Funding and Networking Opportunities

Last updated: 05 Oct 2026

Open Funding Opportunities

These are current and new grant-funded opportunities relevant to Createch in the UK and Europe.

1. Currently closed, but may reopen later in 2026 - Creative Enterprise Business Builder: Grant support for companies working in moving image storytelling across film TV games animation and immersive sectors.
2. Open. Closes: 08/10/2026 - Horizon Europe: Circular economy models in the construction sector, from buildings to city scale: Horizon Europe Innovation Action supporting tools, solutions and business models for circular construction at district and city scale. Relevant areas include urban mining, reuse and recycling, secondary bio-based materials, material banks and marketplaces, and whole-life greenhouse-gas assessment. The call has a €47.5 million budget and requires demonstration across multiple cities.
3. Open. Closes: 12/10/2026 17:00 CEST - EIT Culture & Creativity: Shape Acceleration & Scale Post-Acceleration: For tech-enabled, market-driven and IP-based startups and scale-ups in the cultural and creative sectors. Offers venture development and financial support: Shape awards can reach €200,000 for top-ranked ventures, while Scale awards can reach €200,000 or up to €500,000 for eligible RIS-based companies. Open to entities in EU Member States and Horizon Europe Associated Countries, including the UK.
4. Open. Closes: 15/10/2026 16:00 - A guide for the commercialisation of Creative Industries Research: AHRC funding to transform the commercialisation of creative industries research. The project should bring together research organisations, investors, founders and other stakeholders to address barriers to commercialisation and develop a new sector-specific guide. Up to £250,000 is available for one project.
5. Open. Closes: 21/10/2026 17:00 CET - EIT AI & Robotics Community: AI Entrepreneurs Lab: A five-day founder bootcamp for early-stage applied AI and robotics ventures, aimed particularly at Master’s and PhD students and graduates with a strong idea. Up to 15 participants or teams are selected and up to five €10,000 prizes are awarded to ventures showing the strongest evidence and progress.
6. Open. Closes: 28/10/2026 16:00 - National Materials Innovation Programme: CR&D Rd1: UK registered businesses can apply for a share of up to £12 million for collaborative industrial research accelerating advanced materials innovation. Projects must be collaborative and include at least one UK SME. Relevant to Createch businesses working with new, lower-impact or high-performance materials and associated technologies.
7. Open. Closes: 29/10/2026 16:00 - CoSTAR Satellite Labs: Accessible creative R&D infrastructure: AHRC funding to establish accessible creative-sector R&D infrastructure within the CoSTAR Network. The labs should reduce barriers to technology adoption and support commercialisation, scale-up and investment for creative technology businesses. Up to two Satellite Labs of up to £2 million each are expected.
8. Open. Closes: 29/10/2026 16:00 - CoSTAR Showcase Labs: Createch infrastructure and commercialisation: AHRC funding for national creative-sector R&D infrastructure within the CoSTAR Network, focused on technology adoption, Createch commercialisation, scale-up and investment. Up to two Showcase Labs of up to £4 million each are expected.
9. Open. Stage 1 closes: 30/10/2026 17:00 CET - EIT Culture & Creativity: Innovation Projects Open Call: For startups, scale-ups and SMEs in fashion, architecture and audiovisual media, with priorities including circular textile technologies, bio-based building materials and responsible AI for content creation. Selected Stage 1 applicants receive €20,000 to develop a business plan; up to 11 projects can progress to implementation funding of up to €900,000 each. UK organisations are eligible as Horizon Europe Associated Country entities.
10. Open. Closes: 03/11/2026 16:00 - EPSRC-Defra Reimagining Circularity: full stage: Three-year NetworkPlus funding to build capacity, strengthen communities and improve research-to-innovation capability for the circular economy, with a focus on data and metrics or textiles. The total fund is £8.656 million, with projects up to £5.41 million full economic cost.
