Digital Catapult > Programmes > Applied AI Growth Programme

Programme

Applied AI Growth Programme

Overview

The Applied AI Growth Programme, delivered by Digital Catapult and funded by Innovate UK, supports high-potential AI companies in accelerating their development and scaling their impact. The programme provides targeted, hands-on support to help organisations test and validate innovative concepts, gain actionable insights, and strengthen their pathway to market.

Participants benefit from opportunities to trial and scale AI solutions, build strategic investor partnerships, and connect with a wider innovation ecosystem. The programme enables companies to unlock new growth opportunities, enhance commercial readiness, and drive real-world adoption of AI technologies.

Digital Catapult

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Digital Catapult is a deep tech innovation organisation driving business value by accelerating the application of advanced technologies.

Partnering with government, industry and academia, we focus on significant challenges and opportunities facing the UK’s economy and society, where technology can play a major role in providing solutions. We break down barriers, de-risk innovation, open up markets and responsibly shape the products, services and experiences of the future.

Digital Catapult is part of the Innovate UK Catapult Network. Catapults provide a unique combination of cutting-edge R&D facilities and world-class technical expertise to support UK business innovation.

Visit www.digicatapult.org.uk for more information.

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Innovate UK

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Innovate UK, part of UK Research and Innovation, is the UK’s innovation agency. It works to create a better future by inspiring, involving and investing in businesses developing life-changing innovations.

Its mission is to help companies to grow through their development and commercialisation of new products, processes and services, supported by an outstanding innovation ecosystem that is agile, inclusive and easy to navigate.

The sectors

This programme focuses on 6 of the Industrial Strategy growth-driving sectors (the ‘IS-8’). These are:

Advanced Manufacturing:
- High-tech manufacturing processes integrating digital technologies, automation, and innovation to enhance productivity and competitiveness.
Life Sciences:
- Pharmaceuticals, biotechnology, and medical research industries focused on health innovation and global competitiveness.
Digital and Technology:
- Software, IT services, artificial intelligence, and emerging digital technologies driving innovation across sectors.
Creative Industries:
- Media, design, arts, and entertainment sectors contributing to cultural and economic growth.
Financial Services:
- Banking, insurance, and fintech sectors supporting economic stability and investment.
Energy and Clean Technologies:
- Renewable energy, low-carbon technologies, and energy efficiency solutions supporting net-zero goals.

Our role

Digital Catapult will deliver three connected streams of work under the Applied AI Growth Programme, each designed to support a different part of the UK AI growth journey. Together, Applied AI Growth Sprints, Applied AI Growth Demonstrator and Testbed, and Applied AI Growth Ecosystem will help high-potential AI companies strengthen their readiness for scale, explore the infrastructure and support needed to test emerging AI solutions, and build stronger connections across the wider innovation ecosystem.

Applied AI Growth Sprints

Applied AI Growth Sprints are a 12-week cycle of sprints funded by Innovate UK, delivered by Digital Catapult, designed to support high-potential UK AI companies transitioning from validated pilots toward scalable, deployment-ready capability.

Many AI companies successfully demonstrate proof-of-concept solutions but face significant barriers when attempting to scale. Challenges around data readiness, system robustness, governance, enterprise integration, operational maturity, and commercial positioning can prevent promising AI innovations from progressing beyond pilot stage.

The Applied AI Growth Sprints have been designed to help ambitious AI companies strengthen the technical, operational, and commercial foundations required for sustainable scale-up and future deployment readiness.

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Applied AI Growth Demonstrator and Testbed

Digital Catapult is exploring the development of a pilot AI testbed to support High Potential AI Companies developing frontier AI solutions.

The pilot will help understand the tools, infrastructure and support that organisations need to test, evaluate and develop frontier AI technologies. We are seeking input from businesses to help shape the capabilities and services the testbed should provide.

This stream will be exploring capabilities such as:

Testing AI models and applications
Experimenting with opensource tools and frameworks
Evaluating AI systems using structured approaches

Alongside this, Digital Catapult will develop demonstrator environments to showcase frontier AI solutions, highlighting practical applications across a range of sectors.

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Applied AI Growth Ecosystem

Digital Catapult is delivering a stream of activity to bring together the UK AI ecosystem on Frontier AI and AI across the industrial strategy sectors.

This work is designed to engage with AI companies, adopters, policymakers, investors and partners, generating insight and connections that will help shape and equip the UK economy to be future ready for AI.

It will contribute to both deployment-focused and capability-focused activity, helping to identify key challenges and opportunities across priority areas.

Through a structured cycle of engagement, activity will focus on:

Frontier AI and future AI trajectories
Areas of AI demand and key use cases
Supporting the development of future innovation pipelines
Shaping focus areas for next-generation AI technologies

This work will be delivered through a mix of events, thought leaderships and collaborative initiatives, designed to strengthen connections and enable informed, forward-looking innovation.

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