Business Grants in North East England
The North East offers business funding through the North East Combined Authority, local councils, and the regional Growth Hub. The region is investing heavily in clean energy, advanced manufacturing, and digital sectors.
North East Combined Authority
The newly formed North East Mayoral Combined Authority is developing business support programmes across the region. They focus on growth sectors and creating quality employment opportunities.
Newcastle and Gateshead
Newcastle and Gateshead councils provide business support including grants for SMEs, startups, and specific sectors. The area's universities create additional innovation funding opportunities.
Wider Region Support
Sunderland, Durham, Northumberland, and Teesside each have their own grant schemes. The region's focus on clean energy and offshore wind creates sector-specific funding opportunities.
North East Business Grants
141 grants found
Large Grant full applications: November 2026 (invite only)
Funding to support innovative, large-scale and complex projects that tackle big science questions and have the potential to produce world-leading research.
Transformative sustainable AI technologies
Apply for funding for projects focused on speculative and high-risk research with the potential to deliver high rewards and a step change in the sustainability of future AI systems. Projects should consider technological innovations across the AI stack.
Teacher Development Fund
Supports schools and arts organisations working in equal partnership to deliver professional learning for teachers, enabling arts-based approaches that create equitable classrooms for primary-age children.
Exploring the frontiers of environmental research 2026
Apply for funding to pursue truly novel curiosity-driven environmental research that is at an early stage of development and has the potential to be transformative. Projects should focus on preliminary investigation that may inform future activities and applicants should articulate the potential for impact of the project outcomes.
UKRI Translation: MRC Proof of Concept: stage one
Apply for funding to develop and test novel therapeutics, medical devices, diagnostics and other interventions across any stage of the developmental pathway, from prototype development, through pre-clinical refinement, to early-phase clinical studies (up to phase 2a).
Funding opportunity: Economic research on the returns to R&D investment
Apply for funding to support research that can help develop new measurements of the return on investments in research and development (R&D).
Holiday Grants
Offers one-off grants for schools, youth groups, and non-profit organisations to take children aged 13 and under on recreational day trips or short residential trips. Supports fun, enriching experiences for children facing financial hardship, systemic inequity, or disability.
UK Obesity Research Institute
Director-led applications to investigate mechanistic biomedical drivers of obesity and related cardiometabolic disease and deliver transformative impact in obesity research. The director, supported by a leadership team, will lead the design and delivery of a collaborative institute focusing on key barriers to unlock understanding of the causes and consequences of obesity to enable targeted prevention and treatment.
Aldi Sports Fund
A grant scheme supporting community and grassroots sports organisations across Great Britain to help cover essential costs such as equipment, coaching, kit, and facility hire.
Unlocking advanced capabilities in conservation and heritage science
Apply for funding to strengthen conservation and heritage science infrastructure by building sustainable national capability, improving access to nationally significant facilities and addressing unmet user demand. Projects should expand collaboration with industry to accelerate technology development, commercialisation and knowledge exchange.
MRC Centre of Research Excellence: round five: outline application
Apply for MRC Centre of Research Excellence (MRC CoRE) funding to tackle complex and interdisciplinary health challenges. MRC CoREs will be funded for up to 14 years, with an initial seven-year award based on 80% FEC funding.
Commissioned Rehabilitative Services General Grant Scheme
A grant scheme by Her Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS) to award multiple competed general grants across probation regions. It supports services for people with shared protected characteristics or experiences, aiming to promote rehabilitation and desistance, reduce reoffending, and improve probation engagement.
Frequently Asked Questions
Common questions about business grants in North East