What happens after you submit an Innovate UK application?
You’ve just submitted your Innovate UK application and breathed a sigh of relief that weeks of hard work are finally complete. But what happens next? Here is everything you need to know, including details of the assessment process and how Innovate UK selects applications for funding.
The assessment process
After the deadline, applications that meet the competition scope and eligibility criteria will be assessed by up to five assessors. They will score each section of your application and provide written feedback based on their interpretation of your project idea.
Innovate UK assessors are experts from both business and academia. They base their assessment solely on the information provided and remain anonymous throughout the entire process. Learn more about the assessment process here.
The moderation process
Innovate UK carries out three steps to moderate the assessors’ scores:
- Firstly, they check for any outliers in the scoring. They may remove any scores that seem unjustified or unsupported by the assessors’ comments.
- Then, Innovate UK will look at the assessors’ answers to the final recommendation questions to determine whether an application is in scope and worthy of funding. Successful applications must receive a majority vote from the assessors on both questions.
- Finally, Innovate UK checks the minimum quality threshold to ensure that only the most innovative applications receive funding. This is typically a score of 70% or above.
Once the moderation process is complete, Innovate UK will rank applications in a list from highest to lowest.
Allocation of funds
Innovate UK takes two approaches to allocate funding:
- Top Down – funds are allocated from the top down until the competition budget is reached.
- Portfolio – they select applications to suit a specific spend profile for a competition.
Then, Innovate UK's funders panel will receive the list of successful applications for approval. They will review the recommendations in line with the competition scope. Learn more about how applications are selected for funding here.
What happens next?
Innovate UK will notify applicants of the outcome of their application. All applicants will also receive assessor feedback. It may contain conflicting comments as it is based on the assessors’ individual interpretations. However, there is no right of appeal against the feedback provided and you cannot address this with Innovate UK or the individual assessors.
How can RedKnight help?
If you don’t get the news you are hoping for, RedKnight can help you prepare a competitive resubmission ahead of the next deadline. Please contact us in order to arrange a free consultation.
£4 million available for UK and Canadian net zero transportation projects
UK registered businesses and Canadian SMEs can apply for a share of £4 million to collaborate on joint R&D projects that enable the transition to net zero transportation. They must demonstrate high potential for commercialisation, address a technological challenge and target large global markets.
Scope
All projects must focus on innovations that enable the transition to net zero for the automotive, rail, or maritime sectors. They must focus on at least one of the following themes:
- Low and zero emission propulsion
- Advanced sustainable materials and manufacturing
- Highly disruptive technologies
- Assistive technologies and control systems
Funding is available for industrial research projects and experimental development projects.
Eligibility
The lead organisation must be a UK registered business of any size or a Canadian registered SME. However, all consortia must include at least one grant claiming UK registered SME and one eligible Canadian registered SME.
In addition, all projects must:
- Have a grant funding request of no more than £300,000 allocated to UK organisations
- Have a grant funding request of no more than CA$500,000 allocated to each eligible Canadian SME
- Start by 1st January 2023 and end by 31st December 2024
- Last between 12 and 24 months
You can read the full eligibility criteria here.
More Information
This competition opens on 4th April and closes at 5pm UK time on 29th June 2022. Canadian applicants must register and submit an Expression of Interest before submitting an application.
For more information, please visit the competition page or attend the online briefing event on 7th April. You might also be interested in the matchmaking event taking place on 25th April.
How can RedKnight help?
RedKnight has extensive experience of developing bids for transnational innovation projects. To find out more about how we can help, please contact us in order to arrange a free consultation.
Biomedical Catalyst 2022 Round 1: Industry-led R&D
The Biomedical Catalyst will return later this month! In Round 1, UK registered SMEs can apply for a share of £15 million to develop innovative health or healthcare-focused products, technologies and processes.
Scope
Projects can focus on any health or healthcare challenge. They can include a range of activities, such as:
- experimental evaluation (at laboratory scale)
- use of in vitro and in vivo models to evaluate proof of concept or safety
- exploring potential production mechanisms
- prototyping
- product development planning
- intellectual property protection
- a demonstration of clinical utility and effectiveness
- a demonstration of safety and efficacy (including phase 1 and 2 clinical trials)
- regulatory planning
As this is the Industry-led R&D stream of the Biomedical Catalyst programme, applicants must also demonstrate existing evidence of commercial and technical feasibility.
