Biomedical Catalyst relaunches with £30 million
The latest round of Innovate UK's Biomedical Catalyst will soon open for applications. From Monday 27th July, UK-registered SMEs can apply for a share of up to £30 million to develop a product or process that provides an innovative solution to a health and care challenge. Your project’s total eligible costs must be between £250,000 and £4 million.
Scope
This competition combines the early and late-stage strands of the Biomedical Catalyst. The aim of an early-stage award is to create a data package that is sufficient to support the testing of your product or process in a clinical setting. Meanwhile, the late-stage award will test a well-developed concept and show its effectiveness. Projects can focus on any health and care sector or discipline. However, they must be aligned to one of the following innovation areas:
- medical technologies and devices
- stratified healthcare
- advanced therapies (gene and cell therapies)
- digital health
- drug discovery
- diagnostics
Applications that support innovation in the following areas are particularly welcomed: child health technologies, innovations that support clinical trials in the UK, and biomedical innovations that combat the threat of antimicrobial resistance.
What is the Biomedical Catalyst?
The Biomedical Catalyst was developed in 2012 to achieve three key objectives:
- Deliver growth to the UK life sciences sector.
- Deliver innovative life sciences products and services into healthcare more quickly and effectively.
- Provide support to academic and commercially-led research and development.
A recent report by Ipsos MORI found that the Biomedical Catalyst has successfully met its objectives. Key findings include that the Biomedical Catalyst has offered strong value for money, increased companies' R&D investment by 93%, and increased employment by 11 to 15 percent over 3 to 5 years. Steve Bates, CEO of the UK BioIndustry Association, welcomed the announcement of additional funding:
"The Biomedical Catalyst has provided entrepeneurs and SMEs access to crucial capital to grow and scale. This is a key part of the Government's efforts to ensure the UK is resilient to future threats to public health, as well as supporting the development of new life-changing medical treatments, diagnostics and devices."
This competition closes on the 7th October 2020. If you'd like to apply, get in touch with RedKnight today to arrange a free consultation.
£200m available to help innovative companies bounce back
The Sustainable Innovation Fund will help power the UK’s economic recovery and develop new sustainable opportunities for businesses in any sector. It will also help the UK to meet its ambitions to cut carbon emissions to net-zero by 2050.
The funding will support a variety of projects, including the development of ground-breaking medical technologies, as well as new technologies to make homes and offices more energy efficient. The fund is also available to smart sustainability-focused projects aimed at establishing more “climate-positive” behaviours.
"Today I am urging businesses in all parts of the UK to come forward and pitch their state-of-the-art ideas to us, so we can work together to power the UK’s economic recovery."
Sustainable Innovation Fund: round 1
- UK-registered businesses can apply for a share of up to £55m to fund new projects focusing on sustainable economic recovery from COVID-19.
- Competition closes: 29th July 2020
Sustainable Innovation Fund: SBRI phase 1
- Organisations can apply for a share of up to £10 million to help UK businesses and the public sector recover from COVID-19 in a sustainable manner.
- Competition closes: 5th August 2020
If you think you may be eligible for one of the above opportunities, you can apply now through Innovate UK. For our help in putting together a competitive proposal, please contact us today.
Energy Catalyst Round 8: Clean Energy Access
Organisations can apply for a share of up to £20 million to develop and demonstrate innovative solutions for clean, affordable, and secure energy access in sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia, or South East Asia. The competition aims to support highly innovative, market-focused energy solutions in any technology or sector.
Your project must encourage the development of products and services that help one or more of the specified countries to access secure, low cost, and low carbon energy. Projects must be targeted at people, public services, and local enterprises who are unable to afford or access existing solutions, or who lack the time or expertise to successfully use those solutions.
This competition has three strands, which are dependent on the stage your project is at:
- Early-stage for feasibility studies (this strand)
- Mid-stage for industrial research
- Late-stage for experimental development
The Energy Catalyst Programme is open to any energy technology from any sector. However, to be in scope for round 8 your project must address the following 3 subjects: energy access, the energy 'trilemma', and gender and social inclusion. For example, your project could focus on:
- making new solutions more affordable.
- integrating technologies in new systems or business models to help unlock finance and deployment.
- developing technologies or partnership business models that address other barriers to deployment.
- unlocking under-served market segments that existing solutions are not reaching at scale.
