Accelerating Zero-Emission Aviation in the UK: Innovate UK, in collaboration with the Department for Transport (DfT), has launched two groundbreaking funding competitions to support the next generation of aviation technology in the UK. These initiatives are part of the wider Future of Flight programme, aimed at making zero-emission air travel and advanced drone services a commercial reality.
£600,000 Future Flight Regional Demonstrator
This competition is designed to back projects that demonstrate the large-scale potential of innovative flight technologies—including drones, eVTOLs (electric vertical take-off and landing), and zero-emission CTOLs (conventional take-off and landing)—in real-world UK settings. The goal is to attract investment and deliver real benefits to local communities. 👉 Click here for competition details
£3 Million Future Flight Strategic Growth Competition
With a focus on Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS) drone operations, this competition supports collaborative projects driving the UK towards routine commercial drone usage. Successful proposals will contribute to safer skies and establish the UK as a leader in drone innovation. 👉 Click here for competition details
Both competitions close on 11 June 2025, and form part of the UK Government’s £20 million commitment to support future flight technologies, announced on 1 April 2025 by the Aviation Minister.
Upcoming Online Briefings – 19 May 2025
Don’t miss the opportunity to attend free briefing events and learn more about each competition:
Future Flight Strategic Growth: 🕚 11:00–12:00 🔗 Join via Zoom
Future Flight Regional Demonstrator: 🕞 15:30–16:30 🔗 Join via Zoom
Now’s the time to shape the skies of tomorrow—apply today!
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Drone Related Jobs as at 12 December 2024
Disclaimer: All jobs posted here are from LinkedIn and other job sites including member and non-member organizations. Drone Related Jobs.
Innovate UK are looking to recruit an Innovation Lead – Future Flight.
Framework for Future Flight in the UK: Principles from a deliberative Public Dialogue July 2024
The UKRI’s Future Flight Challenge (FFC) aims to position the UK as a leader in aviation by funding research and development of new flight technologies. A public dialogue was conducted to understand public views on Future Flight technologies, including non-passenger-carrying drones, eVTOLs, and electric/hydrogen Regional Air Mobility (RAM).
Alongside a wider programme of social science research funded by the Challenge, UKRI/Innovate UK commissioned this dialogue, which was led by the Future Flight Challenge Social Science Research Director and team based at the University of Birmingham. The dialogue was supported by UKRI’s Sciencewise programme and delivered by Thinks Insight & Strategy.
Principles for Development: Participants developed 14 principles for the roll-out of Future Flight technologies, emphasizing public good, safety, sustainability, accessibility, and affordability.
Concerns and Hopes: Participants expressed concerns about noise, visual pollution, safety, and affordability, but also saw potential benefits in improved connectivity, sustainability, and accessibility.
Women within UK registered micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) can apply for a share of up to £4 million to develop their exciting and innovative ideas. The £75,000 grant also includes bespoke business support.
Competition opens: Monday 13 May 2024
Competition closes: Wednesday 10 July 2024 11:00am
Funding Type: Grant
Project Size: Up to £75,000
Innovate UK, part of UK Research and Innovation, is offering up to 50 Women in Innovation Awards to women entrepreneurs within SMEs across the UK. The winners will receive a £75,000 grant and bespoke business support.
The aim of this competition is to fund and support a diverse portfolio of Women in Innovation Award winners:
who will be relatable role models for women from all backgrounds
from regions across the UK
who are solving a range of pressing societal, environmental and economic challenges
in a variety of innovation areas
Innovate UK wants to support women who are at a critical stage, where the injection of support from an award will accelerate the growth of their business.
The funding should help you make a real difference to innovation in the UK including in and beyond your sector or innovation area.
In applying to this competition, you are entering into a competitive process. This competition has a funding limit, so Innovate UK may not be able to fund all the proposed projects. It may be the case that your project scores highly but they are still unable to fund it.
The UKRI Future Flight Challenge, delivered by Innovate UK and ESRC, has launched a project library showcasing the range of large-scale projects taking place as part of Phase 3 of the Challenge. The showcase demonstrates the breadth of activities, successes and impacts to date, and the +130 organisations currently involved in the Challenge. These include businesses, universities, local authorities, emergency services, the NHS and the third sector.
