How to apply for UK innovation grants
UK innovation grants are a great opportunity to secure funding for your business. There are UK innovations grants available on a wide variety of industry areas and niche subsectors. A lot of opportunities are for research and development (R&D) projects that support innovative solutions.
Being successful with your UK innovation grants application is a great feeling. All those weeks (or even months) have paid off and resulted in success. However, in order to get that feeling, you have to apply to grant opportunities, and perseverance is key. So is a thorough and persuasive bid for funding proposal.
What are you waiting for? Below are four UK innovation grants that are open for applicants.
Innovate UK Smart Grants
Innovate UK boasts numerous funding opportunities in an array of sectors. The UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) was launched in 2018 and are a non-departmental public body. It’s sponsored by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS).
Projects should:
- Demonstrate realistic, significant potential for global markets
- Take customer and user needs into account to deliver more desirable and useful solutions
What’s available?
UK registered organisations can apply for a share of up to £25 million. This can be used for game-changing and commercially viable R&D innovation that can significantly impact the UK economy.
If your project’s duration is 6 – 18 months, it:
- Must have total eligible costs between £25,000 and £500,000
- Can be single or collaborative
If your project’s duration is 19 – 26 months, it must:
- Have total eligible costs between £25,000 and £2 million
- Be collaborative
Eligibility
Your project must:
- Include at least one SME as the lead or a collaborative grant claiming partner
- Start by 1st February 2022
- End by 31st January 2025
- Follow specific rules dependant on its duration
How to apply
You must read the guidance on applying for a competition on the Innovation Funding Service before you start. Applicant must start their application online.
Your application is split into 3 sections:
- Project details
- Application team
- Application details
- Subsidy basis
- Research category
- Equality, diversity and inclusion
- Project summary
- Public description
- Scope
- Application questions
- Project partners location
- Need or challenge
- Approach and innovation
- Team and resources
- Market awareness
- Outcomes and route to market
- Wider impacts
- Project management
- Risks
- Added value
- Costs and value for money
- Finances
Submission deadline: Wednesday 25th August 2021 at 11:00am
Biomedical catalyst 2021: early and late-stage awards
This UK innovation grant gives funding to develop innovative healthcare products, technologies and processes.
Your project can address:
- Earlier and better detection and diagnosis of disease, leading to better patient outcomes
- Disease prevention and proactive management of health and chronic conditions
- Tailored treatments that either change the underlying disease or offer potential cures
What’s available?
Your project’s total eligible costs must be between £250,000 and £4 million.
For industrial research projects, you could get funding for your eligible project costs of up to:
- 70% if you’re a micro or small organisation
- 60% if you’re and medium-sized organisation
For experimental development projects which are nearer to market, you could get funding for up to:
- 45% if you’re a micro or small organisation
- 35% if you’re a medium-sized organisation
Eligibility
- UK registered organisation
- Start from 1st April 2022
- Last between 12 months – 36 months
The lead organisation must:
- Be a registered SME
- Carry out its project work in the UK
- Intend to exploit the results from or in the UK
The project team must:
- Carry out project work in the UK
- Intend to exploit the result from or in the UK
- Be invited by the lead organisation
Be either a:
- UK registered business of any size
- Academic initiation
- Charity
- Not-for-profit
- Public sector organisation
- Research technology organisation
How to apply
Applications must be made online. The application is split into 3 sections:
- Project details
- Application team
- Application details
- Subsidy basis
- Research category
- Equality, diversity and inclusion
- Project summary
- Public description
- Scope
- Application questions
- Project partners location
- Healthcare need and impact
- Scientific evidence
- Innovation
- Technical approach
- Freedom to operate
- Exploit the opportunity
- Technical, commercial, and environmental risks
- Skills and experience
- Resources required
- Financial support and added value
- Finances
Submission deadline: Thursday 26th August 2021 at 11:00am
ISCF Smart Sustainable Plastic Packaging: Business-led R&D
This UK innovation grant is from the Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund (ISCF). It’s a grant for R&D projects with the potential to significantly impact the 2025 UK plastic Pact targets. This fund is from Innovate UK and part of UK Research and Innovation.
Your proposal must:
- Make a significant contribution towards delivery of the targets of the UK Plastics Pact
- Improve the sustainability of the plastic packaging supply chain
- Utilise at-scale innovation in technology, design, processes, business models, supply chains or data for plastic packaging
- Embed a whole systems approach to plastic packaging sustainability considering environmental, economic and social factors.
What’s available?
Up to £7 million from the Smart Sustainable Plastic Packaging Programme in innovation projects. This competition will award grants from £200,000 to £4 million per project.
