Software Enabled Quantum Computation

Apply for software enabled quantum computation funds to develop the theoretical capabilities required to construct superior quantum computing architectures. This investment will form part of EPSRC’s contribution to the National Quantum Technologies Programme. 

The National Quantum Computing Centre (NQCC) and EPSRC are looking to finance projects that will enhance the necessary improvements in theory, benchmarking, error correction, and algorithms. The following areas of research are encouraged:  

  •  algorithms independent of hardware.
  • creation of error-correcting codes that conserve resources while addressing various types of errors.
  • creation of data embedding techniques to speed up problem resolution.
  • building knowledge of the classes of potential system vulnerabilities and including quantum-enabled components for assurance and to "bake security in"
  • development of theoretical knowledge to address unanswered issues in quantum computing.
  • the creation of techniques for rewriting or reworking quantum algorithms to lower hardware requirements.
  • create quantum computing verification and assurance techniques.
Eligibility:

Who can apply for research grants:  

  • UK higher education institutions. 
  • research council institutes. 
  • independent research organisations with UKRI approval qualified public sector researc. 
  • institutions qualified research and technology organisations. 
  • NHS organisations with research capabilities. 

 More Information: 

The applications are open until 1st February 2023. For more information and registration, please check here.

RedKnight has a strong track record of securing Innovate UK Smart Grants and can help you develop a competitive application! If you would like help putting together a competitive proposal, please contact us today.


Sustainable Bio-Based Materials and Manufacture- Feasibility Study

Innovate UK, the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) and the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), all part of UK Research and Innovation, will invest up to £2 million for sustainable bio-based materials and manufacture: feasibility study competition. 

The aim of this competition is to create and implement innovative, disruptive, sustainable biomanufacturing by 2050. enhancing the UK's ability to compete internationally by funding feasibility studies and encouraging cross-sector growth.  

This can be achieved through creative uses of renewable feedstocks and technologies for manufacturing sustainable and circular goods that are based on biotechnology. Businesses and academic researchers will be able to collaborate on projects to create more sustainable bio-based goods, biotechnology innovations, and processes.

Eligibility:

Your project must: 

  • have total costs between £50,000 and £100,000 
  • start by 1 July 2023 
  • end by 31 December 2023
  • last between 3 and 6 months
  • carry out all of its project work in the UK
  • intend to exploit the results from or in the UK 

You must only include eligible project costs in your application. 

A Russian or Belarusian organisation cannot serve as the lead, partner, or subcontractor in any procurement, commercial, business development, or supply chain activity funded by this competition due to current prohibitions. All products and services coming from Russian or Belarusian sources fall under this category. 

A company, academic institution, RTO, charity, not-for-profit organisation, or public sector organisation can lead only one application but may be a partner on up to two other applications.  

If a company isn't in charge of any particular application, it can collaborate on any number of them. 

 More Information: 

The applications are open until 1st February 2023. For more information and registration, please check here.

RedKnight has a strong track record of securing Innovate UK Smart Grants and can help you develop a competitive application! If you would like help putting together a competitive proposal, please contact us today.


Future flight: closing the skills gaps

The Future flight challenge for Innovate UK, part of UK Research and Innovation. It would put up to £500,000 towards initiatives to fill skills shortfalls in the aviation sector. The "Future Flight" challenge will revolutionise how we connect people, carry commodities, and offer services by utilising new classes of electric, hydrogen, and autonomous air vehicles. It will encourage firms to share their knowledge and resources, hastening the introduction of these vehicles into service. 

The objective of this competition is to develop and supply instructional materials and course content that will promote knowledge, abilities, and training in the field of future flight. This will increase public awareness of developing markets for future flights and close significant skills and training gaps in the UK workforce.

Eligibility:

Your project must: 

  • have a total grant funding request between £5,000 and £50,000 
  • start by 1 July 2023 
  • last between 3 and 6 months 
  • carry out all of its project work in the UK 

You must only include eligible project costs in your application. 

