UK Government Launches £20 Million Fund for Addiction Treatment Innovation
The UK government is offering £20 million in grants through Innovate UK to develop cutting-edge medicines, medical technologies and digital tools to tackle drug and alcohol addiction, which causes around 15,000 deaths annually and costs England an estimated £47 billion each year.
Innovators across the UK are being offered £20 million of government funding to develop cutting-edge medicines, medical technologies and digital tools to tackle drug and alcohol addiction. The grants, delivered through Innovate UK, will support the development and deployment of new technologies designed to improve treatment, strengthen recovery and reduce harm from drug and alcohol addiction.
Around 15,000 people die each year in the UK due to alcohol and drugs. Hundreds of thousands more suffer the effects which costs England an estimated £47 billion each year.
The AHG Catalysing Innovation Awards, part of The Addiction Healthcare Goals programme led by the Office for Life Sciences, will help reduce this by supporting those working on new medicines, medical devices, wearables, virtual-reality therapies, treatment apps and artificial-intelligence-enabled tools. These innovations have the potential to transform care for people with drug and alcohol addictions by improving treatment outcomes, preventing relapse and reducing the risk of overdose and death.
Applications are now open, with awards of up to £10 million available to support late-stage, high-impact projects which can demonstrate real-world effectiveness, UK market readiness and progress towards regulatory approval. These grants will support projects expected to be close to deployment and capable of delivering impact within health and care services.
A second strand will support earlier-stage innovations, with awards of up to £1.5 million to help promising technologies demonstrate initial effectiveness, strengthen business planning and help them progress.
Successful projects will also receive exclusive access to an education session from the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) and the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), supporting innovators to navigate evidence requirements and the pathway to UK certification, approval and roll-out.
Applications close on 6 May 2026, with an online briefing event scheduled for 19 February.