The Summer session of UK funding opens up with two key topics: Smart energy and Social care.
Smart, affordable energy is the aim of the recently opened Round 7 of the Energy Catalyst, which encourages the development of products and services that will help poorer households and enterprises in sub-Saharan Africa access to accessible electricity for the first time by 2021. On the other hand, increasing demand in adult social care services is the main drive for the next Small Business Research Initiative (SBRI) competition, which aims to use technology to make adult social care provision more effective and efficient, and reduce demand on social care services.
Affordable energy in the sub-Sahara
Following what the World Energy Council defined as the ‘Energy Trilemma’, the Energy Catalyst will allocate up to £22 million (partly funded by the Department for International Development and the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council) to invest in innovative, market-focused energy technologies that will address:
- cost – reducing prices to make energy accessible to everyone
- emissions – generating cleaner energy with lower emissions
- security of supply –reliable infrastructure to keep energy flowing without disruption or shortage
The competition will run from 17 June 2019 to 18 September 2019 and it is going to be divided in three different strands, following different TRLs:
- early – feasibility study
- mid-stage – R&D stage
- late stage – prototype and pilot testing (testing or demonstration must be carried out in sub-Saharan Africa or South Asia by either a UK or international partner)
Better management for better care
The rapid increase in the demand for adult social care services, has put the currently available resources under pressure. Following such premise, the Small Business Research Initiative (SBRI) competition, with funding provided by the GovTech Catalyst for Torfaen County borough council, aims at supporting projects that can use novel technologies to better track data in real-time on how the resources used in adult care are deployed and prioritised. This competition will be delivered over 2 phases:
- Phase 1: feasibility (running from 10 June 2019 to 17 July 2019)
- Phase 2: prototype development (open only to Phase 1 winners)
And it will be likely to fund 5 projects that shall include:
- using technology to improve the point of entry into adult social care
- creating more dynamic and flexible care systems that respond to changing needs
- making better use of evidence to inform commissioning both now and in the future
Source: Innovate UK