A Russian or Belarusian organisation cannot serve as the lead, partner, or subcontractor in any procurement, commercial, business development, or supply chain activity funded by this competition due to current prohibitions. All products and services coming from Russian or Belarusian sources fall under this category. 

A company, academic institution, RTO, charity, not-for-profit organisation, or public sector organisation can lead only one application but may be a partner on up to two other applications.  

If a company isn't in charge of any particular application, it can collaborate on any number of them. 

 More Information: 

The applications are open until 19th December 2022. For more information and registration, please visit Innovate UK KTN 

RedKnight has a strong track record of securing funding for transnational innovation projects and can help you develop a competitive application! Contact us to arrange a free consultation.


Opportunity to mentor pioneering women in innovation by Innovate UK KNI

Innovate UK KNI is looking for leaders from across a range of sectors to partner with who can mentor and guide the UK’s most pioneering women in innovation to accelerate the business ambitions of the next Women in Innovation Award Winners. 

Applications are welcome from a wide spectrum of people from all backgrounds and genders who have strategic business perspective, industry knowledge, and provide professional expertise. This role will complement the assistance offered by Innovate UK Edge's Innovation & Growth Specialists, who will assist the award winners with business coaching and networking.  

KTN and Innovate UK partner to build a strong network of female role models who share knowledge and support the growth of female entrepreneurs across the country through the Women in Innovation programme. 

You will gain as a mentor from:  
  • Participation in a dynamic, welcoming, diverse, inclusive and avant-garde community. 
  • An opportunity to advance your career by participating in UK innovation at the forefront and helping outstanding female innovators along the way. 
  • Media and engagement opportunities to boost your profile. 
  • Recognition of your involvement on social media. 
The abilities that the community will value: 
  • Experience with start-ups and business expansion. 
  • Managing investor partnerships and attracting investment. 
  • Establishing or managing company boards or managing teams within the organization. 
  • Marketing, branding and engagement. 
As a mentor, we will need you to: 
  • Make a commitment to collaborating with one of the 2022–23 Women in Innovation Award winners (for 12 months from April 2023). 
  • Attend a one-hour online session on the function of a mentor and how you may help a mentee on their journey. 
  • Plan regular appointments with your mentee, ideally once a month (online or in-person). 
  • Attend spontaneous networking events with the complete group of award winners (where possible). 

 More Information: 

The applications are open until 19th December 2022. For more information and registration, please visit Innovate UK KTN 

RedKnight has a strong track record of securing funding for transnational innovation projects and can help you develop a competitive application! Contact us to arrange a free consultation.


Year in Review 2022

As 2022 draws to a close, we are looking back on what has been another busy year at RedKnight Consultancy. Here are some of our highlights:

We welcomed some new faces…

RedKnight is growing! It’s been great to welcome three new team members this year: Dr Oliver Buckley as Associate Bid Writer, Kaleigh Waine as Associate Claims Manager, and Suma Jena as Marketing and Business Development Intern. Get to know our new team members here.

We moved into our new home

Back in March, RedKnight left James William House and moved into the new sbarc|spark building on Cardiff University’s Innovation Campus. This move has already provided us with excellent opportunities to meet and collaborate with innovative start-ups, SMEs, and spinouts. We look forward to building on these relationships in 2023.

RedKnight hit new milestones

RedKnight has now submitted over 200 grant applications, securing a total of £10.6m for our clients to develop their innovative products, processes, and services. This includes a successful application to Innovate UK Smart Grants, securing £347,449 for the development of a next-generation hybrid office visualiser platform, Focos-HOV. Plus, we have a further £2.3m in the pipeline that we can’t wait to share more about next year!

The client list kept growing…

The best part of our job is getting to work with some of the most cutting-edge companies in the UK. And we’ve been so happy to welcome a host of new clients on board in 2022, as well as some returning clients too! It’s been great to hear all about their innovative projects and support them on their grant funding journeys. We would like to say a huge well done to all our clients on their fantastic successes and achievements this year, of which there have been so many.

And we won some awards along the way!

