Working together on funding

We Partner With You On Innovation Funding
— And the Research That Follows

RSynergy supports organisations from grant identification through to R&D delivery. We help shape strong proposals, facilitate university partnerships, and build the AI solutions your funding is designed to support.

Explore grant platforms
£10k–£10M+
Innovate UK grant range
Up to 70%
Project costs covered (SMEs)
100%
University costs in collaboration
End-to-end
Proposal to delivery

Three Ways RSynergy Helps You Succeed

We don't just write proposals and disappear. We stay involved — because we are the technical team that delivers what the grant funds.

01

Expert Grant Proposal Writing

We write technically rigorous, compelling grant proposals that match what Innovate UK and other funders are actually looking for. Our team has PhD-level depth across AI, engineering, healthcare, and infrastructure — so our proposals don't just say the right things, they demonstrate genuine technical credibility.

We handle the application end-to-end: identifying the right competition, shaping the project scope, writing technical and commercial sections, and reviewing against assessment criteria before submission.

Innovate UK UKRI Horizon Europe SBRI KTP
02

University Partnership Facilitation

Many of the most competitive grant programmes — especially Innovate UK collaborative projects — require or strongly favour partnerships between industry and academia. RSynergy has experience bridging this gap: connecting businesses with the right university research groups and structuring joint applications that satisfy both funder requirements and institutional constraints.

We understand how universities operate within grant consortia — IP agreements, cost recovery models, academic deliverables — and ensure the partnership is set up for success from day one.

Consortium building Academic liaising IP structuring KTP partnerships
03

R&D Delivery — We Do the Research and Build the Solution

This is where RSynergy is genuinely different. Many grant consultants help with the application, then step away at delivery. We stay involved as your technical R&D partner. Our ML engineers and researchers conduct the research, run the experiments, build the models, and develop the working software the project is designed to support.

Whether it's a computer vision system for defect detection, an NLP pipeline for document processing, or a predictive model for energy efficiency — we research it, we build it, we deploy it.

ML research Prototype development Production deployment Progress reporting

From Idea to Funded Project

We work with you at every stage — whether you have a fully-formed idea or just a problem worth solving.

01

Discovery call & opportunity mapping

We understand your organisation, your R&D ambitions, and your current capabilities — then identify the best-fit funding opportunities across Innovate UK, UKRI, and sector-specific programmes.

02

Project scoping & partner identification

We shape the project concept to match funder priorities, define the technical and commercial work packages, and identify university or industry partners where beneficial.

03

Proposal writing & submission

Our team writes all technical sections, builds the financial model, and ensures every assessment criterion is addressed — with iterative review before final submission.

04

R&D delivery & milestone reporting

Once funded, we deliver the agreed research and build the solution — providing the regular progress reports and evidence of spending that Innovate UK requires.

05

Commercialisation support

Post-project, we help you move from prototype toward production readiness — and identify follow-on funding opportunities for further scaling.

Example project lifecycle
🔍
Opportunity identifiedInnovate UK BridgeAI — AI feasibility, up to £175k
Week 1
🏛️
University partner foundResearch group with relevant ML expertise confirmed
Week 2
📝
Proposal drafted & reviewedTechnical & commercial sections complete, ready to submit
Week 4
Application submittedSubmitted via Innovation Funding Service portal
Week 5
🎉
Award notificationGrant approved — project start confirmed
Month 4
⚙️
R&D beginsRSynergy team starts research & development work
Month 5
🚀
Solution deployedWorking AI system delivered & handed over
Month 12

Why Partner with a University?

Collaborative grants between industry and academia unlock higher funding levels, stronger proposals, and access to cutting-edge research infrastructure. RSynergy facilitates these partnerships — and provides the technical credibility that universities want from an industry partner.

💰

Higher grant value

Collaborative projects typically access larger funding pots. Universities can claim 100% of their eligible costs — making the partnership financially attractive for both sides.

📊

Stronger technical credibility

Having an academic institution on your consortium signals research depth to assessors — especially for Innovate UK projects requiring TRL 1–4 research activities.

🔬

Access to research infrastructure

University partners bring lab facilities, datasets, computing resources, and domain expertise that most SMEs simply cannot access on their own.

🎓

Talent pipeline

Academic partnerships create a direct pipeline for PhD researchers, postdocs, and graduates to join your team post-project — building long-term AI capability.