The event exists to equip you with the tools, connections and insights to navigate Future Flight investment. Through this event you will:
Access deep insights from top experts actively engaged in the aviation industry.
Engage with a diverse network of investors across the capital stack and industry experts at the forefront of Future Flight.
Identify and overcome common barriers to investing in high-growth companies within the aviation industry.
The event is designed to deepen your understanding of the Future Flight landscape, reveal unseen opportunities, and overcome barriers to investment.
For Future Flight Sector Companies:
This event is primarily targeted towards investors. It is not a platform to pitch to investors but rather an opportunity to explore the realm of private investment within the Future Flight industry. Places are very limited so we may need to manage the attendee list.
Expression of interest registration:
Who should express interest in attending?
Future Flight sector companies looking to gain insight into the Future Flight investment landscape and market potential.
What to expect:
Upon registering your interest, we may contact you for further information to gauge your investor readiness.
ANGOKA, in collaboration with KPMG and ADS, is hosting an exclusive one-day Thought Leadership Event on Advanced Air Mobility in Connected Societies. The Drone Summit will consist of panel discussions, presentations, and exhibitions which will explore solutions to potential challenges as well as massive opportunities in the Advanced Air Mobility sector. The event intends to highlight experts’ perspectives on the advancements in the Air Mobility arena and how we can best reap the benefits of these developments.
To showcase the increasing threat to the security of connected devices, ANGOKA will also be performing a cybersecurity demonstration.
Guest speakers include:
Christopher Brown- KPMG
Craig Wilson – Altitude Angel
Laura O’Neill – Belfast Harbour
Paul Malcolmson – Innovate UK
Kieran Arnold – Digital Catapult
Dr Saba Al-Rubaye – Cranfield University
Gokhan Cellik – AtechSYN
Agenda
9.00 – 9.30 Registrations
9.30- 9.40 Welcome
9.40-10.00 – Keynote by Christopher Brown, KPMG: ‘The Twin Opportunity of Advanced Air Mobility for NI
10.00 -10.50 Panel – Advanced Air Mobility in Northern Ireland and the UK: Today, Tomorrow, and the Future
10.50 – 11.40 The role of Safe and Secure Communication in Advanced Air Mobility
First Flights of Dragon Drone at Snowdonia Aerospace Centre
Snowdonia Aerospace is pleased to announce the successful first flights of their new Dragon drone at the Snowdonia Aerospace Centre, Llanbedr, last week.
Working in partnership with SwiftFlight Avionics and supported by Innovate UK Future Flight Challenge grant funding, the Dragon drone will be a major research, development, test and evaluation (RDT&E) platform for demonstrating the safe integration of drones into UK airspace for regular and routine beyond visual line-of-sight (BVLOS) operations. Further flight envelope expansion and capability development activities will continue over the summer at the Snowdonia Aerospace Centre (SAC), which offers the only dedicated commercially-run, permanent Danger Area for drone testing in the UK.
The Dragon drone is equipped with an Echodyne airborne detect-and-avoid radar and Uavionix electronic conspicuity devices and will use the unique test environment at SAC to demonstrate integration with the ground-based Altitude Angel Unmanned Traffic Management (UTM) system and the potential for further integration with the UK 5G network in partnership with Virgin Media O2.
The Dragon also has the capacity to accommodate a further 5kg mass / 10 litres volume of third party payloads either in the nose or in a ventral pod for experimental test purposes. The maximum take-off weight is 55kg and endurance for RDT&E activities will be 2 to 4 hours depending on payload.
As well as the necessary technical developments to ensure safe BVLOS operation, Snowdonia Aerospace is also working with NHS Wales and a number of blue light and emergency services (including mountain rescue) to establish how drones can effectively contribute to supporting / working in parallel with these services whilst also delivering economic and societal benefit across Wales and beyond.