RedKnight has also received several industry awards, including ‘Funding Specialists of the Year’ in the Wales Prestige Awards (pictured above) and ‘Grant Writing Agency of the Year’ in the Corporate LiveWire Global Awards. We are extremely proud to be recognised as one of the UK's leading grant funding consultancies and will continue working hard to maintain this high standard next year.

What a year! Thank you to all our clients for your support. We look forward to seeing your projects progress in 2023 and working with you again in the future.


£6 million available for Canada-UK quantum technology projects

Innovate UK and the National Research Council of Canada (NRC) are teaming up to invest in quantum innovation! Through this competition, UK registered businesses and Canadian SMEs can apply for a share of £6 million for collaborative research and development projects. They must enable the advancement of quantum technologies and their commercial use cases.

Scope

This competition aims to strengthen collaborative research and development through Canadian and UK partnerships towards commercialising quantum technologies. All projects must demonstrate:

  • a focus on co-development, adaptation, or validation of an innovative product, process or technology that has commercial potential and outcomes
  • quantified performance objectives
  • a plan for future exploitation

Innovate UK and the NRC are taking a portfolio approach. This means that they will fund a variety of projects across different technologies, markets, themes, technological maturities, and research categories.

Eligibility

To lead a project, your organisation must be a UK registered business or a Canadian SME. Your project must:

  • have a grant funding request of no more than £450,000 allocated to UK organisations
  • have a grant funding request of no more than CA $500,000 allocated to each eligible Canadian SME
  • start before 1 September 2023 and end before 31 August 2025
  • last between 12 and 24 months

In addition, Canadian funding applicants must register and submit an Expression of Interest (EoI) to the NRC Industrial Research Assistance Program. They must be successful with the EoI before being eligible to apply for this competition.

More Information

This competition is open from 21st November until 19th April 2023. For more information, please visit the competition page or attend the online briefing event on 29th November.

RedKnight has a strong track record of securing funding for transnational innovation projects and can help you develop a competitive application! Contact us to arrange a free consultation.


£2.5 million available to help SMEs develop innovative aerospace technologies

UK registered SMEs can apply for a share of £2.5 million to develop innovative aerospace technologies. This competition is run by Innovate UK, the Aerospace Technology Institute and the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy.

Proposals must align with the priorities stated in the UK Aerospace technology strategy, Destination Zero. They will need to pass assessments by both Innovate UK and the Aerospace Technology Institute to be recommended for funding. Then, BEIS has the final funding decision.

Scope

Funding is available for innovative aerospace technologies that will enhance a SMEs capability and increase their ability to win new business in the civil aerospace sector. All projects must have a credible route to market and preferably have identified their end users. Additionally, all projects must:

  • demonstrate improvement in business productivity and competitiveness
  • show clear benefit technically
  • be able to pull through new technology or processes for use in a current or future product or manufacturing process
  • show clear benefit in creating or safeguarding jobs
  • be able to enhance capabilities within the broader aerospace industry, as well as other sectors such as advanced manufacturing
Eligibility

All projects must fulfil the following criteria:

  • have total costs between £150,000 and £300,000
  • end before 31 Dec 2024
  • last between 12 and 18 months
  • carry out all project work in the UK and intend to exploit the results from or in the UK

The lead organisation must be a UK registered SME and they must collaborate with other UK registered organisations.

More Information

This competition is open from 14th November until 11th January. For more information, visit the competition page or join the briefing event on 16th November.

RedKnight's logoRedKnight has a strong track record of securing innovation funding and can help you develop a competitive application! If you would like to explore an application, please contact us in order to arrange a free consultation.


New funding opportunities through the Medicines Manufacturing Challenge

Innovate UK is launching two new competitions through the Medicines Manufacturing Challenge this month. This funding will support the development of innovative technologies to manufacture medicines and accelerate patient access to new drugs and treatments.

1. Innovative technologies for nucleic acid medicines manufacturing

UK registered organisations can apply for a share of £5 million to develop and commercialise innovative solutions for manufacturing nucleic acid medicines. Solutions must improve resource efficiency, productivity or scalability as compared with current manufacturing technology.