This competition closes on 16th September 2020. For further details on eligibility, scope, and how to apply, please visit the competition page.
Interested in applying? Contact us today to arrange a free consultation.
BEIS Funding Allocations 2020-2021
BEIS 2020-21 Funding Allocations reveal a huge boost for UK research and innovation.
The Chancellor’s 2020 Budget included ambitious plans to increase public research and development (R&D) investment to £22 billion by 2024. This is the largest and fastest ever expansion of funding for research and innovation, taking direct support for R&D to 0.8% of GDP. It places the UK among the top quarter of OECD nations.
The Government remains committed to meeting this goal, despite the uncertainty caused by the Coronavirus pandemic. The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) is moving forward with its plans, confirming allocations of the R&D budget for 2020-2021. As a first step towards meeting this ambition, £10.36 billion of funding is being allocated to BEIS programmes and partner organisations this financial year.
The funding includes:
- investment in world-leading science and advanced mathematics
- investment in Net Zero technologies in the energy, automotive and aerospace sectors
- support to immediate efforts to respond to COVID-19, including sponsoring efforts to manufacture and trial a vaccine
- investment to secure and maintain the essential talent and infrastructure needed to deliver cutting-edge research.
In short, funding for public sector research establishments will enable the UK to be at the forefront of fusion energy technology. It will also deliver world-leading meteorological and climate science, develop cutting-edge quantum measurement techniques, and capitalise on the UK’s space capabilities. In a move aimed at creating stability during the pandemic, BEIS is providing further support to R&D intensive businesses and higher education institutions.
If you're interested in viewing the full list of R&D allocations for this financial year, click here. Alternatively, to discuss funding opportunities with one of our specialist advisers, please contact us today.
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Two new competitions to decarbonise UK industry
The UK Government aims to achieve net zero emissions by 2050. However, some of the UK’s most economically active and industrially intensive areas are also some of the largest producers of carbon emissions, with around a quarter of all greenhouse gas emissions being produced by industry. For this reason, the Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund has launched two competitions in a new Industrial Decarbonisation challenge.
The Industrial Decarbonisation challenge will commit £170 million towards deploying technologies like carbon capture and hydrogen networks in industrial clusters, supporting the Industrial Clusters Mission to establish the world’s first net zero industrial cluster by 2040.
Competition 1 – deployment
UK businesses will have the opportunity to apply for a share of up to £1 million to develop plans for decarbonising an industrial cluster. To compete in this Deployment phase 1, applicants will have until 4 December to submit their proposals, which must:
- have total eligible costs between £60,000 and £200,000
- be led by a UK business
- be collaborative
- last between 3 and 4 months
- aim to carry out the project work in the UK and exploit the results across other UK industrial clusters
Successful applicants from phase 1 will then compete for phase 2, where up to £131 million will be awarded for projects that will deliver, or support delivery of, significant emissions reductions in a UK industrial cluster by 2030.
Competition 2 - roadmaps
In the roadmaps competition, UK organisations can apply for a share of up to £1 million to prepare plans for their journey to achieving low carbon and net zero industrial clusters. In this competition, applicants will have until 4 December to submit their projects, which must:
- have total eligible costs between £40,000 and £120,000
- be carried out by a single organisation or in collaboration – which we encourage
- demonstrate how it will collaborate within a cluster
- last between 3 and 4 months
- be led by a UK registered business of any size, a research organisation, public sector organisation, charity or academic institution
- carry out its project work in the UK
- intend to exploit the results in at least one UK industrial cluster
In phase 2 up to £8 million will be awarded for the development of industrial cluster decarbonisation roadmaps for major UK industrial clusters. These must set out how a cluster could be decarbonised to net-zero levels.
More information can either be found on the Innovate UK web page or you can always call us for a FREE consultation!
Innovate UK to launch competition in support to food producers
By 2050, the global demand for food is expected to grow by 60 per cent to meet the needs of an increasing and more demanding population. To do this without causing a devastating impact on the environment producers need to supply what we eat in a more sustainable and efficient way, reducing pollution, minimising waste and improving soil conditions.
The UK Government’s Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund Transforming Food Production Challenge has up to £20 million from the fund to invest in large-scale and ambitious projects that help UK food production break out of a traditional land-based model and move towards a sustainable position of net-zero emissions.
The competition will remain open until 22 January 2020 and it will be directed to projects that are either developing new and efficient low-emission food production systems or addressing technological and other bottlenecks holding back state-of-the art systems from supplying consumers.
