Business Innovation Grant
Grant funding to help Northern Ireland sole traders, micro-businesses and SMEs bring innovative products, services, or processes to market.
Applications open on Monday 10 November 2025 and close at midday on Wednesday 10 December 2025.
Who it is for
To be eligible for BIG, businesses must:
- be based in Northern Ireland
- operate in any sector except for primary agriculture, forestry, logging, fisheries, or aquaculture
- not be an Invest Northern Ireland client or have received grant support from Invest NI in the last five years (excluding specific programmes such as Covid-19 emergency support, ERIG, Innovation Vouchers, or Access to Finance)
Your project must align with Innovate NI's definition of innovation: "The development and implementation of a new or improved product, service, model, or process which is novel, significantly different, and has or will be either introduced to the market or implemented within the business to create value."
Support you can get
You can get a grant between £5,000 and £20,000, at a grant support rate of 70% per applicant.
You can use the grant to develop, commercialise, and implement new or improved products, services, or processes. Grants could go towards activities such as:
- in market research (problem-solving or opportunity validation)
- in market research (product, service or process idea validation)
- ISO 56000 series Innovation Management Audit, including report production
- product or service market validation and testing
- minimal viable product (MVP) development with industry, including market testing
- process design and validation
- market entry planning (including analysis of costs for full product or service development and distribution or implementation)
- design of market entry strategy
- identification and establishment of manufacturing and supply chains outside Northern Ireland
- new market development visits outside Northern Ireland
- attendance at trade fairs and exhibitions outside Northern Ireland
- product launches and demonstrations
- consultancy or sub-contracting to support further product development
Successful applicants will also join the Innovate NI programme for advice and support, and receive an Innovation Recognition Certificate from the Department for the Economy.
How to apply
Once applications open, you will be able to use an online eligibility checker to see if you qualify. If eligible, you will receive instructions on how to submit your application.
This project is part-funded by the UK government through the UK Shared Prosperity Fund.
Support organisers
- Invest Northern Ireland