News story

Defence Innovation Loans now open

Loans up to £1.6m available. Don’t miss out on the opportunity to commercialise your defence solution

»Ê¹ÚÌåÓýapp Defence and Security Accelerator (DASA) is pleased to launch Defence Innovation Loans which has £10 million to lend for innovative defence solutions.

Accessible to SMEs, and with a below market interest rate of 7.4% per annum, the Defence Innovation Loan provides an excellent opportunity to apply for affordable funds to help you commercialise your defence solutions.

Defence Innovation Loans: An introduction

How to apply?

Check out the full document and submit your idea.

Defence Innovation Loans Webinar

On Thursday 9th September, DASA and Innovate UK hosted a live webinar to answer all of your questions about Defence Innovation Loans, where viewers spoke to our panel of experts about how to submit a successful application.

Watch our previous webinar

We received some great questions during our last Defence Innovation Loans webinar. Catch up on what you missed here.

How much is available for a Defence Innovation Loan?

»Ê¹ÚÌåÓýapp total of £10 million is available for the Defence Innovation Loan competition this year, of which comprises £5M from the Defence Innovation Fund and £5M from Army.

You can apply for a loan between £250,000 and £1.6 million with a below market interest rate of 7.4% per annum. This loan can cover up to 100% of eligible project costs to aid the commercialisation of the solution and overall term of the loan must not exceed 7 years.

Please note, Innovate UK will carry out the Defence Innovation Loan credit evaluation and you will enter into a loan agreement and security agreement with Innovate UK Loans Ltd.

Read the full DASA competition document for more information on Defence Innovation Loans.

Who can apply for a Defence Innovation Loan?

To apply for a Defence Innovation Loan you must:

  • be a UK registered SME
  • intend to exploit the results in the UK or overseas to make a significant and positive impact on the UK economy and/or productivity
  • give evidence that your business is suitable to take on a loan

Please note, individuals, academic institutions, research organisations and large companies are not eligible for innovation loans.

What kind of innovation will be considered for a loan?

Defence Innovation Loans are open to innovative ideas to improve the defence of the UK. Your innovation must be mature at TRL 6 or above, to ensure the solution can be commercialised within the time scale of the Innovation Loan. »Ê¹ÚÌåÓýappre also must clearly be evidence of a defence need for the innovative solution.

Two tracks of funding

»Ê¹ÚÌåÓýapp Defence Innovation Loan has two tracks of funding, covering general Defence solutions and more specific solutions for the Army.

Track 1: Defence Innovation Fund (£5M)

Track 1 is open to innovative ideas to improve the Defence of the UK.

Track 2: Army Innovation Fund (£5M)

Track 2 is open to innovations which align with any of the priority areas below and targets an Army end user.

Priority areas include:

  • Army industrial engagement framework decision-support
  • directed energy weapons
  • human performance enhancement
  • information advantage
  • robotics and autonomous systems
  • and moreâ€�

Ready to apply?

Read the full DASA competition document here.

For more on Defence Innovation Loans, watch the video below:

Defence Innovation Loans: Everything you need to know

Updates to this page

Published 21 October 2021