: Business Support, Workshops
A programme offering free workshops and a Whatsapp network that provides application advice, support, and best practice sharing. It is open to anyone living, working or studying in Hackney, Newham, Tower Hamlets, or Waltham Forest.
Charity Entrepreneurship Incubation Program
Support Type: Training Program, Incubation, Seed Funding
A two-month, fully-funded, cost-covered training program that provides aspiring charity founders with evidence-based ideas, expert training, co-founder matching, community support, and seed funding to launch high-impact nonprofits.
Funding Available: Seed funding up to $200,000 USD; funding averaging £120,000
Application Deadline: 05/10/2025
Digital Catapult: Ørsted Digital Innovation Challenge
Support Type: Innovation Challenge
Ørsted is seeking innovative digital solutions from different industries that can be adapted to improve offshore wind operations and maintenance. Two winning companies will receive fully-funded support and access to sector-specific expertise to develop their solutions.
Funding Available: Fully-funded support provided to winners
Application Deadline: 03/10/2025
🎓 Fellowships
MATS Program
Support Type: Research Program, Educational Program, Scholarship
MATS Program is a 12-week independent research and educational seminar program that connects talented scholars with top mentors in AI alignment, governance, and security. Scholars receive mentorship, research support, seminars, workshops, a stipend, compute budget, housing, and networking opportunities.
Funding Available: $14.4k stipend; $12k compute budget; additional support for travel, housing, and other expenses
Application Deadline: 02/10/2025
Train4Tomorrow Skills Bootcamp Courses
Support Type: Government Funded Skills Bootcamp, Educational Support
Train4Tomorrow offers free, flexible government funded Skills Bootcamp courses in various sectors including Digital, Early Years, Technical, Green, Construction, Health and Care, Hospitality, and Professional Services.
Funding Available: Free
Early career fellowships in cultural and heritage institutions: 2025 – UKRI
Support Type: Fellowship
Funding opportunity for early career researchers to conduct research in cultural and heritage institutions, enabling career development and collaborative research within the GLAM sector.
Funding Available: Total fund of £2,500,000 with maximum award of £312,500 per project; AHRC funds 80% of full economic cost.
Application Deadline: 10/12/2025
Talos Fellowship
Support Type: Fellowship
The Talos Fellowship is a flagship programme aimed at launching and accelerating European policy careers focused on artificial intelligence through an 8-week online AI Policy Fundamentals programme, an online reading group, a 7-day Brussels policymaking summit, and an optional paid 4-6 month placement at a leading AI governance organisation.
Application Deadline: 25/10/2025
ERA Fellowship
Support Type: Fellowship
An 8-week fully funded fellowship in Cambridge, UK for researchers and entrepreneurs working on mitigating risks from advanced AI.
Funding Available: Competitive stipend; meals during working hours; coverage for transport, visas, and lodging.
Application Deadline: 30/10/2025
Bush Fellowship program
Support Type: Fellowship, Grant
A self-designed leadership program that provides up to $150,000 over a period of up to 2 years for individuals to develop their unique leadership plan.
Funding Available: $150,000
Application Deadline: 07/10/2025
Churchill Fellowship
Support Type: Fellowship, Grant
The Churchill Fellowship offers a unique opportunity for individuals to learn from international best practices through overseas or online research and then use their insights to create meaningful change across the UK.
Funding Available: Grant amount is calculated individually to fully cover the costs of overseas or online research for up to two months.
Application Deadline: 04/11/2025
🤑 Grants
Global Business Innovation Programme - Robotics & Automation in Manufacturing, South Korea
Support Type: Grant, Award
Innovate UK invites innovative UK companies to participate in a 9-12 month programme aimed at accelerating global growth through R&D collaborations and market access in South Korea.
Funding Available: Funding covers flights, accommodation, in-market travel, and conference fees; a £1000 commitment fee is collected and refundable upon programme completion.
Application Deadline: 30/10/2025
European Space Agency: Space for Metaverse
Support Type: Grant, Award
ESA seeks to establish commercial services integrating metaverse elements with space technologies into existing/new services and applications.
Funding Available: Up to 75k EUR per selected activity with 75% funding; maximum total project cost is 100k EUR.
