Ofgem Strategic Innovation Fund: Round 5 Challenges - Discovery

Ofgem's energy network innovation fund, delivered with Innovate UK, pays for short Discovery-phase projects against seven set challenge themes spanning grid capacity, flexibility, digital and AI tools, sensing and infrastructure resilience. Each Discovery project can request up to GBP 200,000 excluding VAT with a 10% private contribution, drawn from a GBP 30M round, and successful teams are invited into the Alpha phase. Applications must be led by an Ofgem-licensed gas or electricity network or the National Energy System Operator, so startups, SMEs and universities take part as project partners rather than leads. The autumn cycle opened 21 September 2026 and closes 21 October 2026, with projects running January to May 2027; the fund cycles roughly twice a year.