Eligibility
All projects must meet the following eligibility criteria:
- have total project costs between £150,000 and £4 million, not exceeding a grant request of £2 million
- have at least 50% of the total project costs shared by the SMEs, if collaborative
- start before 1 December 2022 and end before 30 November 2025
- last between 6 months and 36 months
- carry out all project work in the UK and 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. You can work in collaboration with other organisations, including businesses of any size, academic institutions, charities, not-for-profits, public sector organisations, or research and technology organisations. They must also be registered in the UK.
More Information
Round 1 of the Biomedical Catalyst is open from 28th March until 25th May. For more information, please visit the competition page or join the online briefing event on 5th April.
RedKnight has a strong track record of securing funding for life science companies. If you would like to discuss working together, please contact us to arrange a free consultation.
£4.7m available for innovation in time resilience, dissemination and application
Innovate UK is working with the National Physical Laboratory to invest up to £4.7 million in business-led innovation in time resilience, dissemination and application. The key areas for development are resilience; distribution; trust, assurance and security; and integration and processing of signals.
The competition has three aims:
- Support and enable business-led innovation across the UK supply chain in resilient time, frequency and synchronisation (TFS) for the development of products, services and end-user applications.
- Develop a TFS ecosystem and capability for relevant industries and critical national infrastructure.
- Disrupt and create new markets, both in the UK and globally, to improve the provision of TFS.
Strand 1: Demonstrator
This strand is for projects undertaking late-stage industrial research or experimental developmental projects. Strand 1 projects must:
- have total costs between £70,000 and £1 million
- start by 1 November 2022 and end by 31 March 2024
- last between 9 and 18 months
In addition, projects must be led by a UK-registered business. They can work in collaboration with other UK registered businesses, research and technology organisations, academic institutions, public sector organisations, charities or not for profits.
Strand 2: Feasibility
This strand is for projects undertaking early-stage feasibility studies. Strand 2 projects must:
- have total costs between £50,000 and £250,000
- start by 1 November 2022 and end by 31 October 2023
- last between 6 and 12 months
In addition, projects must be led by a UK-registered business. They can work in collaboration with other UK registered businesses, research and technology organisations, academic institutions, public sector organisations, charities or not for profits.
More Information
Innovation in time resilience, dissemination and application is open from 14th March until 1st June. More information is available on the competition pages (Strand 1 and Strand 2), where you can also register to attend the briefing event on 25th March.
If you are looking for bid writing support, please contact us in order to arrange a free consultation.
Innovation Loans return for 2022
Innovate UK’s Innovation Loans programme has returned for 2022! This follows a successful pilot programme that has been delivered by Innovate UK since 2017, providing £163 million to 200 businesses around the UK.
Scope
Loans are available for innovative, late-stage projects with strong commercial potential. All projects must lead to new products, processes or services that are significantly ahead of current state-of-the-art solutions. They should focus on one or more of the following themes and sub-themes:
Net Zero
- energy
- impact of industrial processes and use of materials
- agriculture and food and other sources of emissions
- capital intensity
Health and Wellbeing
- tackling ill health
- enhancing wellbeing
- diet and food
Next generation digital technologies
Technology families
- advanced materials and manufacturing
- artificial intelligence
- digital and advanced computing
- bioinformatics and genomics
- engineering biology
- electronics, photonics and quantum technologies
- energy and environment technologies
- robotics and smart machines
Eligibility
Innovation loans can be for between £100,000 and £2 million. Projects must start by July 2022 and can last up to 5 years, including both the R&D and commercialisation phases. Loan recipients must also:
- Be a UK-registered SME
- Carry out their project from or in the UK and intend to exploit the project’s results from or in the UK
- Give evidence that their business is suitable to take on a loan
More Information
The funding available will be allocated across a series of four competitions that run from 10th March until 13th July. For more information, visit the competition page and register to join the online briefing event on 21st March.
RedKnight has a strong track record of securing Innovate UK funding and can help you develop a competitive application! Please contact us in order to arrange a free consultation.
If you're looking for grant funding, you may also be interested in Innovate UK Smart Grants.
RedKnight relocates to sbarc | spark
Following two and a half years in James William House, RedKnight is relocating! We are very excited to announce that we are moving into the new sbarc | spark building on Cardiff University's Innovation Campus.
Our time in James William House has certainly been memorable. We have supported 64 applications, worked with over 100 businesses and secured over £5m of grant funding – all while running a business through a global pandemic! A huge thank you to everyone who has supported us during this time.