Application Deadline: 14/11/2025
European Space Agency: Future of Retail
Support Type: Grant, Award
Opportunity for businesses to submit proposals to develop innovative services leveraging space technology for the retail sector, with selected projects receiving 75% funding up to €75,000 per activity.
Funding Available: Up to €75,000 per activity; maximum project cost €100,000
Application Deadline: 23/01/2026
Digital Catapult Black Founders Programme in Creative Industries, 2025
Support Type: Funding, Business Growth, Training and resources
A 14-week accelerator for up to 15 high-growth potential pre-seed or seed stage companies in the creative industries, offering mentorship, masterclasses, networking opportunities, and a stipend of £3,000.
Funding Available: £3,000 stipend
Application Deadline: 05/10/2025
Supergen Bioenergy Hub Business Interaction Voucher Scheme
Support Type: Grant, Business Support
A funding stream inviting applications for Business Interaction Vouchers to support short-term collaborative projects between academics and industry in the UK bioenergy sector, aimed at building new partnerships and accelerating research impact.
Funding Available: Up to £15,000 per project at 100% FEC, with 80% payment (up to £12,000) of FEC costs
Application Deadline: 31/10/2025
Unlocking Access: Cultural Venue & Visitor Attraction Programme
Support Type: Grant, Business Support
Funded support programme to help cultural venues and visitor attractions in Tees Valley become more accessible and inclusive by providing training, scoping visits, full accessibility audits and potential grant funding for improvements.
Funding Available: Grants typically between £500 to £10,000, with a maximum fund value of approximately £25,880; exceptional cases may receive higher funding.
Application Deadline: 15/10/2025
The Stable | Incubator for Tees Valley Startups
Support Type: Incubator, Grant, Business Support
A 6-month incubator programme offering comprehensive support, mentorship, networking opportunities, and monthly grant funding aimed at helping early-stage startups in the Tees Valley region gain market traction and funding.
Funding Available: £2,200 per month with the opportunity to apply for an additional £4,800
CoSTAR Evolve: Scale your Enterprise
Support Type: Grant, Business Support, Mentorship
CoSTAR Evolve is a six-month intensive programme offering funding, mentorship, and resources to help established UK creative technology companies scale and commercialise their businesses.
Funding Available: £15,000 total support (including £10,000 in-kind support and a £5,000 Enterprise Development Award)
Application Deadline: 28/10/2025
Ofgem Strategic Innovation Fund Round 5 Discovery - October 2025
Support Type: Funding, Grant, Commercial Challenge
Organisations can apply for a share of up to £30m for collaborative Discovery Phase Projects addressing one of the seven Round 5 challenges in energy network innovation.
Funding Available: Up to £150,000 per project; total pool available of up to £30m.
Application Deadline: 22/10/2025
Innovator Circles
Support Type: Grant, Community Support
Provides resources and support for individuals to convene self-organised, technical peer groups (Innovator Circles) to stimulate breakthrough scientific and technological ideas.
Funding Available: Up to £2000/month for up to ten months
Application Deadline: 23/10/2025
PYRAMID for Avionics and Mission Systems Phase 2
Support Type: Competition, Grant
A themed competition to accelerate the adoption of the PYRAMID Reference Architecture in avionics and mission systems, encouraging collaboration between suppliers and enhancement projects for both future air systems and legacy systems.
Funding Available: £3 million (excluding VAT)
Application Deadline: 25/11/2025
HEDGE-IoT Open Call 1
Support Type: Grant, Funding Opportunity
HEDGE-IoT Open Call 1 offers financial support and resources for SMEs and startups to develop innovative, IoT-enabled, data-driven energy services within the HEDGE-IoT framework through a cascade-funding mechanism.
Funding Available: €700,000 total; up to €60,000 per third party.
Application Deadline: 24/10/2025
Teacher Development Fund
Support Type: Grant
A fund supporting teachers to develop arts-based approaches that create equitable classrooms for all children.
Funding Available: Up to £165,000 per application
Application Deadline: 12/11/2025
Unlocking the full potential of nature-based engineering
Support Type: Grant
Funding opportunity to conduct research in nature-based engineering, encouraging interdisciplinary teams to develop systems and technologies inspired by nature.
