Area of investment and support

Area of investment and support: Small Business Research Initiative (SBRI)

SBRI offers organisations the opportunity to work directly with the public sector to develop new technologies and processes, helping to meet efficiency targets and improving public services. The initiative is not limited to small businesses but open to any organisation, regardless of size or previous experience of working in a specific sector.

The scope and what we're doing

SBRI supports the research and development of solutions to solve public sector challenges. Organisations of any size are eligible to apply, including:

  • start-ups, small and medium size enterprises (SMEs) and large organisations
  • higher education institutes (HEIs) and research and technology organisations (RTOs)
  • not-for-profits and charities

A 2022 independent review demonstrates how SBRI is responsible for some of the most exciting and innovative projects that have made the public sector more efficient and effective. SBRI challenges have supported collaborative projects across the UK to solve problems for various public sector organisations including the Department for Transport, NHS and local councils.

The video below shows how SBRI plays a key role in connecting public sector problems with innovative organisations to come up with solutions.

Video credit: Innovate UK

On-screen captions and an autogenerated transcript are available on YouTube.

Opportunities, support and resources available

Support for public sector organisations

Innovate UK is the custodian of SBRI and supports public sector organisations to use SBRI. This can include running an end-to-end process on their behalf or helping organisations to understand the process and run their own funding schemes.

Learn more about running SBRI challenges as a public sector organisation by contacting us.

Email: sbri@iuk.ukri.org

Subscribe to receive alerts for SBRI funding opportunities

Not all SBRI funding is managed by Innovate UK, so we share notifications of SBRI funding opportunities across sectors and government departments. The best way to stay updated on SBRI opportunities is to subscribe to our mailing list.

You can also follow SBRI on Twitter and LinkedIn.

Who to contact

Contact the SBRI team

Email: sbri@iuk.ukri.org

Last updated: 18 October 2022

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