The lead organisation must be a UK registered business, research and technology organisation, not-for-profit or public sector organisation. They must collaborate with other UK registered organisations and the consortium must involve at least one grant-claiming SME. In addition, all projects must:

  • have total costs between £100,000 and £2 million
  • start before 1 June 2023 and end before 31 May 2025
  • last between 12 and 24 months
  • carry out all project work in the UK
  • intend to exploit the results from or in the UK
2. Digitalisation and automation of medicines R&D and manufacture

UK registered organisations can apply for a share of £5 million to develop and implement innovative digital and automated data collection technologies for pharmaceutical development and manufacturing. Solutions should demonstrate an improvement in resource efficiency or productivity.

To lead a project, your organisation must be a UK registered business, research and technology organisation, charity, not-for-profit or public sector organisation. They must collaborate with other UK registered organisations and ensure the consortium involves at least one grant-claiming SME. All projects must also:

  • have total grant funding requests of between £100,000 and £1 million
  • start before 1 June 2023 and end before 31 May 2025
  • last between 12 and 24 months
  • carry out all project work in the UK
  • intend to exploit the results from or in the UK
More Information

Both Medicines Manufacturing Challenge competitions are open from 7th November until 21st December. If you want our help developing a competitive application, please get in touch today.


Innovate UK Smart Grants: October 2022

new round of Innovate UK Smart Grants opens on 27th October. Through this competition, up to £25m is available for game-changing and commercially viable R&D innovation that can significantly impact the UK economy.

Scope

Applications can come from any area of technology and be applied to any part of the economy.  To be in scope, proposals 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
Eligibility

Applications must include at least one SME; they can be the lead or a collaborative grant claiming partner. The project must start by 1st July 2023 and end by 30th June 2026. It should also follow specific rules based on its duration:

  1. Projects with durations between 6 and 18 months must have total eligible project costs between £100,000 and £500,000. They can be single or collaborative projects.
  2. Projects with durations between 19 months and 36 months must have total eligible project costs between £100,000 and £2 million. In contrast to shorter projects, they must be collaborative.
More Information

This competition is open from 27th October until 18th January. For more information, please visit the competition page or attend the online briefing event on 3rd November.

RedKnight's logoRedKnight has a strong track record of securing Innovate UK Smart Grants and can help you develop a competitive application! If you would like help putting together a competitive proposal, please contact us today.


Zero Emission Propulsion CR&D competition open for applications

UK registered businesses can apply for a share of £10 million for Zero Emission Propulsion CR&D projects. This funding is from the new Net Zero Mobility Programme.

Scope

The aim of this competition is to support future propulsion technologies for the transport sector, covering maritime, rail, automotive, and aerospace. There are a range of technologies that are in scope for each sector, including:

  • Maritime: Clean maritime technologies for all sizes and categories of maritime vessel are in scope.
  • Rail: Technologies can target all locomotive classes including those for freight and passenger carrying services and carriages.
  • Automotive: Technologies can cover both niche and mainstream on and off-road vehicles.
  • Aerospace: Technologies for drones or unmanned aircraft systems (UAS), advanced air mobility (AAM), and electric or hybrid passenger aircraft.

Projects must address one or more of the following: improved range and overall system performance capability; decreased total cost of ownership; adoption of and transition to zero emission end products; or strengthening of the UK supply chain.

In addition, applicants must show a need for the project by including an end customer within the consortium. They can be a funded partner or non-funded project adviser.

Eligibility

All projects must:

  • have total costs between £250,000 and £1.5 million
  • have a maximum project duration of 18 months
  • start before 1st August 2023
  • claim the grant funding before 31st March 2025
  • carry out all project work in the UK
  • intend to exploit the results from or in the UK

The lead organisation must be a UK registered business and work in collaboration with other UK registered organisations. The consortium has to involve at least one SME.

More Information

The Zero Emission Propulsion CR&D competition is open from 17th October until 7th December. Apply via the competition page or contact us if you would like help with your application.