Funding Available: Total fund of £6,000,000; Maximum award of £481,251; 80% of Full Economic Cost funded, including a mandatory £75,000 for PDRA/ECR development
Application Deadline: 23/10/2025
Opening up the Environment 2026 – UKRI
Support Type: Grant
Funding opportunity to support projects that increase the diversity of the UK environmental science community through inclusive leadership teams and partnerships.
Funding Available: Up to £706,250 (80% of the full economic cost, with a maximum funding of £565,000 per project)
Application Deadline: 21/01/2026
Host the Catalysis Centre for Digitised Natural Science Collections
Support Type: Grant
A funding opportunity to host and manage the Catalysis Centre for the DiSSCo UK programme, aimed at driving innovation in digitisation technologies and exploitation of Natural Science Collections data.
Funding Available: £15,300,000
Application Deadline: 14/10/2025
Advanced materials: highlight notice
Support Type: Grant
EPSRC is supporting research proposals in advanced materials solutions for critical minerals and in-situ and in-operando materials metrology and characterisation. There is no limit on the value of the grant or the project length, and 80% of the full economic cost will be funded.
Funding Available: No limit; 80% of the full economic cost
Beyond the Bin Fund | Recycling Paper Cups
Support Type: Grant
The Beyond the Bin Fund offers up to £45,000 in innovation grant funding to support projects that increase the recycling or reuse of on-the-go paper cups in the UK.
Funding Available: £45,000
Application Deadline: 31/10/2025
Innovate UK Biomedical Catalyst Accelerator - Managing Chronic Conditions
Support Type: Grant
Accelerator for early stage life science startups targeting unmet needs in disease prevention or proactive management of chronic conditions, offering expert commercial support, workshops, coaching, customer discovery stipends, and access to a closed grant funding competition with potential equity investment.
Application Deadline: 10/10/2025
Farming Innovation Programme: small R&D partnership projects round four
Support Type: Grant
UK businesses can apply for a share of up to £7.8 million for small R&D partnership projects as part of the Defra Farming Innovation Programme.
Funding Available: £7,800,000
Application Deadline: 05/11/2025
MCF Small Grant
Support Type: Grant
Small grants are for smaller charities with annual incomes between £25,000 and £500,000. They are unrestricted and range from £1,000 to £5,000 per year over up to three years, with the total amount not exceeding 20% of the charity's average total income over the past two years.
Funding Available: £1,000–£5,000 per year
Rewilding Challenge Fund
Support Type: Grant
A major fund of up to £100,000 per year awarded by Rewilding Britain to projects that demonstrate the potential to scale up rewilding efforts across land and sea.
Funding Available: £100,000
Application Deadline: 10/10/2025
Take the Lead community grants - HDR UK
Support Type: Grant
Our Take the Lead grants enable UK community groups to apply for between £500 and £1,500 to deliver a standalone project, event, or series of activities exploring how health data can support community wellbeing.
Funding Available: £500 to £1,500
Application Deadline: 13/10/2025
Public Engagement Spark Awards 2025B
Support Type: Grant
Funding opportunity to support projects that engage the public with STFC-funded science and technology through high-quality public engagement activities.
Funding Available: £5,000 - £20,000 (up to £20,000 FEC, fully funded)
Application Deadline: 06/11/2025
Great British Energy Community Fund - North East & Yorkshire Net Zero Hub
Support Type: Grant
Funding available to help parish and town councils, community organisations, faith groups, community interest companies and sports teams to start clean power projects that benefit local areas.
Funding Available: Up to £40,000 for feasibility studies and up to £100,000 for development, within a total programme fund of £5million.
Application Deadline: 12/11/2025
The Access Foundation Employee Nominated and Charity of the Year Grants
Support Type: Grant
Grants available for nominated charities under two categories: Employee Nominated and Charity of the Year. The funding supports specific projects with measurable outcomes that benefit disadvantaged communities or the natural environment.
Funding Available: Up to £5,000 for Employee Nominated awards; Charity of the Year amounts vary
Space Ecosystem Commercialisation Programme (SECP): Rapid R&D Grants and Expert Support
Support Type: Grant
SECP is a £1.4 Million programme, part funded by the UK Space Agency, designed to help companies in six regions of England develop new space technologies and unlock commercial opportunities by funding Sprint R&D Projects.
