Funding Competition: Innovate UK Smart Grants

Deadline: 18-Jan-23

UK registered organisations can apply for a share of up to £25 million for game-changing and commercially viable R&D innovation that can significantly impact the UK economy. This funding is from Innovate UK, part of UK Research and Innovation.

Specific Themes
Your project must focus on:
Taking customer and user needs into account to deliver more desirable and useful solutions
Identifying who is ready to buy your innovation
Being developed, planned and resourced beyond the end of the Innovate UK funded project, taking into account the focus of any project partners and their existing commitments
Fitting with and complementing your ongoing business planning and development, product offerings and organisational structure to maximise chances of success
Scope
The Innovate UK Smart grant funds a cross-sector portfolio of the best game-changing and world-leading projects. It offers funding where other opportunities are not available or appropriate, and where timing is key to ensure swift and successful commercialisation post-project completion.

To be in scope your proposal must demonstrate:
A game-changing, innovative and disruptive idea that will lead to new products, processes or services
An idea that is significantly ahead of others in the field, set for rapid commercialisation
Clear potential to positively impact the UK’s position, productivity and competitiveness within the global economy
A clear, evidence based business plan to deliver significant economic impact, return on investment (ROI) and growth through commercialisation, as soon as possible after project completion
Why Smart funding is the right potential funding for your project, and the journey you have already been on to reach the point of application
A team with the necessary skills and expertise to deliver the project successfully and on time, and to achieve rapid commercialisation
Awareness of all the main risks the project will face with realistic management, mitigation and impact minimisation plans for each risk
Sound, practical financial plans and timelines that represent good value for money, including the funding of post-project activities
Funding Information
Projects of 6 to 18 months must have total project costs of between £100,000 and £500,000 and can be single or collaborative. Projects of 19 to 36 months must have total project costs of between £100,000 and £2 million and must be collaborative.
Eligibility Criteria
If your application does not meet the eligibility criteria for this competition, it will be marked as ineligible and will not be sent for assessment.

Your project must:
Start by 1 July 2023
End by 30 June 2026
Include at least one micro, small or medium-sized enterprise (SME) as the lead or a collaborative grant claiming partner
Follow specific rules dependent on its duration
Carry out all of its project work in the UK
Intend to exploit the results from or in the UK
The end by date is the date by which all funding for this round of the competition must end. Your contracted project end date will not be extended.
If your project’s duration is 6 to 18 months, it must:
Have total project costs between £100,000 and £500,000
Be single or collaborative
If your project’s duration is 19 to 36 months, it must:
Have total project costs between £100,000 and £2 million
Be collaborative
Lead Organisation
To lead a project your organisation must:
Be an SME if you want to work alone
Be a UK registered business of any size or a research and technology organisation (RTO) if collaborative
Include at least one SME if you are a large business or RTO and wish to collaborate with other UK registered businesses, research organisations, academic organisations, public sector organisations or charities
Claim grant funding.
Ineligible
They are not funding projects:
That do not meet the competition eligibility or scope
Where the technology is available or used in another sector
That do not address the size, potential and access to market for their innovation
That do not evidence the potential for their idea to lead to significant return on investment (ROI), positive economic impact, growth and scale-up of the business
That do not provide clear and realistic plans to commercialise their innovation as soon as possible post-project completion
Where other Innovate UK funding support is available and more appropriate
They will not fund commercialisation activities such as marketing and sales.
They cannot fund projects that are:
Dependent on export performance – for example giving a subsidy to a baker on the condition that it exports a certain quantity of bread to another country
Dependent on domestic inputs usage – for example giving a subsidy to a baker on the condition that it uses 50% UK flour in their product
For more information, visit https://apply-for-innovation-funding.service.gov.uk/competition/1330/overview/314566f0-6e69-4516-a0a2-31c9182c4a36

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