Business Grants in Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland offers unique business funding opportunities through Invest NI, local councils, and cross-border programmes with the Republic of Ireland. Belfast and other NI businesses can access support for innovation, exports, and growth.
Invest NI Funding
Invest Northern Ireland is the main business development agency for NI. They provide grants, loans, and support for businesses looking to grow, innovate, or export. Their programmes cover R&D, capital investment, skills development, and market entry.
Local Council Support
Northern Ireland's 11 councils offer their own business support programmes. Belfast City Council, Derry City and Strabane, and other councils run grant schemes for local businesses, particularly SMEs and startups.
Cross-Border Programmes
NI businesses can also access cross-border funding programmes with the Republic of Ireland and EU-funded initiatives. InterTradeIreland supports cross-border trade and innovation projects.
Northern Ireland Business Grants
66 grants found
ADOPT facilitator support grant: round 10
Farming, growing or forestry businesses based in England can apply for a grant of £2,500, to engage an external project facilitator to support the development of a full ADOPT grant application.
Capacity building: clinical research training fellowship
A fellowship opportunity for registered healthcare professionals who are PhD graduates working outside of research to reacquire research skills, refresh their research momentum, and pursue a clinical academic research career within the Medical Research Council remit.
UK-Switzerland CR&D Round 3
Enhance UK and Swiss collaborations and capabilities in emerging technology fields (Semiconductors, Life Sciences, or Engineering Biology), resulting in the development and delivery of new innovations and applications across a broad range of sectors.
DRIVE35 innovation fund: collaborate three
UK registered organisations can apply for a share of up to £20 million for late stage collaborative research and development projects supporting the UK’s transition to zero emission vehicles and a pathway to a net zero automotive industry.
Doctoral focal awards in data-intensive sciences
Funding opportunity for doctoral focal awards in data-intensive sciences. Builds on STFC's previous investment to provide students with skills and training for careers in academia or industry. Harmonised under the UK Research and Innovation Doctoral Focal Awards scheme.
computing resources on the STFC DiRAC HPC facility (RAC19)
Apply for computing resources on the STFC DiRAC High Performance Computing (HPC) facility: Resource Allocation Committee (RAC) 19th opportunity. DiRAC offers computing resources on four systems: Data Intensive Service at Cambridge, Data Intensive Service at Leicester, Extreme Scaling Service at Edinburgh, and Memory Intensive Service at Durham. Successful awards will begin on 1 April 2027. Short proposals can be for up to one year and thematic proposals can be for up to three years.
UKRI Translation: Impact Acceleration: CHERI IKC
Apply for funding to establish an Innovation and Knowledge Centre (IKC) focused on driving adoption of the Capability Hardware Enhanced RISC Instructions (CHERI) security by design technology. The aim is to build critical mass towards commercialisation of CHERI technologies.
Scaling performance of quantum computing hardware: CR&D
Innovate UK will invest up to £33 million to support the development and production readiness of quantum computing hardware device technologies, solving critical system development challenges in hardware and associated software required for universal fault tolerant quantum computing platforms.
Funding opportunity: Scaling performance of quantum computing hardware: CR&D
UK registered organisations can apply for a share of up to £33 million to develop device level hardware and associated software to meet the scale, programmability, and runtime performance needs of universal fault tolerant quantum computers.
Early independence: BBSRC fellowships: full stage
Apply for this Early Independence Fellowship to support you to establish your own research niche, and conduct independent research within a host laboratory. Your fellowship will last three years.
EPSRC Strategic Infrastructure 2026 (invite only)
Apply for funding to purchase strategic infrastructure (equipment, resources or both). The funding seeks to improve UK scientific capability and enable cutting-edge research that aligns with national priorities, including those within the UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) strategy and EPSRC Strategic Delivery Plan.
UKRI translation: MRC proof of concept: stage two
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).
Frequently Asked Questions
Common questions about business grants in Northern Ireland