Funding Available: Up to £30,000 per project at a 40% intervention rate; total programme funding of £1.4 Million
Application Deadline: 31/10/2025
Business Refresh Grant Scheme Guidance
Support Type: Grant
Refresh grants of up to £2,500 for SMEs to refresh their business space with capital improvements, fittings and furniture to enhance the customer experience.
Funding Available: Up to £2,500 or 80% of the cost of the project
Realising the Remarkable Grant
Support Type: Grant
£30,000 in funding for six small independent retail businesses, offering a £5,000 cash grant each along with a 12-month free subscription to VistaCreate Pro and £1,000 in VistaPrint credits.
Funding Available: £5,000 per business
Application Deadline: 30/10/2025
Grassroots Grants - Groundwork
Support Type: Grant
Provides unrestricted funding of between £500 and £2,000 for small, local organisations in England to support core organisational costs and community projects.
Funding Available: £500 to £2,000
Application Deadline: 14/10/2025
Comic Relief Community Fund
Support Type: Grant
A fund offering grants up to £5,000 for grassroots, community-led organisations in England that support people living in, or at risk of, poverty or hardship.
Funding Available: £5,000
Application Deadline: 06/10/2025
Growing Communities Fund - Communities
Support Type: Grant
The Growing Communities Fund supports proactive, effective, measurable, and sustainable actions that build self-reliance, community resilience, improve mental health and wellbeing, and address cost of living issues by reducing food and fuel inequalities.
Funding Available: £500 to £1000 per grant
UMUKSF INDIVIDUAL FUNDING – UMUK Sound Foundation
Support Type: Grant
Funding support offered by UMUK Sound Foundation for individuals in full-time music education to purchase approved music-related items. The funding cannot be used for deposits, music lessons, tuition fees, exam fees, or maintenance costs.
Application Deadline: 21/10/2025
XR Solutions for Community Healthcare Programme
Support Type: Grant
The CHI-Zone Small Grants Programme offers up to £20,000 in funding along with technical support to prototype and accelerate XR (AR, MR, VR) solutions aimed at transforming community healthcare.
Funding Available: £20,000
Application Deadline: 09/10/2025
Artificial intelligence (AI) for environmental science phase one – UKRI
Support Type: Grant
This funding opportunity supports the use of artificial intelligence and data science to address complex environmental challenges. It offers pump-priming support in phase one, with project awards ranging from £200,000 to £400,000, and aims to develop innovative interdisciplinary approaches in environmental science.
Funding Available: £200,000 - £400,000; Total phase one fund of £4,800,000; potential additional phase two funding of between £1.3 million and £1.8 million
Application Deadline: 11/12/2025
West Midlands IP Fund
Support Type: Grant
Second round of development funding for screen IP in the West Midlands region.
Funding Available: Up to £20,000
Creative Places Growth Fund
Support Type: Grant
£25 million allocated to each of six mayoral regions to drive growth, innovation and investment in creative industries outside of London.
Funding Available: £25 million per region
DCMS/Wolfson Museums and Galleries Improvement Fund 2025-27
Support Type: Grant
Provides capital funding to improve the display, care, and accessibility of significant collections in accredited museums, galleries, and museum services across England.
Funding Available: £20,000 to £400,000
Application Deadline: 14/11/2025
Local Community Skills Fund
Support Type: Grant
The Local Community Skills Fund supports a wide range of local and community-led projects across the UK, providing small grants to boost skills development, training and employment opportunities.
Funding Available: Up to £10,000 (most grants around £6,000)
Cultural Bridge Programme 2026-2027
Support Type: Grant
Funding opportunity for arts and cultural organisations in the UK and Germany to develop new partnerships and enhance existing ones through social arts practice.
Funding Available: £370,000 total; Tier 1 up to £10,000 per new partnership, Tier 2 up to £30,000 per established partnership
Application Deadline: 12/11/2025
Small Grants Fund - Seachdain na Gaidhlig
Support Type: Grant
The Seachdain na Gàidhlig ‘Small Grants Fund’, supported by Bòrd na Gàidhlig, offers grants of up to £500 for individuals, community groups, and organisations to develop and deliver community events celebrating the Gaelic language during Seachdain na Gàidhlig 2026.
Funding Available: £500
Application Deadline: 31/10/2025
Support Type: Grant
A funding programme to support bold partnership projects that promote environmental sustainability and broaden involvement in climate action.
