Serious games grants and public funding: SBIR.gov, NSF, UKRI and CORDIS, 16 example awards
Four public databases list research and development grants that mention serious games: SBIR.gov and NSF in the United States, UKRI in the United Kingdom and CORDIS in the European Union. Counts below are keyword matches before de-duplication.
Updated
What each database holds and how many matches it returned
Each database was searched in November 2026 for four phrases: serious game, game-based learning, educational game and training simulation.
- SBIR.gov award file: US small-business awards. 318 of 207,731 award rows matched at least one phrase in title or abstract. The SBIR.gov API did not serve the data, so the public bulk file was used.
- NSF Award Search API: US National Science Foundation awards. 258 matches (27 + 131 + 88 + 12 across the four phrases).
- UKRI Gateway to Research: UK research council and Innovate UK projects. 86 matches (40 + 23 + 12 + 11).
- CORDIS: EU Horizon Europe and Horizon 2020 projects. 84 matches (27 + 57) among 59,343 projects scanned.
Example awards from the four databases
| Recipient | Funder | Year | Amount | Title | Database |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| DFUSION INC. | Department of Health and Human Services | 2022 | $259,120 | Simulation for Environmental Exposure Education (S3E): A Serious Game Platform for Environmental Health Literacy | SBIR.gov |
| IN-DEPTH ENGINEERING CORPORATION | Department of Defense | 2022 | $239,996 | ESM Adaptive Game-based Learning Environment (EAGLE) | SBIR.gov |
| MOAI TECHNOLOGIES, LLC | Department of Health and Human Services | 2022 | $275,632 | Minority and Underserved Youth Learning about Concussions through Virtual Environments | SBIR.gov |
| VCOM3D INC | Department of Defense | 2023 | $249,536 | Extreme Cold Simulation Training Environment for Medic Education (ECSTREME) | SBIR.gov |
| Iowa State University | NSF | 2025 | $700,000 | CIVIC-FA Track A: A Disaster Multiplayer Online Game (DMOG) to Enhance Emergency Preparedness in the Midwest | NSF Award Search |
| Purdue University | NSF | 2010 | $493,712 | Building a serious game to teach secure coding in introductory programming | NSF Award Search |
| Second Avenue Software, Inc. | NSF | 2012 | $500,000 | SBIR Phase II: Martha Madison's Marvelous Machines | NSF Award Search |
| University of South Florida | NSF | 2013 | $449,972 | Climate Change Narrative Game Education (CHANGE) | NSF Award Search |
| PANIVOX LIMITED | Innovate UK | 2022 | £361,366.50 | The Application of RichCast for Education and Serious Games | UKRI Gateway to Research |
| NEURODIGITAL LIMITED | Innovate UK | 2016 | £35,000 | Surgical Laparascopy Virtual Trainer | UKRI Gateway to Research |
| CHROME ANGEL SOLUTIONS LIMITED | Innovate UK | 2021 | £118,307 | Covid Secure Travel Virtual Reality Simulation for Passengers | UKRI Gateway to Research |
| OPEN UNIVERSITY WORLDWIDE LIMITED | Innovate UK | 2019 | £9,000 | CyberGaTE: A Gamified Intelligent Environment for Training and Assessing Cyber Security Behaviour | UKRI Gateway to Research |
| UNIVERSITA DEGLI STUDI DI PADOVA | European Commission (HORIZON) | 2022 | €188,590.08 | Play to learn: ludic video games and interactive experiences to improve critical and computational thinking skills | CORDIS |
| TAMPEREEN KORKEAKOULUSAATIO SR | European Commission (HORIZON) | 2023 | €249,618 | Emotional modelling to enhance learning in games | CORDIS |
| ETHNIKO KENTRO EREVNAS KAI TECHNOLOGIKIS ANAPTYXIS | European Commission (HORIZON) | 2022 | €3,295,253.50 | iMmersive gamEs for Museums as vehicles to Engage visiTOrs in Empathetic reSponses | CORDIS |
| HUN-REN SZAMITASTECHNIKAI ES AUTOMATIZALASI KUTATOINTEZET | European Commission (HORIZON) | 2023 | €4,998,765 | Building PREPAREDness with Collaborative Knowledge Platform, Gamification and Serious Game in Virtual Reality | CORDIS |
Recipient, funder, year and title are as given in the databases. The year is the start year. The UKRI amount is the sum of participant grant offers, and the CORDIS amount is the maximum EU contribution. Currencies are not converted.
Reading the counts
A match is a text match. The samples contain projects about games next to projects where a phrase appears only in passing, so the counts overstate the number of game projects. The phrases also overlap, so the counts are not added across databases. Grants fund research and development, not purchases; prices for commissioned games are on the cost page.
Who receives the money in the examples
The 16 examples show who files these grants. SBIR.gov rows go to small companies, with the Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of Defense as funders in the four shown. The NSF rows name Iowa State University, Purdue University, the University of South Florida and one small software company, Second Avenue Software, Inc. All four UKRI examples are Innovate UK awards, including one to Open University Worldwide Limited. The CORDIS rows name the University of Padua, a Finnish university foundation, a Greek research center and a Hungarian research institute.
The titles cover environmental health literacy, concussion education for youth, secure coding, emergency preparedness, laparoscopic surgery training, cybersecurity behavior and museum visitors. Several of these projects fund research or development around a game, a simulation or a virtual environment.
Choosing a database for a search
The four databases cover different funders. SBIR.gov and NSF cover US agencies, UKRI covers UK research councils and Innovate UK, and CORDIS covers Horizon Europe and Horizon 2020. A search on one says nothing about the others, and the same project team can appear in more than one.
The phrase list shapes the result. The four phrases are serious game, game-based learning, educational game and training simulation. A project that calls itself gamification, virtual reality training or an immersive environment can be missing from the counts even when a game sits at its center. A project that mentions a phrase only in a literature review can be counted without being a game project. Both errors exist in the numbers on this page.
Reading an amount
An amount is only comparable inside its own database. The examples range from £9,000 for the CyberGaTE project to €4,998,765 for the Hungarian project, in different currencies and under different rules, so the extremes do not measure the same thing. The year is the start year, and a multi-year project is shown once.
The 16 examples were drawn from a sample of 50 matching records per database, four shown for each. They are examples, not the largest or the most typical awards.
Questions about public funding for serious games
How many public grants for serious games exist?
No single count exists. The four databases returned 318 (SBIR.gov), 258 (NSF), 86 (UKRI) and 84 (CORDIS) keyword matches, before removing duplicates and without a relevance review.
Which funding database is easiest to search?
NSF and UKRI serve API data without a key. The SBIR.gov API did not serve the data, so its bulk file was used, and CORDIS is offered as bulk downloads.
Can the amounts be added up across databases?
No. The amounts are in dollars, pounds and euros, and nothing is converted or combined. The UKRI figure is a sum of participant grant offers, and the CORDIS figure is the maximum EU contribution.
Do grants show what a serious game costs?
No. A grant pays for research or development, not for a finished product. Studio prices and public contract awards are on the cost page.
Are the example awards the largest ones?
No. Each database contributed 4 examples from a sample of 50 matching records, so they illustrate the kinds of projects found and do not rank them.
Which databases cover the United Kingdom and the European Union?
UKRI Gateway to Research covers UK research council and Innovate UK projects, and CORDIS covers EU Horizon Europe and Horizon 2020 projects. SBIR.gov and NSF cover the United States.
Why can a keyword count include projects that are not about games?
Because the match is a text match on title, abstract or objective. A project that names a phrase in passing is counted, and a project that uses other wording is missed.