How do I write a grant application?

Write a grant application to the funder’s scoring questions, in the order they are asked, with evidence for every claim. Assessors score each answer separately, so a strong project with a weak budget or no proof of match funding loses marks it cannot recover elsewhere.

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How assessors score

Read the competition brief before you write a word. It sets the scope, who can apply, the eligible costs, the funding rate and the questions, and in Innovate UK competitions it says how many assessors will read your application. Innovate UK checks eligibility and scope first: a competition manager confirms you can apply, and an innovation lead reads your answer to the scope question. An application that fails either check is not scored at all.

Eligible applications go to independent assessors, five, three or one depending on the competition, who each score every scored question and write comments without seeing each other’s marks. The average ranks the applications. In Innovate UK’s Growth Catalyst round the ten scored questions covered the need, the approach and innovation, the team, market awareness, outcomes and route to market, wider impacts, project management, risks, added value, and costs and value for money. Other funders use fewer questions, and the same pattern: each answer is marked on its own.

Answer the question asked, in the words of the guidance. An assessor reading the costs question will not hunt through the market section for the justification of a salary. Use the full word or character limit for the questions that carry the marks, and put numbers where the guidance asks for evidence.

The three answers that decide most applications

Need

What problem the project solves, for whom, and the evidence that it exists: customer interviews, letters of support, pilot results, market data with its source.

Additionality

Why the project needs public money: what would happen without the grant, and why your own resources or private finance cannot cover it at the scale or speed proposed.

Value for money

A budget that matches the plan line by line, with each cost justified and the public money compared with what the project will return.

A man writing figures in a notebook beside a laptop and calculator

The project plan and budget

The project plan breaks the work into work packages with tasks, a named lead, start and end dates and a deliverable for each. Add milestones the funder can check, and a risk register that names each risk, how likely it is, what it would do to the project and what you will do about it. The plan and the budget have to tell the same story: every work package has its costs, and every cost belongs to a work package.

The budget uses the funder’s cost categories, such as labour, overheads, materials, capital equipment, subcontractors and travel. Labour is costed from salaries and the days each person will spend, not from rounded guesses. Then show the match funding: where your share of the cost comes from, with a bank statement, a loan offer or an investment agreement. If a loan is part of it, arrange it before you submit: a funding search through Swoop covers limited companies and LLPs, and sole traders and partnerships borrowing more than £25,000.

  • Work packages with leads, dates and deliverables
  • Costs in the funder’s categories, matching the plan
  • Proof of where the match funding comes from

Why grant applications are rejected

Some reasons are mechanical. The business is ineligible, the project is outside the scope, the deadline passed, or the work has already started: Scottish Enterprise, for example, says work that has started or where commercial contracts are in place is not eligible. Each of these ends the application before an assessor reads it.

The rest are about evidence. A need stated without proof, a market size with no source, a team with gaps the plan does not fill, costs that look padded or that do not match the work, and match funding described as coming from future profits all lose marks. So does weak additionality, where the assessor concludes the business would do the project anyway. Funders can also balance their portfolio across sectors, regions and project sizes, and Innovate UK says an application scoring below yours can be funded ahead of it.

If you are turned down, read the feedback where the funder gives it, fix the answers that scored lowest and apply to the next round or a better-matched scheme. The open central government schemes are in our grant finder, and Swoop’s platform also matches businesses with grants.

Before you submit

Questions people ask

How long should a grant application be?

As long as the funder’s limits allow for the questions that carry marks. Each question on the Innovation Funding Service has a word or character limit, and assessors mark each answer on its own. Use the space for evidence, numbers and plans; leave out general background about the company that no question asks for.

What is additionality in a grant application?

The difference the grant makes. The funder wants to know what would happen without it: whether the project would not happen at all, would be smaller, or would take longer. If the business could fund it from its own resources or private finance, the case for public money is weaker. Innovate UK scores this under added value.

Can I pay someone to write my grant application?

Yes, and consultants offer it. You remain responsible for every statement in the application, and the project plan and budget have to be yours, because you will deliver them and claim against them. Check whether the consultant’s fee is an eligible cost; for a fee charged as a share of the grant, check the funder’s rules.

Why was my grant application rejected?

Either the application failed a check, such as eligibility, scope or work already started, or it scored below the funded applications. Low scores come from weak evidence of need, unclear additionality, a budget that does not match the plan, or no proof of match funding. Read any feedback, fix the lowest-scoring answers and apply again.

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Grants

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Match funding, claims paid in arrears, subsidy control, clawback and tax.

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Competitions open now, funding rates, assessor scoring and innovation loans.

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Research and development grants

R&D grants, R&D tax relief, and how one affects the other since April 2024.

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Business grants in England

Central government, mayoral authorities, councils and growth hubs, and where to look.

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