Business Grants in South West England
The South West provides diverse business funding from urban Bristol to rural Cornwall and Devon. The region has strengths in aerospace, marine, agritech, and creative industries.
West of England Combined Authority
The West of England CA covering Bristol, Bath, and South Gloucestershire runs business support programmes. Their schemes focus on innovation, clean growth, and skills development.
Cornwall and Devon
Cornwall and Devon have historically accessed significant funding for rural and coastal business development. While funding structures have changed, support continues through local councils and new programmes.
Heart of the South West
The Heart of the South West LEP covers a large area including Devon, Somerset, and parts of Dorset. They support businesses across various sectors with a focus on rural and coastal economies.
South West Business Grants
229 grants found
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.
Invite only: Precision prevention: biological mechanisms of response variation
Apply for funding to investigate why biomedical prevention interventions work differently across people. Projects must generate mechanistic evidence in humans by testing biomedical experimental interventions or challenges in pre-disease or early disease states, providing insight into how to improve the targeting and effectiveness of precision prevention strategies.
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.
Energy Resilience Accelerator – helping SMEs scale their resilience innovations
A programme designed to connect ambitious SMEs with industry partners (Centrica, NHS England, NESO, NGED, SSEN) to collaboratively develop trial proposals tackling pressing energy resilience challenges, with fully funded technical and business support and potential trial funding.
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.
Frontier AI: SME Champions, phase 1
Feasibility studies for frontier artificial intelligence, and machine learning technologies with a clear route to defensible scale-up.
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.
Second Act Entrepreneur Fund
A grant funding and mentorship initiative aimed at supporting UK business owners and aspiring entrepreneurs aged 40 and over to start or grow their business.
Frequently Asked Questions
Common questions about business grants in South West