11. Open. Closes: 10/11/2026 16:00 - Transformative sustainable AI technologies: UKRI funding for speculative, high-risk research capable of delivering a step change in the sustainability of future AI systems. Projects should consider technological innovation across the AI stack. The total fund is £12.05 million and projects can have a full economic cost of up to £602,500.
12. Open. Closes: 11/11/2026 11:00 - Frontier AI: SME Champions, phase 1: UK registered SMEs can apply for a share of up to £3.1 million for feasibility studies in frontier artificial intelligence and machine learning technologies with a clear route to defensible scale-up. Relevant to Createch SMEs developing advanced AI-enabled products, services or production technologies.
13. Open. Closes: 01/12/2026 16:00 - Attendance and engagement at UK sporting, cultural and heritage sites: AHRC and DCMS funding for novel data-intensive approaches to capturing engagement with unticketed cultural, heritage and sporting activities and locations. The research must demonstrate a deployable tool in at least one DCMS sector. Awards are between £1.1 million and £1.32 million full economic cost.
14. Open: Closes: 31/12/2026 - Creative UK: Creative Enterprise Business Builder: Creative UK are excited to introduce the Creative Enterprise Business Builder, a grant initiative designed to support companies who work in moving image for storytelling, spanning film television, games, animation and immersive industries. With grants of up to £2,500, beneficiaries will be able to work with a consultant to build meaningful connections and create opportunities for business growth. The grants can be used to subsidise the cost of working with an expert to support companies’ specific goals including business planning and strategy as well as offering other specialist expertise, knowledge or contacts. Examples include marketing strategy, monetisation of IP, international operation, and more.
15. Open. Various closing dates between January and June 2027 - Horizon Europe 2026-27: Horizontal Actions - Bridging Actions: A series of topics aiming to facilitate a smooth transition between Horizon Europe 2021–2027 and the next EU R&I Framework Programme, Horizon Europe 2028–2034. e largest calls can provide up to €20m of funding for consortia. Individual SMEs can receive up to €300k each for Skills Bridging Actions. Most Horizon Europe funding can cover 70%-100% of costs.
16. Various closing dates in Sep 2026, Oct 2026, May 2027 and Sep 2027 - Horizon Europe 2026-27: Culture, Creativity and Inclusive Society (Cluster 2): Funded by the EU’s Horizon Europe programme for Cluster 2, this Work Programme document outlines the expected impacts as set out by Pillar 2 of the strategic plan and details specific calls for proposals and their relevant conditions to apply. The available topics in Cluster 2, “Culture, Creativity and Inclusive Society”, are summarised below; for 2026-27, they have been subdivided into 3 Destinations: “Innovative Research on Democracy and Governance“, “Innovative Research on the European Cultural Heritage and the Cultural and Creative Industries“, and “Innovative Research on Social and Economic Transformations“. For further details on each call, view the 2026-27 Cluster 2 Work Programme. The calls in this cluster include some single-stage calls opening in May 2026 and closing in September or October 2026, some single-stage calls opening in May 2027 and closing September 2027, and some two-stage calls opening in March 2027 with first-stage deadline May 2027.
17. Open. Applications accepted year-round - SMART: SCOTLAND grants for feasibility studies for SMEs: The SMART: SCOTLAND grant is one of Scottish Enterprise’s research and development (R&D) grants that aims to support high-risk, highly ambitious projects. It provides support to conduct feasibility studies. It’s only available to small and medium enterprises (SMEs) based in Scotland, and supports activities that have a commercial endpoint. The grant can support feasibility studies that help to show your idea could work in the real world. Your business will need to own any intellectual property (IP) generated from your project.
18. Upcoming. Opening and closing dates to be confirmed - NMIP sandpit: Digital materials for accelerated innovation: Upcoming EPSRC sandpit bringing together multidisciplinary participants to develop high-impact projects that use digital approaches to accelerate the translation of materials research. The sandpit will run for three to five days; participation does not itself guarantee UKRI funding.