Eligibility
Your project must:
- Claim a grant between £200,000 and £4 million
- Start in early 2022
- End by 31st March 2025
- Last between 12 – 36 months
The lead organisation must:
- Be a registered SME
- Carry out its project work in the UK
- Intend to exploit the results from or in the UK
Project team must:
- Carry out project work in the UK
- Intend to exploit the result from or in the UK
- Be invited by the lead organisation
Be either a:
- UK registered business of any size
- Academic initiation
- Charity
- Not-for-profit
- Public sector organisation
- Research technology organisation
How to apply
The application is split into 3 sections:
- Project details
- Application team
- Application details
- Research category
- Project summary
- Public description
- scope
- Application questions
- Project motivation and objectives
- Your idea
- System changes and UK Plastics Pact targets
- Environmental impacts
- Team and resources
- Market awareness
- Outcomes
- Project management
- Risks
- Added value
- Costs and value for money
- Project partners location
- Awareness of funding opportunity
- Finances
If your online application is successful, you’ll be invited to attend an interview. Here you must give a presentation and answer questions related to your application.
Submission deadline: Wednesday 8th September 2021 at 11:00am
Knowledge Transfer Partnerships (KTP): 2021 to 2022 round 3
UK registered academic institutions, RTOs or Catapults can apply for a share of up to £6 million. These UK innovation grants will be used to fund innovation projects with businesses or not-for-profits.
It can be any kind of project, but it must show:
- How it helps the business with a real need
- What makes this approach innovative
- How it fits the strategic aims of the business partner
- There is a genuine market opportunity and route to market
- How the knowledge gained will be embedded within the business partner
What’s available?
They will fund projects that cost no more than £75,000 per year.
Eligibility
A knowledge base partner cannot work alone. Each KTP is a partnership between the following:
- A UK knowledge base, acting as the lead organisation and submitting the application
- A UK registered business or not-for-profit
Each project should last between 12 – 36 months.
How to apply
Applicants must create their application online. The application is split into 3 sections:
- Project details
- Equality, diversity and inclusion
- Subsidy basis
- Public description
- Project title
- Scope
- Application questionsÂ
- Number of associates
- Management KTPs
- Business partner: type, size, area, address
- Associate location
- Business partner SIC code
- Business registration number
- Senior business employee
- Senior business employee’s background
- Business partner supervisor and background
- Knowledge of base supervisor and background
- Knowledge of base lead and background
- Associate arrangements
- Partnership administrator
- Person responsible for submitting claims
- Strategic aims
- Missing knowledge
- Use of knowledge
- Reason for partnership
- Business partner’s challenges
- Associate’s challenge
- Knowledge base partners challenges
- Market opportunity
- Route to market
- Commercial impacts
- Additional business actions and investments
- Additional benefits
- Project funding
- Workplan
- Associates
- LMC members
- Previous business partner KTPs
- Previous funding information
- Joint commitment statement
- Potential supporters
- Supporting documents
- Declaration of accuracy and knowledge transfer adviser approval
- Finances
The assessors will score your overall application holistically. They will score each of the following sections out of 10 on:
- Challenge
- Impact
- Cohesiveness
- Innovation
Submission deadline: Wednesday 29th September 2021 at 11:00am
These UK innovation grants could help your business or a project you’re working on. If you’re not sure how to write your application, we can help.
How can your research organisation apply for innovation grant funding in the UK?
1. Make sure the grant is right for you
Before your research organisation actually applies for grant funding, make sure the opportunity is suitable for you. If you’re a small business, the phrase ‘time is money’ means even more to you than larger companies. So, taking the time to confirm whether you have an adequate chance of winning the grant is vital. You want to have the best chance of winning the innovation funding for your research organisation.
2. Produce a business plan
To get business grant funding, you need to produce an effective business plan. The grant commissioner needs to know exactly where and how their money will be spent. They need to know the projected outcome for your project. So, make sure to include a list or table of projected costs. This will help you in delivering the grant, as you’ll have tighter control over the funds. Even if you’re a start-up business, this is just as important.
3. Communicate with the grant body
There seems to be some hesitation around contacting the grant body. But it can often be the best source of knowledge around what the funder wants. If the opportunity presents itself, communicate with them! Collect some questions together and send them an email. Ultimately the more you know, the better your application will be.
Need help securing your next bid for funding?
Our Grant Writing Service is for businesses who want to start applying for grants, but don’t know where to begin. If you don’t have the resources or the time in-house to write a winning grant – we can help.
Our Grant Writing Consultants have over 60 years of experience in bidding for funding and grants. From grants for charities, start-up business grants and council business grants. They can take care of the whole thing for you – they’ll even submit it on your behalf.
Get in touch to find out how we can help your business grow!
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