Business Grants in South East England
The South East offers business funding through various county councils, LEPs, and enterprise zones. The region has particular strengths in technology, life sciences, and professional services.
Thames Valley and Oxfordshire
The Thames Valley and Oxfordshire are home to significant tech and life sciences clusters. Oxford's universities create innovation funding opportunities, while various council schemes support SME growth.
Sussex and Brighton
Brighton and Hove plus the wider Sussex area has strong creative and digital sectors. Local councils and the Coast to Capital LEP provide business support and grant funding.
Kent and Surrey
Kent and Surrey councils offer business support including grants for SMEs and specific sectors. Enterprise zones in Kent provide additional incentives for certain business types.
South East Business Grants
212 grants found
Collaborate with the UK Human Functional Genomics Initiative
Apply for an Academic and Industry Partnership award as part of the UK Human Functional Genomics Initiative’s (FGx) Innovation and Collaboration fund. The awards will enable the development of links between industrial partners and the FGx. These awards can be used to support feasibility, pilot or initial studies to provide preliminary experiments to explore ideas and generate initial data which could support the development of competitive collaborative grant proposals for longer term projects.
Large Grants
Funding to support Christian places of worship with major urgent repairs costing over £80,000 or the installation/upgrade of kitchen and accessible toilet facilities costing over £30,000.
Engineering Biology Collaborative R&D: Round 3
UK registered businesses can apply for a share of up to £8.5 million to develop and scale Engineering Biology platforms, products and services. This funding is part of UKRI’s Engineering Biology Programme.
Focal award: EPSRC and MHCLG Fire Engineering Skills Hub
Funding for a skills hub to deliver high quality, cohort based doctoral training, and design of high-quality postgraduate level taught programmes in fire engineering.
EPSRC-Defra Reimagining Circularity: full stage
Funding to develop a NetworkPlus that builds new capacity, strengthens community, and enhances research to innovation capabilities focused on the circular economy in data and metrics, or textiles, using the 'Plus' element to accelerate impact.
UKRI: Integration of AI/HPC with quantum computing
Apply for funding to expose and overcome critical bottlenecks associated with the implementation of quantum computing within classical computational workflows. This investment will strengthen the UK’s capability to achieve accessible, UK-based quantum computers that deliver benefits beyond classical supercomputers across key sectors of the economy.
Advancing innovation in accelerated cancer diagnosis
Funding to support innovative CR&D projects focused on the clinical validation and evaluation of early cancer diagnostic technologies and devices, particularly for less common cancers.
DRIVE35 Scale-up Fund drawdown five
UK registered organisations can apply for a share of up to £150 million to create scale up manufacturing facilities for zero emission vehicle technologies. DRIVE35 (Driving Research and Investment in Vehicle Electrification) is a BIST-led programme aimed at transforming the UK’s automotive industry.
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).
FOAK Builder: Programme Entry Expression of Interest
Support to develop a Climate Tech First-of-a-Kind (FOAK) project towards Final Investment Decision (FID). Selected companies receive expert advisory, technical assistance, mentoring, and upskilling support, with potential opportunity to apply for Phase 2 grant funding.
Funding opportunity: Expression of interest: First-of-a-Kind (FOAK) builder: programme entry
Expression of interest competition for UK-registered businesses to apply for support to develop a climate tech FOAK commercial project. Successful applicants could be invited to apply for a larger grant through FOAK builder phase two.
Economic Statistics Centre of Excellence 2027-2030 – invite only
Supports the Economic Statistics Centre of Excellence (ESCoE) to conduct high-quality research that improves economic measurement, enhances key statistics production, modernises data collection, and assists the ONS in shaping global economic measurement standards.
Frequently Asked Questions
Common questions about business grants in South East