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 more�
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