New Opportunities
sbarc | spark is the ideal place for RedKnight to develop and grow further; it is a thriving innovation ecosystem, bringing together SPARK – the world’s first Social Science Research Park, and Cardiff Innovations@sbarc – a hub for start-ups, spinouts and partnerships.
RedKnight's Co-Director, Dayne Hodgson, said:
"We are really excited to be relocating into this new state-of-the-art facility on Cardiff Innovation Campus. The move will position RedKnight at the heart of the local innovation ecosystem and provide excellent opportunities to meet and collaborate with innovative start-ups, SMEs and academic spinouts. We are grateful to the spark board for accepting our application to be a part of their vision and look forward to working alongside like-minded individuals over the coming years.”
First Look
Take a look at the sbarc | spark building and our new office below:
We are so excited to start this new chapter and look forward to sharing the highlights with you! Want to pop by to say hello? Our new address is Office 06.03, Sbarc | Spark, Maindy Road, Cathays, Cardiff, CF24 4HQ.
Grant funding success rates: chances of success in 2022
This blog post provides up-to-date success rates for popular innovation grant funding competitions, including Innovate UK Smart Grants and the EIC Accelerator.
Innovate UK
Innovate UK Smart Grants has two streams: in stream 1, projects should have total costs under £500k and take no longer than 18 months to complete. In stream 2, projects must be collaborative, cost between £100,000 and £2 million, and last between 19 and 36 months. The competition, which typically takes place every quarter, had the following success rates in 2021:
- Stream 1 – 10.17%
- Stream 2 – 12.99%
- Stream 1 – 6.98%
- Stream 2 – 7.24%
- Stream 1 – 3.13%
- Stream 2 – 3.47%
From this, we can see that Innovate UK Smart Grants had an average success rate of 6.76% for Stream 1 and 7.9% for Stream 2 in 2021.
EIC Accelerator
The EIC Accelerator is extremely competitive - by the end of Horizon 2020, it had a success rate of just 2-3%! This led to the introduction of a new three-stage application process under Horizon Europe: 1) Short application > 2) Full application > 3) Face-to-face interview. Short applications can be completed at any time and, if successful, the applicant can proceed to the full application stage.
It is unclear how many short applications were submitted in 2021 as these can be completed at any time. However, we know that there were a total of 1910 full applications (801 in June and 1109 in October). 164 companies received funding, meaning 8.5% of companies who made it to the full application stage were successful.
Eureka Eurostars
Eureka Eurostars has an overall success rate of 29%, with the programme making €1.75 billion of public/private investment since 2014.
RedKnight
RedKnight’s success rate stands at 38.3% - far above the average success rates for Innovate UK and European Commission grants! If you would like to discuss working together, please contact us to arrange a free consultation.
How to find the right grant funding opportunities for your innovation
In today’s blog, we answer some of the most frequently asked questions we receive about how to find grant funding opportunities for innovation projects. This includes where to look and how to decide if a grant funding opportunity is the right fit for your organisation.
“Where can I find grant funding opportunities?”
- Unfortunately, there is no single list of innovation funding opportunities. The main places to look include:
- UKRI Funding Finder – this contains funding opportunities from across UKRI, including Innovate UK. You can filter the results by funding council, funding type, and submission status.
- European Funding and Tenders Portal – the Portal contains all funding programmes and tenders managed by the European Commission, including Horizon Europe. However, you can quickly find relevant opportunities by searching for keywords relating to your field of interest or using the portal’s built-in filters to narrow your search.
- Eureka Network – a list of open calls for transnational research and innovation projects is available on Eureka’s website.
- You may also want to consider regional funding bodies, such as SMART Cymru for businesses based in Wales.
2. We recommend signing up for newsletters and funding bulletins to ensure you receive the latest opportunities direct to your inbox. Our favourites include UKRI and KTN. We also share the latest opportunities in our free monthly newsletter.
3. It is worth following innovation funding bodies such as Innovate UK and Horizon Europe on social media. This is another place where they tend to promote open or forthcoming funding calls. We also highlight the latest funding opportunities on our Twitter and LinkedIn.
4. If you have a specific project in mind, you should consider speaking to an innovation funding expert. They will be able to talk you through available funding opportunities and point you in the right direction.
“How do I know if a grant funding opportunity is the right fit?”
- Check the eligibility criteria – this is essential as if you don’t meet the eligibility criteria, your application will be rejected and may not even be read. Typically, there may be rules relating to project costs, duration, start and end dates, and whether a project is single or collaborative.