Funding Available: £500,000 to £5,000,000
Application Deadline: 17/12/2025
Green Community Grants Programme
Support Type: Grant
Offers one-year flexible funding for not-for-profit groups in England, Scotland and Wales with an annual income between £10,000 and £1 million, with grants of up to £25,000 available.
Funding Available: Up to £25,000
Application Deadline: 08/10/2025
AI For All Program
Support Type: Grant, Mentorship
Provides UK charities with both financial support and expert mentorship to promote diversity, equality, and inclusion in AI innovation.
Funding Available: Up to £2,500 per application
PLACES TO GO THINGS TO DO Youth Fund
Support Type: Grant Fund
The fund supports inclusive, accessible, and enriching activities for young people aged 11–25 in Devon by providing grants to community groups, charities, and CICs.
Funding Available: Typical grants: £500–£1,000 (upfront); Exceptional projects: up to £3,000
🙌 Other Support
CoCreate Pitch 2025
Support Type: Competition, Startup Support
CoCreate Pitch 2025 is a global product-driven startup competition where entrepreneurs pitch their vision to win a share of $1 million in prizes, access star mentors, gain massive exposure, and utilize Alibaba.com's extensive sourcing ecosystem.
Funding Available: $1 million
SXSW Pitch
Support Type: Pitch Competition, Startup Showcase
SXSW Pitch is a premier startup showcase and pitch competition that connects innovative startups with industry experts, high-profile investors, and media professionals in downtown Austin.
Application Deadline: 07/11/2025
100% Digital Leeds
Support Type: Digital Inclusion Support
A platform focused on making Leeds the most digitally inclusive city by providing free digital inclusion support, co-facilitated networks, and signposting for organisations.
The Green New Deal Fund
Support Type: Loan, Equity, Grant
An investment fund established by the North East Combined Authority to finance low carbon projects for SMEs and the public sector.
Funding Available: Investments typically range from £0.2 million to £2 million, funding up to 50% of project capital cost.
Contracts for Innovation: Quantum Technologies for Transport - Phase 1
Support Type: Procurement, Contract
Competition offering up to £1.5 million in total funding to support phase 1 of innovative quantum sensing technology projects for the transport sector, with individual contracts up to £40,000.
Funding Available: Up to £1.5 million total; individual project contracts up to £40,000.
Application Deadline: 15/10/2025
Contracts for Innovation: Quantum Technologies for Transport - Phase 1
Support Type: Contracts, Funding
Organisations can apply for a share of up to £1.5 million to develop use cases and business cases for innovative quantum sensing technologies in the transport sector. Phase 1 awards range between £10,000 and £40,000.
Funding Available: Up to £1.5 million total; individual phase 1 contracts between £10,000 and £40,000
Application Deadline: 15/10/2025
European Space Agency: Bioengineering In The Space Environment
Support Type: Contracts & procurement, Funding
€200k per project for enabling studies to support industry in assessing the potential of bioengineering in microgravity environments, including technical and commercial guidance, access to ESA networks and partners, and use of the ESA brand.
Funding Available: €200k
Application Deadline: 03/10/2025
Growth Guarantee Scheme (GGS)
Support Type: Loan, Guarantee, Business Support
The Growth Guarantee Scheme provides additional lending capacity with a 70% government-backed guarantee to help UK smaller businesses access finance for a range of legitimate business purposes, including managing cashflow, working capital, and investment.
Funding Available: Approximately £500m of additional lending capacity
Associate Programme for Career Changers | On Purpose
Support Type: Career Development, Leadership Programme
A full-time, paid leadership development programme offering placements, structured learning sessions, mentoring, and coaching with purpose-driven organisations.
Funding Available: £27.01k per annum pro rata
People's Postcode Lottery | Developing Skills for a Coaching Culture 2025
Support Type: Training, Coaching
Programme designed to support and challenge individuals and organisations in driving cultural change by developing coaching skills, fully funded by the People's Postcode Lottery.
Funding Available: Fully Funded
Farmed animals and aquaculture SPARK Awards
Support Type: Collaboration, Commercial challenges, Funding
UK-registered academic institutions or RTOs can apply for up to £20,000 per project to collaborate with a UK-registered SME and accelerate the development of innovative products, processes or services for sustainable production in the UK farmed animal and aquaculture sectors.
