BridgeAI Deployment Catalyst: who can apply and what readiness means

For BridgeAI Deployment Catalyst, a UK AI supplier needs an eligible deployer that can provide access to its operating environment and take on a substantial share of the project.

Phase 1 supports advanced AI suppliers and eligible deployers assessing a specific use case. It excludes early concept research and routine business-process improvement.

Checked on 9 October 2026, the three competition briefs say applications are scheduled to open on 21 October 2026 and close on 8 December 2026 at 11am UK time. The Phase 1 grant request must be £100,000–£200,000 per project. Read the current brief before committing application time; funding remains subject to approvals and sufficient high-quality applications.

Start with the supplier and deployer

The lead must be a UK-registered micro, small or medium-sized enterprise supplying an existing AI or machine-learning solution. It needs a functioning minimum viable product at technology readiness level 5 or 6, with substantive advanced AI central to the proposed deployment.

The project must address unresolved deployment challenges beyond routine configuration, integration or customer delivery. The briefs explicitly exclude generic productivity tools and back-office automation; adding an AI assistant to ordinary administrative work doesn’t establish a qualifying project.

The summaries allow a solution that has been commercially used but hasn’t reached widespread deployment in the proposed use case. The lead-applicant eligibility text is stricter: the product must not already be commercially deployed in that proposed use case. If your solution already has commercial use in this context, ask Innovate UK to clarify it before relying on the broader summary.

Your deployer must be a UK-registered medium or large business, or a UK-based public-sector organisation. It must provide a meaningful operational setting and access to the resources needed for the project.

The competition lists seven deployment sectors: health and life sciences, financial services, advanced manufacturing, clean energy industries, defence, professional and business services, and creative industries. Check the relevant Industrial Strategy sector definition against the proposed deployment. The broader strategy includes Digital and Technologies, but that isn’t a separately listed deployer sector in these briefs.

The minimum consortium has two organisations: the AI supplier and deployer. You can add at most one further partner. The supplier must account for 40%–70% of total eligible costs, the deployer 30%–50%, and an additional partner no more than 30%.

Subcontractors aren’t allowed. The lead SME can submit only one application across the three strands and cannot join another as a collaborator.

Choose the strand by the system’s primary purpose

The funding terms are the same across all three strands, so choose according to what the AI system does in the proposed deployment:

• Operational Systems covers systems that perform, control or coordinate operational activity, where reliable integration and performance matter to the deployer’s operations.
• Decision Critical Systems covers support for consequential judgements, recommendations or decisions, with high risk or significant consequences for the deployer or end users.
• Assurance and Compliance covers monitoring, testing, verification or evidence of compliance with requirements, standards or controls.

An application in the wrong strand won’t proceed to assessment, and Innovate UK won’t transfer it for you. Resolve an ambiguous primary purpose before submitting.

Calculate the grant separately from project costs

The £100,000–£200,000 band applies to the combined grant request, not the consortium’s total eligible costs. Cost allocation between partners and the proportion each can claim are separate calculations.

For commercial or economic feasibility-study work, the briefs set maximum funding rates of 70% for micro or small organisations, 60% for medium organisations and 50% for large organisations. Public-sector status alone doesn’t establish a 100% funding entitlement; non-economic research participation has separate conditions.

Suppose a fictional two-partner project has £300,000 in eligible costs. A small AI supplier accounts for £180,000, or 60%, while a medium-sized deployer accounts for £120,000, or 40%.

Assuming both undertake eligible commercial feasibility work and request the maximum applicable rates, the supplier’s grant calculation is £126,000 and the deployer’s is £72,000. Together that makes a £198,000 request, leaving £102,000 of costs outside the grant. The example fits the request band and cost-share limits; it doesn’t establish an award or certify an applicant’s costs.

Build the actual budget using Innovate UK’s non-academic costs guidance and the competition-specific rules. The general guidance discusses subcontract costs, but these competitions prohibit subcontractors. Each partner completes its own finances; agree its workload and contribution before treating the maximum grant as available spending money.

What Phase 1 should produce

Phase 1 lasts three to five months. The published rules require projects to start by 1 April 2027 and finish by 31 August 2027. Starts fall on the first of a month, and you must wait for Innovate UK’s approval of the Grant Offer Letter before starting.

The work should establish an evidence-based deployment use case and assess both supplier and deployer readiness. That includes the data and integration needed for the operational setting, alongside governance, assurance and regulatory requirements.

The briefs require a demonstration towards the end of the project using representative deployer data and systems in a representative operational environment. They also require letters of support from potential additional deployers for later phases and an outline of the preparation proposed for Phase 2.

Later funding is conditional. The indicative ceilings are £1 million for Phase 2 deployment preparation and £2 million for Phase 3 live deployment and replication. Innovate UK reviews Phase 1 delivery before deciding who can apply for Phase 2; those future amounts aren’t promised follow-on awards. The expected programme total of up to £52 million also depends on approvals and suitable applications.

For scope or strand questions, the briefs direct applicants to BridgeAI@iuk.ukri.org at least 10 working days before the competition closes. Before drafting the application, confirm with your deployer which resources it can provide, how costs divide, and what the demonstration will establish. If the proposed work amounts to ordinary customer implementation, resolve that scope problem before writing a funding case.