Areas of work could include indoor growing systems, aquaculture, and new food sources such as insects and fermentation-based systems.
Briefing events will be held in Edinburgh on 8 October 2019 and in Birmingham on 23 October 2019
More information can either be found on the Innovate UK web page or you can always call us for a FREE consultation!
Smart energy and adult care leading the latest round of UK funding
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
Innovate UK ready to fund Smart energy
Starting from 7 May 2019, UK business will have a chance to compete for a share of up to £30 million to develop designs for smart local energy systems that make the best use of innovative technologies including cheaper renewables, energy storage, low carbon heat and digital infrastructure.
The aim of the competition is to create a pipeline of highly innovative, ambitious, local energy system designs that are investable and ready to roll out across the UK in the 2020s.
Projects will create new market and business models using smart energy systems that enable deployment at scale of the latest in energy technologies across heat, power and transport, in a way that is reproducible across the UK.
Projects are expected to:
- develop novel market and business approaches for smart energy systems
- integrate new energy technologies across heat, power and transport in replicable and scalable ways across the UK
- investigate and design approaches that will significantly lower energy system costs and emissions
- create economic benefits for the local area and the UK as a whole
- develop finance and investment models for the deployment of low carbon technologies at scale
To know more, visit Innovate UK or contact us on info@redknightconsultancy.co.uk
Source: Innovate UK
Innovate Uk tackles productivity problems in industry with a £4m competition
Next 25 February 2019, Innovate UK will launch a 2-phase competition to help National business solving business productivity problems and improving UK industry competitiveness.
Thanks to a partnership between Innovate UK, the National Physical Laboratory, the National Measurement Laboratory at LGC, the National Engineering Laboratory and the Science and Technology Facilities Council, up to £4 million will be made available to work with leading scientists and research facilities to explore why a certain percentage defect rate is occurring within an existing production process.
In the first stage of the competition, which will close at midday on 20 March 2019, UK-based organisations of any size should connect with potential partners to agree on an approach to a problem and work together to develop an expression of interest, that shall address:
• the measurement or analysis of some quantities or properties of an existing process, product or service
• Innovative solutions to problems that are not solvable by simple ‘off the shelf’ methods or techniques
Upon successful completion of Phase 1, eligible candidates will have access to Phase 2 (opening date and deadlines TBC), which will offer grant funding to total eligible project costs up to £300,000.
Source: InnovateUK
If you wish to find out whether your business can be eligible or even if you just would like to find out more, please do not hesitate to contact us at info@redknightconsultancy.co.uk
£6m up for grabs to save the Ocean
UK businesses can have a chance to save our oceans thanks to £6m available through simultaneous grants and private investment.
The amount, made available by a public-private partnership between Innovate UK and Sky Ocean Ventures, will allow UK firms to become leaders in providing solutions to reduce pollution in world's oceans; a problem that is threatening to triple its magnitude by 2025, unless serious actions are taken (source: UN).
To enable the UK to lead the fight against waste, catalyse new ideas and quickly get products and services to market, Innovate UK will devolve 50% of the whole sum in grants, whereas the remaining 50% will be funded by Sky Ocean Venture through private investment. Part of this is from the Plastics Research and Innovation Fund – a £20 million programme led by UK Research and Innovation.
The competition to get access to this funding is now open and applicants are invited to submit their projects until midday on 13 March 2019 (first deadline). Micro and small businesses are eligible to apply, working alone, and they can get up to 100% of their project costs (expected between £100,000 and £200,000), equally split between Innovate UK and Sky Ocean Ventures.
Successful application should:
- Be feasibility studies, industrial research or experimental development
- Last no more than 12 months
- Based in the UK and the work should be carried here
- Identify where revenue generation and growth will occur in the UK as a result of the innovation being developed and exploited
Also, successful applications should consider:
- developing new, sustainable polymer materials
- developing sustainable plastic alternatives
- alternative business models and supply chains that use less plastic
- supporting circularity through improved resource use and design
- new product designs
- technology-enabled models that change consumer behaviours
- new recycling processes, including collecting, sorting and processing of waste plastics
- increasing the value of recycled polymers
- scalable, technology-enabled remedial solutions
Source: Innovate UK
If you think your business is most suited to run for this funding opportunity, but you don't know how, Please do get in touch for a FREE consultation.