Funding Available: Up to £20,000 per project (total funding up to £200,000 available)
Application Deadline: 26/11/2025
HMGCC Co-Creation: Realistic prosthetic facial masks for training
Support Type: Commercial challenge, Invest in innovation
Join a national security challenge to create advanced synthetic skin for realistic, reusable prosthetic face masks used in surveillance training exercises.
Funding Available: Up to £60,000
Application Deadline: 16/10/2025
Innovation Exchange challenge: Addiction Healthcare Goals - Catalysing Innovation
Support Type: Commercial challenges, Other
Aiming to support innovative pharmaceutical and MedTech tools and approaches for improving treatment outcomes, enhancing recovery and reducing drug and alcohol related harm.
Funding Available: No funding offered at this stage; this is a pre-market engagement exercise.
Application Deadline: 17/10/2025
Google Gemini Free for Students
Support Type: Free Subscription
One-year free subscription to Google AI Pro for students and apprentices, offering features such as unlimited chats, image uploads, personalized quizzes, deep research, audio summaries, and 2 TB storage.
Application Deadline: 03/11/2025
Earthshot Prize 2026: Nominee Expression of Interest
Support Type: Funding, Other
Innovate UK is accepting expressions of interest from individuals, communities, businesses and organisations to be considered for nomination for the Earthshot Prize. Nominees stand a chance to receive £1m each to develop and scale their innovative environmental solutions and/or enter the Earthshot Fellowship programme.
Funding Available: £1 million per winner
Application Deadline: 16/10/2025
North East Investment – Loans
Support Type: Loan
Through the North East Culture and Creative Investment Programme, funded by the North East Combined Authority, this initiative is investing £750,000 in loans for the region’s cultural and creative industries.
Funding Available: Loans of between £50,000 – £150,000, with potential for exceptions in exceptional cases
Access to high performance computing facilities: autumn 2025 – UKRI
Support Type: Other
Opportunity to access compute resources via high performance computing facilities across UKRI’s remit for up to 12 months. No cash funding is provided; instead, computational support is allocated to approved research projects.
Application Deadline: 06/11/2025
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Ben Mushen
Founder of the North East Support Directory
Disclaimer: The content on this email/website and all subsequent support detail pages, has been AI-generated, based upon publicly available information found on grant and/or business support websites, sourced either via URL submissions by North East Support Directory users, or via research, discovery and submission by the North East Support Directory team. The information from these websites has been extracted, processed, summarised, and categorised using the latest AI technology to produce content on the North East Support Directory that is easier for query and consumption for our users. The North East Support Directory and it's owners assume no responsibility or liability for any errors or omissions in the content of this site. The information contained is provided on an "as is" basis with no guarantees of completeness, accuracy, usefulness or timeliness. The North East Support Directory's primary objective is to provide high-level, easy to query, find, and understand information and eligibility criteria regarding grants, finance, business support, and more, so it's users can make more informed, efficient decisions on where to spend their time in reaching out for support. The North East Support Directory acknowledges that eligibility criteria can be complex, and so advises that for full, true, and up-to-date opportunity details and conditions, users should visit the corresponding grant or support programme site directly. Users can do so by clicking the 'View Opportunity' link next to each opportunity, or by searching the support title in your search engine of choice. Please note that your visit via the 'Vier Opportunity' link will be tracked by the North East Support Directory. No personal details or protected information will be tracked or guarded against your North East Support Directory account. The only data we track is the number of times that each website is visited via the North East Support Directory. The collection of this data may later be used to form insights in regards to, but not limited to; grant and/or support programme demand, appetite, and popularity; identifying 'hot' and 'cold' areas of the region, and those in need of greater support; and potentially in informing future grant and/or support offerings. These data/insights may later be shared or sold to local authorities, business support organisations, or others, to inform future grant and/or support opportunities. The North East Support Directory would like to highlight that the AI generated information on this page is generated and produced for entertainment purposes only and is for the sole use of the recipients. All supporters expressly disclaim all representations, warranties, assurance of any kind, expressed or implied. Should any user, grant-making body, support provider, or other, have any questions or query in regards to the content on this email or website, or wish to update/remove any of this AI generated content for any reason, then they should contact [email protected], and someone in the team will try to get back to your query as soon as possible.