Contracts for Innovation: industrial human relevant drug models
Funding of up to £2 million for organisations to develop and commercialise non‑animal methods for assessing the pre‑clinical pharmacokinetics and cardiovascular safety of new medicines.
This competition opens on 2 March 2026 and closes at 11am on 15 April 2026.
Who it is for
This competition is open to single applicants.
To lead a project, you can:
- be an organisation of any size, including those based in the EU, EEA or internationally
- work alone or with the subcontracted skills and expertise of others from business, research organisations, research and technology organisations, or the third sector (charities, social enterprises and voluntary groups)
Your project must:
- start by 1 July 2026
- end by 31 March 2027
- last between six and nine months
- have total costs of no more than £200,000 (inclusive of VAT)
Support you can get
This competition is part of the UK's Alternative Industrialised Models for ethical Drug Discovery (AIM) programme, delivered in partnership with the National Centre for the Replacement, Refinement and Reduction of Animals in Research (NC3Rs). This competition aims to support organisations developing disruptive and innovative alternatives for improved pharmacokinetic and cardiac safety studies to:
- further qualify the methods towards broad adoption
- or improve their applicability in a drug development setting
This is Phase One of a potential two-phase competition.
Phase One offers up to £200,000 per project (inclusive of VAT) to support technical feasibility studies lasting up to nine months. Up to 12 projects are expected to be funded.
Successful Phase One projects may be invited to apply for Phase Two, which provides up to £1.5 million per project (inclusive of VAT) for prototype development and evaluation.
Support organisers
- Innovate UK
- NC3Rs