Innovate UK is to invest up to £210,000 to encourage innovation in virtual reality and augmented reality.

Virtual and augmented reality offer users new ways of perceiving and interacting with the digital world and we are looking to support companies wanting to apply these technologies in new and untested areas.

This IC tomorrow competition for funding covers music, retail, healthcare, education, construction and tactile technology.

We are looking for proposals from companies with innovative digital ideas in this field - not just for entertainment or information sharing, but also in more technical and industrial contexts.

Six successful companies will not only receive up to £35,000, but will also work with commercial partners, such as Columbia Records and John Lewis, to speed up development of their technologies.

We want to see solutions with potential appeal to a wide commercial market. Successful applicants will be able to trial proposed solutions with their industry partners for at least three months.

The competition is open and the deadline for applications is 18 August 2015. There are briefing events for potential applicants in London on 13 July and in Manchester on 15 July.