All London RDSC members, together with the Defence & Security sector in general, have a desire to sustain and grow their businesses. 

Finding new funding opportunities, winning new business with an existing and new customer base and accessing the right kind of funding and finance are key to any business’ success. 

Whatever challenges there are in the political landscape, there are still new contract opportunities out there, as well as access to grants and other funding sources; Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEP) websites in particular are great places to start exploring local options.

Funding Opportunities

Sell to UK government

• Contracts Finder – search and apply for contracts worth over £12,000 (including VAT) across all UK government and its agencies
• Find a Tender service – search and apply for high value contracts (>£139,688) in the UK’s public and utilities sectors.
• Crown Commercial Service – frameworks, dynamic purchasing systems (DPS), catalogues and the low value purchase system to help you sell to 20,000 UK public sector buyers spending over £31 billion a year.
• Blue Light Commercial – supply your products and services to UK blue light organisations
• Defence Sourcing Portal – The official (and definitive) source of MOD contract opportunities
• Acquisition Pipeline – early notification of future defence procurement opportunities

Sell to UK government

• Contracts Finder – search and apply for contracts worth over £12,000 (including VAT) across all UK government and its agencies
• Find a Tender service – search and apply for high value contracts (>£139,688) in the UK’s public and utilities sectors.
• Crown Commercial Service – frameworks, dynamic purchasing systems (DPS), catalogues and the low value purchase system to help you sell to 20,000 UK public sector buyers spending over £31 billion a year.
• Blue Light Commercial – supply your products and services to UK blue light organisations
• Defence Sourcing Portal – The official (and definitive) source of MOD contract opportunities
• Acquisition Pipeline – early notification of future defence procurement opportunities

Frameworks

• G-Cloud – apply to sell cloud hosting, software and support to the UK public sector
• R-Cloud – where suppliers of science and technology research can sign up to access opportunities from across the Ministry of Defence
• Dstl Frameworks – register to allow Dstl to more easily procure your science & technology research

Innovation funding and opportunities in Defence & Security

• DASA – funding the development of next generation technologies for UK defence & security
• Dstl – how to sell to or work with Dstl
• DIANA – NATO’s Defence Innovation Accelerator for the North Atlantic. External website here.
• ACE – collaborative working between the Home Office’s Homeland Security Group and industry and academia to deliver frontline digital and data technologies
• JSARC – brings together government, industry and academia to create a joint response to national security challenges
• DAIC – propose your contributions to the Defence AI Centre
• Futures Lab – early engagement with SMEs, academia and industry at pace to provide solutions to complex MOD challenges
• NSSIF – HMG’s corporate venturing arm, investing in advanced D&S technology firms
• UKRI – the UK’s primary research funding councils
• InnovateUK – the UK’s national innovation agency supporting business-led innovation in all sectors, technologies and UK regions
• Ploughshares – Licence Ministry of Defence innovations and intellectual property

Agile access to the supply chain through B2B partnerships

• DTEP – DASA-run programme which match funds the integration of novel SME technology into the existing defence supply chain
• Leidos – early notification of logistics and supply tenders and frameworks
• SME Action Plan – engage with Strategic Defence Suppliers
• Helios – for micros and SMEs to engage with the defence and security JOSCAR buyer Community

Support for innovators entering the defence & security environment

• UKDSE Export Faculty – export guidance and support for UK SMEs in the defence, physical security and cyber security sectors
• ADS – The UK’s Aerospace, Defence, Security & Resilience and Space focussed trade association
• techUK – The UK’s Trade Association specifically for technology, with a specific Defence & Security programme

Procurement Guidance

• Home Office
• MOD

Please contact us at contact@londonrdsc.co.uk if any of the links have expired or if you wish to propose additions that provide altruistic support to accessing markets and growing prosperity for our members

 

How to connect with Defence Innovation

  
UK Defence Innovation – GOV.UK 
All the below information about UKDI can be found on our Gov.uk link. I’ve just put it all in one place for ease:  

Log in or register for a UKDI account – GOV.UK

Use the above link to register for a UKDI Account to enable you to:   

 
Submit a proposal – GOV.UK (Please ensure that the guidance is followed)  

The online service is UKDI’s proposal submission service. To access UKDI services and apply for funding, you must have an account. We recommend you use a Google Chrome browser when accessing the online submission service.   

Defence Innovation Loans

 Loans of up to £1 million with a below market interest rate of 7.4% per annum to help convert your mature defence innovation into a strong business proposition for defence procurement.   

Market Exploration

UKDI conducts Market Explorations to determine future activities.   

 
Ideas Marketplace (Temporarily paused as of 7th Nov 2025)  

UKDI works with innovative organisations to deliver the next generation of security tools and services.   

• Access over £250 Million in specialist Government funding   
• List your ideas on our ideas marketplace (UK registered companies only)   
• Get notifications about updates to available funding opportunities   

UKDI Competitions and Services – GOV.UK

At UKDI, we find and fund exploitable innovation to support UK defence and security quickly and effectively, and support UK prosperity.   

• Open Call for innovation  
• Themed competitions   
• Competitions in our pipeline  

UKDI Case Studies

Learn how UKDI works with customers and suppliers to find and fund exploitable innovation to support UK defence and security.   

 
Guidance and how to get in touch with us

How to get in touch with UKDI for advice and guidance   

Defence Technology Exploitation Programme (DTEP) (Currently closed until ??/??/????)

