The Transforming Foundation Industries Challenge Fund, in collaboration with Innovate UK, will invest up to £1.5 million in small-scale R&D projects. Split across two strands, the competition aims to improve the competitiveness of the UK’s Foundation Industry sector by helping it to become more environmentally sustainable.
All projects must address the resource productivity or energy performance opportunities of the sector and its supply chains. To do this, they must focus on the development of new: markets; business models; products and services manufactured by the sector; products and services created by suppliers to the sector; or processes.
Specifically, projects can focus on one or more of the following themes:
- Energy costs and optimisation
- Process measurement, optimisation and digitisation
- Waste recycling, utilisation and symbiosis
However, this is not an exhaustive list; Innovate UK will also consider other technologies or projects that fit the scope of the challenge.
Strand 1
Firstly, Strand 1 projects must:
- have total eligible costs between £25,000 and £75,000
- start on 1 February 2022 and end by 31 January 2023
- last between 3 and 12 months
- carry out all of its project work in the UK
- intend to exploit the results from or in the UK
To lead a project or work alone, your organisation must be a UK registered SME. However, the lead organisation can choose to collaborate with other businesses of any size, academic institutions, charities, not-for-profits, public sector organisations, or research and technology organisations.
Strand 2
Secondly, Strand 2 projects must:
- have total eligible costs between £75,000 and £250,000
- start on 1 February 2022 and end by 31 January 2023
- last from 3 months to 12 months
- carry out its project work in the UK
- intend to exploit the results from or in the UK
To lead a Strand 2 project, your organisation must be a UK registered business of any size and collaborate with UK registered businesses, academic institutions, research organisations, not-for-profits, or research and technology organisations. In addition, the project should include at least one micro, small or medium-sized enterprise.
ISCF Transforming Foundation Industry will open from 16th August until 29th September. For more information, please see the respective competition pages: Strand 1 and Strand 2. Alternatively, contact RedKnight as soon as possible if you would like to discuss an application with one of our advisers.