Networking Opportunities

These are networking opportunities in the near future relevant to Createch businesses.

• 13–14 October 2026 - Farnborough, UK - Circular Tech Expo 2026: The UK’s flagship event for enterprise technology lifecycle and circular innovation, covering secure reuse, IT asset management, e-waste recovery, ESG accountability, carbon reporting and sustainable digital infrastructure. Brings together enterprise IT leaders, sustainability executives, infrastructure operators and circular-technology solution providers.
• 20–22 October 2026 - Eindhoven, Netherlands - Design Innovation Sessions – Dutch Design Week 2026: Three professional sessions bringing design, research and practice together around societal challenges, with a networking lunch after each session. Themes include Thriving Planet, exploring circular textiles and digitalisation, and Digital Futures, examining AI, creativity and responsible innovation in the creative industries.
• 27 October–8 November 2026 - Kortrijk, Belgium - WONDER Festival 2026: A city-wide festival and networking platform for design, technology, art and innovation in UNESCO City of Design Kortrijk. More than 300 designers, artists, companies, organisations and schools present work across the city, with a strong emphasis on creative, innovative, sustainable and digital ideas.
• October 2026 - Sofia, Bulgaria - CreaTech Summit South east Europe: For the fourth consecutive year, CreaTech Summit South-East Europe returns to Sofia, bringing together creators, innovators, entrepreneurs, policymakers, investors, researchers and industry leaders from across Europe for a full day dedicated to the future of the creative and technology sectors. This year's edition will explore one of the most exciting questions of our time: Artificial Intelligence × Artistic Intelligence How is AI reshaping creativity? How do we move beyond automation towards collaboration? And how can technology help us unlock the next level of human creativity? The programme will feature discussions on gaming and AI, the future of design, festivals as drivers of creative ecosystems, the next skills for the CreaTech economy, creativity and intellectual property in the age of AI, a live pitching session showcasing the next generation of film creators, and much more.
• 17–18 November 2026 - London, UK - Game || Change: Global Sportswear Futures Symposium 2026: London College of Fashion symposium bringing together industry leaders, material innovators, designers, researchers and practitioners across sports, fashion and technology. Focuses on design futures, materials innovation, circular systems and responsible materials, with opportunities for cross-sector collaboration.
• November 2026 - Valencia, Spain - EuroXR 2026 - 23rd EuroXR International Conference: Following the success of EuroXR 2025 in Winterthur, Switzerland, which gathered more than 235 participants from academia, industry, and European projects, the 23rd EuroXR International Conference – EuroXR 2026 will take place in Valencia, Spain, from November 3rd to 6th, 2026 (Tuesday–Friday, 6 half-days), with satellite events scheduled for November 2nd–3rd. Organized by the European Association for eXtended Reality (EuroXR) together with the Institute for Research on Human-Centred Technology (Human-Tech), Universidad Politécnica de Valencia, the conference will be locally co-chaired by Dr. Mariano Alcañiz Raya, Director of Human-Tech and LabLENI. This edition will also be organized as a joint event with the European Erasmus+ project Alliance4XR, which will celebrate its final event during the conference. In addition, other European projects will participate, showcasing initiatives that address key themes such as XR in Industry, XR for Cultural Heritage, and XR in Education. Among the satellite events, the Virtual Worlds Association Forum will take place on November 2nd–3rd, providing a dedicated space to explore the evolution of virtual worlds from a European perspective and to strengthen collaboration between research, industry, and policy communities.
• November 2026 - Manchester, UK - Beyond 2026: BEYOND 2026 is the UK's leading conference and festival for research, innovation and emerging technology in the creative industries. Taking place from 23–25 November 2026 at MediaCity in Salford, Greater Manchester, it brings together creators, technologists, researchers, investors, policymakers and creative businesses to explore the future of culture, creativity and technology. The 2026 programme is organised around two core themes: Experience (24 November) – exploring how emerging technologies are transforming creative experiences across screen, gaming, music, live performance, immersive media, XR, AI and digital storytelling. Growth (25 November) – examining how creative businesses can secure investment, develop intellectual property, access infrastructure and scale in an increasingly technology-driven economy.
• 7–9 December 2026 - Brussels, Belgium - UnitedXR: UnitedXR Europe brings together the European XR ecosystem across immersive technology, creative production, research, startups, investors and policy. The 2026 conference and exhibition includes sessions and workshops, an expo, scientific conference, startup competition and curated networking, with 2,500+ attendees, 180+ exhibitors and 200+ speakers expected.
• December 2026 - Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia - SIGGRAPH Asia: SIGGRAPH Asia 2026, the 19th ACM SIGGRAPH Conference and Exhibition on Computer Graphics and Interactive Techniques in Asia, will take place from 1 – 4 December 2026 at the Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre (KLCC), Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia – marking the first-ever SIGGRAPH Asia edition in Malaysia. As a roving event across Asia, SIGGRAPH Asia blends cutting-edge computer graphics and interactive techniques with the host country’s unique culture. As a premier event in computer graphics, interactive techniques, AI, XR, animation, and gaming, SIGGRAPH Asia brings together researchers, developers, creators, and industry professionals to exchange ideas and showcase innovations shaping the future.
• 12–13 January 2027 - Paris, France - Museum Connections 2027: International professional event for museums, cultural institutions and tourism venues focused on innovation, sustainable economy, digital technology and visitor experience. Combines exhibitions and conferences with opportunities to meet technology suppliers, cultural-sector decision-makers and international partners.
• March 2027 - Austin TX, USA - SXSW: SXSW is 850+ total conference sessions, 600+ mentor and networking events, 4,400 musicians performing over 300 live showcases, 375+ film and tv show screenings, four nights of comedy, and 450 brands activating. 7 days in Austin to connect, discover, and create what’s next.
• March 2027 - San Francisco CA, USA - GDC Festival of Gaming: Rooted in decades of legacy, GDC has set the global standard for technical excellence, creative innovation, and the connections that drive the industry forward. The Festival of Gaming expands that legacy. Across five days, every discipline, every role, and every stage of the game-making lifecycle is on one program – from design and code to publishing, marketing, and investment. It’s still the rigorous, developer-trusted content you expect from GDC, now amplified with broader perspectives, new interactive formats, and more opportunities to learn, collaborate, and celebrate together. This 40th edition marks an expansion of everything GDC stands for: A festival of ideas, innovation, and imagination. A space that reflects your journey, your role, and your future in games.
• April 2027 - Laval, France - Laval Virtual: Laval Virtual is an annual international conference and exhibition focused on extended reality (XR), including virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), and related immersive technologies. Held in Laval, France since 1999, it is widely recognized as one of Europe's leading gatherings for XR professionals, researchers, startups, and creators, combining exhibitions, conferences, networking, and innovation competitions.
• 18–21 May 2027 - Brussels, Belgium - TransformIT Europe 2027: European trade fair and conference connecting AI, sustainability and digital transformation. Themes include circular economy, Green IT, sustainable infrastructure, AI for sustainability, digital twins and ESG, with exhibitors, conference delegates, expert talks, live demonstrations and professional networking.

Createch Grant and Loan Funding Landscape (UK & Europe)

The following sources of grants and loans are relevant to Createch SMEs across the UK and Europe.

Createch Venture Funding Landscape

The following global funding sources of venture funding are relevant to Createch SMEs across the UK and Europe.

This page is updated quarterly, so be sure to return and check for new opportunities.

Disclaimer.

Copyright© 2023 The Centre for Sustainable Design