UK registered businesses can apply for a share of £1 million in order to deliver circular economy innovation projects. This competition is part of the £30 million UKRI National Interdisciplinary Circular Economy Research programme, which aims to accelerate the UK’s transition to a circular economy.

Scope

This competition will support feasibility studies, industrial research and experimental development projects that address the challenges of transitioning to a circular economy. Specifically, projects can focus on one or more of the following examples:

  •  piloting the introduction of a circular economy business model
  • development or improvement of products and processes to enable remanufacturing, repair and retention of value
  • increasing understanding and exploitation of material flow data in a defined place (for example; city, Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEP), cluster, region)
  • scaling-up of credible feasibility studies
  • evaluating whether proposed approaches are more sustainable when considering broader life cycle thinking

This is not an exhaustive list – Innovate UK will also welcome other focus areas that clearly address the challenges of transitioning to a circular economy. To read the full competition scope, which includes projects that Innovate UK will not fund, click here.

Eligibility

All projects must:

  • Have total eligible costs between £50,000 and £100,000
  • Start no earlier than 1st April 2022 and end by 31st March 2023
  • Last between 9 and 12 months
  • Conduct all its project work in the UK
  • Intend to exploit the results from or in the UK

In addition, applicants must include at least one of the UKRI Interdisciplinary Circular Economy Centres as a project partner. Alternatively, you can include a letter of support from one of the centres that demonstrates the alignment of the proposed activities to one or more Centres’ aims and objectives.

More Information

This competition will accept applications from 11th October until 8th December. For more information and to apply, click here. If you would like to discuss an application with a member of our team, please contact us today.

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