Round dates
The 2026/27 round opens early November 2026. The submission deadline is mid-December 2026. Outcomes for this round will follow the May pattern, which has held for the last three rounds.
What changed from 2025/26
The £4M project cap is restated for 2026/27. The contribution rule banding is unchanged. The new compliant-procurement evidence for any technical adviser is the most visible 2026/27 procedural change, flagged by several adviser firms in their open-round communications.
May 2026 outcomes
The DfE published the previous round's outcomes on 22 May 2026: 684 funded of 3,925 submitted, a 28% headline rate. Regional and project-archetype splits sit on the success-rate dataset pages.