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The applicant

  • Leadership role: You must hold a decision-making leadership position (e.g. Founder, Co-founder or C-suite executive) at a UK-based small or medium-sized enterprise (SME) in the engineering or DeepTech sector. Applicants from both engineering and non-engineering backgrounds are welcome
  • Work eligibility: Applicants of any nationality are eligible, provided you have the legal right to work in the UK.

To check your eligibility, please contact the Shott Scale Up Accelerator programme managers:

+44 207 766 0668
  • One applicant per company: Only one individual from each company may apply. The application must be completed and submitted by the individual intending to participate in the programme. A second applicant from the same company may be considered in a future round if they belong to a group underrepresented in UK engineering. This includes individuals who previously participated in the SME Leaders programme, the predecessor to the Shott Scale Up Accelerator (SSUA)
  • Diversity and Inclusion: We actively encourage applications from individuals who are underrepresented in the UK engineering and DeepTech sector. This includes, but is not limited to women, people from a Black, Asian or minority ethnic background, neurodiverse individuals, first-generation university students and disabled people. If you do not identify with any of these groups but believe you represent an underrepresented community in UK engineering and DeepTech, please contact our team ([email protected]) to confirm your eligibility. This positive action supports our commitment to building a more diverse and inclusive talent pipeline and broadening participation in the Academy's grant programm

The company

  • Stage and Growth: Both pre-revenue and post-revenue high-growth SMEs are eligible
  • Financial threshold: Your company must have raised at least £1 million through one or more of the following: equity investment, grant funding and/or revenue (turnover from the last financial year)
  • UK based: Your company must be registered in the UK with Companies House and have its head office located in the UK (for multinational companies) 
  • Ownership structure: Only SMEs that are not wholly or majority owned by another company are eligible (SME must meet the EU definition)
  • Consultancies: Applications from individuals working in consultancies are not eligible
  • Software companies: Software businesses must demonstrate that engineering is a core component of their work. In particular, they should be developing foundational technologies that drive deep tech innovation (solutions that enable or underpin future technological breakthroughs). These solutions should be innovative and ideally protectable, for example through intellectual property or patents

Diversity & Talent

Groups that are persistently underrepresented in UK engineering are women, people from a Black, Asian or minority ethnic background and disabled people. If you are not from one of these groups, but believe you represent an underrepresented group in UK engineering, please contact the team to confirm that you meet the eligibility criteria.

This positive action will contribute to improving diversity in the talent pipeline and widening the diversity of applicants and awardees within the Academy’s grant schemes.