Knowledge Transfer Partnerships

KTPs: A Dedicated Route to University Collaboration

Knowledge Transfer Partnerships (KTPs) are one of the UK's longest-running innovation programmes, placing a recently qualified graduate — funded jointly by Innovate UK and your business — within your organisation to work on a strategic R&D challenge, supervised by a university team.

RSynergy can partner with you to identify, apply for, and deliver a KTP — acting as the academic partner or supporting your application as a technical collaborator.

Other collaborative schemes
Innovate UK Collaborative R&D
UKRI Future Leaders Fellowships
Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund
Catapult network co-innovation projects
Horizon Europe (ERC / Marie Curie)
Defence & Security Accelerator (DASA)

Grant Platforms Worth Exploring

These are the primary platforms where UK AI and software R&D funding is published. RSynergy monitors these on your behalf and alerts you to relevant opportunities.

UKRI Funding Finder
Varies by council

UK Research and Innovation spans seven research councils including EPSRC, MRC, ESRC, and NERC. The funding finder aggregates all open calls across every council — covering everything from fundamental AI research to applied technology programmes.

Research councils Fellowships Collaborative projects
Browse UKRI opportunities →
Find a Tender (GOV.UK)
Contract-based

The official portal for UK public procurement above the legal threshold. Hundreds of AI, data, and software development contracts are published here annually across central government, NHS, local authorities, and devolved administrations.

Public sector contracts NHS Local government
Search active tenders →
Contracts Finder
£10k+

Covers smaller public sector contracts below the Find a Tender threshold. Useful for SMEs entering the public sector market — council-level AI pilots, NHS digital projects, and government innovation challenges often appear here first.

SME-friendly Below-threshold Council contracts
Find contracts →
Crown Commercial Service — AI DPS (RM6200)
Framework-based

A Dynamic Purchasing System giving public sector buyers a pre-vetted route to AI suppliers. Registering on RM6200 puts RSynergy on the approved list for NHS, government, and local authority AI procurement — eliminating lengthy qualification stages for each contract.

AI software ML analytics End-to-end partnerships
View RM6200 framework →
ARIA (Advanced Research & Invention Agency)
Seed to programme-scale

The UK's newest research funder, modelled on DARPA. ARIA funds high-risk, high-reward research with fewer constraints than traditional councils. Excellent fit for RSynergy's more ambitious federated learning, computer vision, and AI safety R&D work.

Frontier research High-risk / high-reward Programme funding
Explore ARIA programmes →
Defence & Security Accelerator (DASA)
£50k — £1M+

DASA funds rapid innovation for UK defence and security challenges. AI, computer vision, NLP, and data analytics are all priority areas. Projects typically run 6–18 months with fast award timelines compared to standard Innovate UK competitions.

Defence AI Security tech Fast turnaround
View DASA challenges →
Grantup & GrantMatch
Aggregator

Independent platforms that aggregate UK grant opportunities with AI-powered matching. Useful for discovering niche sector-specific calls that don't appear prominently on official portals — including R&D tax credit opportunities alongside grant funding.

AI matching Multi-funder R&D tax credits
Explore Grantup →

Live Opportunities Relevant to RSynergy

Updated March 2026 — deadlines change frequently
Opportunity
Funder
Value
Deadline
Fit
Frontier AI Feasibility Studies (SME)
Innovate UK
Innovate UK
Up to £175k
29 Apr 2026
High fit
Software Security & Resilient Supply Chains
Innovate UK
Innovate UK
Share of £5M
29 Apr 2026
High fit
Frontier AI & Foundation Models (Collaborative)
Innovate UK
Innovate UK
Share of £2.5M
29 Apr 2026
High fit
AI³ Delivery Partners — DBT
Dept. for Business & Trade
Dept. Business & Trade
Up to £1M / lot
Jun 2026 start
High fit
BridgeAI — AI Adoption Programme
UKRI Technology Missions Fund
UKRI / Innovate UK
Rolling
Rolling
High fit
Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP)
Innovate UK
Innovate UK
Up to £70k/yr
Rolling
High fit
DWP Nexus AI — NLP & ML Services
Dept. for Work & Pensions / RM6200
DWP via RM6200
TBC
Register now
Good fit
AI for Local Government Public Services
Connected Places Catapult / IPEC
Connected Places Catapult
Project-based
Ongoing
Good fit
Free initial consultation

Have a Project in Mind?
Let's Find the Right Funding for It

Whether you have a clear idea or just a problem worth solving, we can help you identify the right grant, structure a strong proposal, and deliver the R&D on the other side. No obligation — just an honest conversation about what's possible.