The Defence Technology Exploitation Programme (DTEP) aims to inspire companies to win new business, develop industrial capabilities, and provide new cutting-edge answers to defence problems at home and abroad, ensuring the UK expands its competitive, pioneering and world-class defence and security industries.

Individual grants of up to 50% of a project’s value – to a maximum of £500K per grant – will be available through DTEP for collaborative projects between SMEs and larger suppliers, supporting the integration of novel technologies, materials and processes into Defence supply chains.

The Defence Office for Small Business Growth (DOSBG)

Helping smaller businesses access the information they need.

UK Innovation & Science Seed Fund (UKI2S) (POC: Defence & Security – Alexander Leigh)

Invest in early-stage companies whose products and services can keep us safe, protected and ahead of the game.

Through their Pitch for Investment – UKI2S invest, fund and support early-stage businesses and spinouts specialising in one of the following investment areas:

Defence & Security – UKI2S 

Engineering Biology – UKI2S 

Fusion – UKI2S 

Knowledge Assets – UKI2S 

Partner Innovation – UKI2S 

Space – UKI2S 

NATO DIANA UK accelerator 

The UK accelerator has been chosen as one of the 13 affiliated accelerator sites participating in NATO DIANA’s 2025 accelerator programme.   

JANUS

IoT Tribe will lead a group of specialist organisations, operating under the name ‘Janus’, reflecting the dual-use nature of technologies that will advance both defence and commercial applications. Janus will work alongside UKDI to offer a UK defence Accelerator, strengthening the UK’s position within NATO’s Defence Innovation Accelerator for the North Atlantic (DIANA) initiative.

UKDI has appointed IoT Tribe as its delivery partner for business acceleration services, operating from UKDI’s London hub. 

IoT Tribe will lead a group of specialist organisations, operating under the name ‘Janus’, reflecting the dual-use nature of technologies that will advance both defence and commercial applications. Janus will work alongside UKDI to offer a UK defence Accelerator, strengthening the UK’s position within NATO’s Defence Innovation Accelerator for the North Atlantic (DIANA) initiative. 

There are other ways that the MOD advertises opportunities and these are summarised here: Find contracts in technology and research and development with the Ministry of Defence – GOV.UK

This is a list of places to find Defence contracts and funding in the technology and innovative research and development (R&D) space.

Defence science technology laboratory (Dstl)    

The Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl) brings mission success to UK defence and security through science and technology advantage.  

Ministry of Defence (MoD) Science & Technology (S&T) Portfolio to engage with:   

• Small & medium sized enterprise (SME) industry,   
• Non-traditional defence suppliers (NTDS) and,   
• Micro Organisations.   

‘Dstl Searchlight helps bring together our industry partner community through a regular drumbeat of webinars that are advertised on EventBrite (follow Searchlight on EventBrite to be notified of upcoming events: https://dstlsearchlight.eventbrite.com).  

In-line with MOD and Dstl SME Action Plans, the Searchlight initiative aims to attract SME, NTDS and micro-organisations to help deliver a projected increase in Dstl research spending with external companies through our various routes to market, such as:    

Dstl science and technology procurement frameworks – GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)   

• Analysis for science and technology research in defence (ASTRID) framework,   
• Serapis framework,   
• Weapons Sector Research Framework (WSRF),   
• Research Cloud (R-Cloud)  

Other useful connections:  

• Royal Navy (RN) – NavyX, London Tech Bridge   
• Army Research, Innovation and Experimentation Laboratory (ARIEL),   
• Defence Battlelab,   
• Royal Air Force (RAF) Rapid Capability Office (RCO).   
• Defence Artificial Intelligence Centre – GOV.UK 

As well as having access to this increased funding, companies could also benefit through working at the cutting edge of research and technology, with potential exploitation into new defence and security systems and applications.   

You may already have a mature product (of a high Technical Readiness Level [TRL]), so may I also suggest that it may be to your benefit to connect with various other agencies Gov.uk web pages via the Defence Sourcing Portal (DSP), such as:  

• Defence Equipment & Support (DE&S): Delivering a programme of work of over £13bn annually, DE&S ensure the UK Armed Forces have all the equipment and support they need for their operations.  
• Futures Capability Innovation (FCI) – Now called Rapid Innovation Team [RIT]), part of DE&S: The FCI exists to work collaboratively with Military customer and other teams in the MOD to turn ideas into military operational advantage, working at pace to put battle winning technology into the hands of our Armed Forces so they have the advantage on land, at sea and in the air. It also exists to trial new ways of working which other parts of DE&S can build upon.  
• Procurement at MOD – Ministry of Defence – GOV.UK: Doing business with defence: information for those looking to become a supplier or contractor.  
• Contracts Finder: Use the Find a Tender service to search and apply for high value contracts in the UK’s public and utilities sectors. High value contracts are usually above £139,688, including VAT.  
• MOD Acquisition Pipeline: The Acquisition Pipeline is a forward look of potential procurement activity undertaken by the Ministry of Defence (MOD).  
• HM Government Communication Centre: Contact Us | HMGCC
• Ploughshare has created a range of services designed to fit every need, from identifying IP to a comprehensive commercialisation offering based on their 20 years of expertise. Contact – Ploughshare, Innovation made real
• Innovate UK: Their mission is to help companies to grow through their development and commercialisation of new products, processes and services. Apply for funding – UKRI Connect – Innovate UK Business Connect
• JOSCAR – Find out more about gaining JOSCAR accreditation here
• Neutral Vendor Framework for Innovation (NVfI) – Constellia – A new procurement initiative sponsored by MOD.