Lee Paul, Chief Executive Officer of Snowdonia Aerospace, said:
This is a great milestone passed and we look forward to regular BVLOS flights from later this month and engaging with others companies / operators who may wish to test their equipment /payloads along with taking advantage of our unique new Danger Area at the Snowdonia Aerospace Centre.
Snowdonia Aerospace is an ARPAS-UK Member.
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Snowdonia Aerospace Future Flight Challenge
Snowdonia Aerospace is pleased to announce that we have received a grant award from UK Research & Innovation for an 18-month drone development programme in partnership with Swiftflight Avionics as part of the UK Future Flight Challenge, a £33.5m element of the Government’s Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund.
The primary objective of our Project “Gold Dragon” is to accelerate development and testing of an active detect-and-avoid solution for light drones, typically less than 150kg take-off weight, enabling their safe and full integration into the UK aviation system. Our aim is to achieve approval for regular and routine beyond visual line-of-sight (BVLOS) operations in non-segregated airspace by the end of the project so we can start to deliver commercial drone services in Wales and beyond.
We have already built a successful relationship with the Welsh Ambulance Service via our recent proof-of-concept demonstration for delivery of a mini-defibrillator by drone to a remote rural location and will continue to prioritise health services in remote and rural communities as part of this project along with the wider NHS Wales network.
Snowdonia Aerospace has already completed proof-of-concept demonstration for delivery of a mini-defibrillator by drone to a remote rural location
The UK survival rate for an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) is only 8.6%. Resuscitation Council guidelines recognise that survival rates of 50 to 70% could be achieved with defibrillation within 3 to 5 minutes of OHCA, but each minute of delay reduces the probability of survival by 10%, and in the UK fewer than 2% of victims have a defibrillator deployed before the ambulance arrives. The situation is most acute in remote and rural locations.
Flight testing in the unique operational environment provided at Snowdonia Aerospace Centre will also allow us to involve other potential emergency response stakeholders such as the Police, Fire, Coastguard, and Mountain Rescue, and we have already begun engagements to capture their key requirements.
Lee Paul, CEO of Snowdonia Aerospace said:
“We are delighted to be awarded funding through the Future Flight Challenge programme. The grant will enable us to continue the development of our proposed drone service provision in support of the NHS and other emergency services initially across Wales. Our earlier work demonstrated the advantages of using drones to support remote and rural areas with the drone covering 4.5km in under 3 minutes compared to an equivalent road journey of 20 minutes. The time saving being critical in cases where early defribilation is required.
As the UKs leading aerospace R&D test centre, the airfields environment, facilities and infrastructure will also support a range of other companies looking to develop their own Future Flight programmes in a safe operating environment and we look forward to working with them also.”
Dr. Phil Geoghegan, MD of Swiftflight Avionics said:
“This project is an exciting application of UAV active sensor technology, with the aim of routine point-to-point BVLOS UAV flight. We see this as a game-changer for UAV operation. We are delighted to be working with the test and evaluation specialists at Snowdonia Aerospace Centre and the Welsh Ambulance Service.”
Councillor Gareth Thomas, Cabinet Member for Economy and Community, Gwynedd Council, said:
“We are delighted to see that the drone technology trialled earlier in the year from Llanbedr to transport medical defibrillators to remote communities will now be further tested for other responses by the emergency services. We also look forward to linking this work to the STEM Gogledd programme, which supports and promotes STEM education across north west Wales”
Dr. Nigel Rees, Head of Research and Innovation for the Welsh Ambulance Services NHS Trust, said:
“The Welsh Ambulance Services NHS Trust is looking forward to continuing this exciting development which has the potential to improve the care we provide and save lives.”
John Whalley, CEO of Aerospace Wales, said:
“Aerospace Wales is working closely with Welsh Government on the strategy for Future Flight in Wales and we are delighted that Aerospace Wales member, Snowdonia Aerospace, has been successful in its bid to the UK’s Future Flight Challenge phase 2 competition. The “Golden Dragon” project, in partnership with Swiftflight Avionics, builds on the highly successful BVLOS emergency medical response drone trial carried out earlier this year. This continuing development places Snowdonia’s airfield at Llanbedr right at the heart of BVLOS development in the UK.”