- Check the project scope – It’s important that you read and understand exactly what a funding call is looking to fund. For example, Innovate UK often highlights specific themes that a project should focus on, as well as projects that they will not fund. Remember, square pegs don’t fit round holes!
- You should also consider whether it is the right time to apply for grant funding. Is your project at the right stage of development and can you provide the required level of match funding? If not, it may be worth holding off and revisiting an application further down the line.
“I’m interested in more than one opportunity – how do I choose?”
You may not have to choose, as you can generally apply to multiple competitions at the same time. Some of the information from a grant application will be transferable to other applications, and by casting a wider net, you also increase your chances of success. However, if you are successful with more than one application for the same project, you will need to decide which fund to progress with.
More Information
We hope this information helps in your search for grant funding opportunities. If you are short on time and would like our support, please contact us to arrange a free consultation.
European Commission adopts EIC Work Programme 2022
The European Commission has adopted the 2022 work programme of the European Innovation Council (EIC)! In 2022, it will provide €1.7 billion for breakthrough innovators to scale up and create new markets.
EIC Pathfinder
Firstly, the EIC Pathfinder will receive €350 million to fund early-stage technology research. €183 million will be awarded through Pathfinder Open, with submissions open from 1st March until 4th May. The remaining €167 million aims to tackle the following six challenges:
- Carbon dioxide and nitrogen management and valorisation
- Mid-long term, systems-integrated energy storage
- Cardiogenomics
- Healthcare continuum technologies
- DNA-based digital data storage
- Alternative approaches to quantum information processing, communication, and sensing.
These calls will open from 15th June until 19th October.
EIC Transition
Secondly, the EIC Transition will receive €131 million to fund technology validation and spin-out. It will focus on promising results generated by both EIC Pathfinder and European Research Council Proof of Concept projects. Calls open from 1st March, with €70.9 million allocated to EIC Transition Open and €60.5 million to the following Transition Challenges:
- Green digital devices for the future
- Process and system integration of clean energy technologies
- RNA-based therapies and diagnostics for complex or rare genetic diseases
EIC Accelerator
Lastly, the EIC Accelerator will provide €1.16 billion for start-ups and SMEs to develop and scale up high impact innovations. Applicants can submit a short application at any time. Then, the cut-off dates for full applications are 23rd March, 15th June, and 5th October.
What’s new in the 2022 EIC Work Programme?
- A new EIC-Scale Up 100 Initiative to identify 100 potential deep-tech unicorns.
- Equity investments above €15 million for technologies of strategic European interest.
- Stronger support for women innovators through the development of an innovation gender and diversity index.
- The EU Prize for Women Innovators includes two new prizes for innovators under 35.
- More frequent application deadlines.
- Second-time applicants to the EIC Accelerator can describe and defend the improvements made to their resubmission.
More Information
Further information on each of the calls is available in the EIC Work Programme 2022. There will also be an Information Day on 22nd February. If you are planning to apply for funding and would like bid writing support, please contact us in order to arrange a free consultation.
Grant funding available for UK-South Korea collaborative R&D
UK registered businesses can apply for a share of £2 million to fund collaborative innovation with businesses from South Korea. This funding is from Innovate UK in partnership with the Korea Institute for the Advancement of Technology.
Scope
This competition will fund collaborative research and development projects focused on industrial research. All proposals must demonstrate:
- a clear game-changing or disruptive innovative idea leading to new products, processes or services
- a strong and deliverable business plan
- sound, practical financial plans and timelines
- good value for money
- a clear, evidence-based plan to deliver significant economic impact, return on investment (ROI) and growth through commercialisation
- considerable potential to significantly benefit the UK economy or national productivity
- the benefits of participants from the countries working together and how this adds value
- a clear definition of where IP can be used and shared between the participants and countries
- a clear route to market within no more than 2 to 3 years of project completion
Eligibility
All projects must meet the following eligibility criteria:
- Firstly, the consortium must include at least one business registered in South Korea.
- All projects must last between 24 and 36 months, starting by 1st November 2022 and ending by 31st October 2025.
- UK applicants can apply for a maximum grant of up to £350,000.
- They must also carry out the majority of their project work in the UK and intend to exploit the results from or in the UK.
More Information
This competition is open from 14th February until 6th July. For more information, please visit the competition page or join the online briefing event on 22nd February.
RedKnight has extensive experience of developing bids for transnational innovation projects. To find out more about how we can help, please contact us in order to arrange a free consultation.