Funding competition Knowledge Asset Grant Fund: Explore, 2024 -2025

Eligible UK public sector organisations can apply for a share of up to £25,000 from the Knowledge Asset Grant Fund in this strand.

Competition opens: Monday 29 April 2024
Competition closes: There is no submission deadline

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Description

The Knowledge Asset Grant Fund (KAGF) is run by the Government Office for Technology Transfer (GOTT) and funded by the Department for Science Innovation and Technology (DSIT).

The programme has funding available up to March 2026. The budget limits are imposed at each panel meeting to ensure only the best proposals are funded.

This funding will aid exploitation of intangible assets that have a broader application or client base than their original use or purpose.

Innovate UK is administering this competition on behalf of GOTT.

The aim of this competition is to support the identification and development of public sector knowledge assets, including repurposing, commercialisation or expanded use.

These assets can include:

inventions
designs
certain research and development (R&D) outcomes
data and information
creative outputs such as text, video, graphics, software and source code
know-how and expertise
business processes, services
other intellectual resources

This competition is split into three strands:

Explore – for projects up to £25,000 (this strand)
Expand – for projects between £25,001 to £100,000
Extend – for projects between £100,001 to £250,000

It is your responsibility to ensure you submit your application to the correct strand for your project. You will not be able to transfer your application and it will not be sent for assessment if it is out of scope.

In applying to this competition, you are entering into a competitive process. This competition has a funding limit, so we may not be able to fund all the proposed projects. It may be the case that your project scores highly but we are still unable to fund it.

This competition closes at 11am UK time on the deadline stated in this Innovate UK competition brief. We cannot guarantee other government or third party sites will always show the correct competition information.

Funding type

Grant

Project size

Your project’s total grant funding request must be a maximum of £25,000.

Accessibility and Inclusion

We welcome and encourage applications from people of all backgrounds and are committed to making our application process accessible to everyone. This includes making reasonable adjustments, for people who have a disability or a long-term condition and face barriers applying to us.

You can contact us at any time to ask for guidance.

We recommend you contact us at least 15 working days before this competition’s closing date to allow us to put the most suitable support in place. The support we can provide may be limited if you contact us close to the competition deadline.

You can contact Innovate UK by email or call 0300 321 4357. Our phone lines are open from 9am to 12pm and 2pm to 5pm UK time, Monday to Friday (excluding bank holidays).

Who can apply

This award has been designed to be provided on a no subsidy basis, as defined in the Subsidy Control Act 2022.

This means to be eligible, the award will not give an economic advantage on one or more organisations, and you must not be acting economically as an organisation within the meaning of the act.

In limited circumstances, EU State aid rules may apply under The Windsor Framework and a ‘No Aid’ award may be given in accordance with the R&D&I Framework.

Your project

Your project must:

have a maximum grant funding request of £25,000
last between two and 18 months
start by 1 July 2024
end by 31 December 2025

Projects must always start on the first of the month and this must be stated within your application. Your project start date will be reflected in your grant offer letter if you are successful.

You must only include eligible project costs in your application.

Under current restrictions, this competition will not fund any procurement, commercial, business development or supply chain activity with any Russian or Belarusian entity as lead, partner or subcontractor. This includes any goods or services originating from a Russian or Belarusian source.

Lead organisation

To lead a project your organisation must be a UK public sector organisation headed by an Accounting Officer responsible for upholding Managing Public Money (MPM). Eligible organisations are generally central government organisations and their arm’s length bodies, though others may be in scope.

Your project must have approval from a Senior Civil Servant, or equivalent from the lead organisation, with delegation from the Accounting Officer, up to and including the value of the grant being sought.

Central government departments, arm’s length bodies and public sector research establishments (PSREs) are eligible for the Knowledge Asset Grant Fund (KAGF).

If you have any queries, you can contact the KAGF secretariat at GrantFund.GOTT@dsit.gov.uk. You can also visit the GOTT Grant Fund webpages, where we offer further guidance and support for our applicant community.

Subcontractors

Subcontractors are allowed in this competition.

Subcontractors can be from anywhere in the UK and you must select them through your usual procurement process.

You can use subcontractors from overseas but must make the case in your application as to why you could not use suppliers from the UK.

You must provide a detailed rationale, evidence of the potential UK contractors you approached and the reasons why they were unable to work with you. We will not accept a cheaper cost as a sufficient reason to use an overseas subcontractor.

All subcontractor costs must be justified and appropriate to the total project costs.

An explanation must be provided as to why external expertise is needed. It is your organisation’s responsibility to ensure any spend of the grant fund follows existing commercial arrangements of your organisation and Crown Commercial rules.

The Knowledge Assets Grant Fund aims to support the development of public sector owned Knowledge Assets for the benefit for the UK. If the KAGF secretariat or panel concludes that the project would disproportionately benefit a subcontractor, the project will be deemed ineligible.

Number of applications

An eligible public sector organisation can lead on any number of applications for different projects.

Use of animals in research and innovation

Innovate UK expects and supports the provision and safeguarding of welfare standards for animals used in research and innovation, according to best practice and up to date guidance.

Applicants must ensure that all of the proposed work within projects, both that in the UK and internationally, will comply with the UKRI guidance on the use of animals in research and innovation.

Any projects selected for funding which involve animals will be asked to provide additional information on welfare and ethical considerations, as well as compliance with any relevant legislation as part of the project start-up process. This information will be reviewed before an award is made.

Previous applications

You can use a previously submitted application to apply for this competition.

Follow-on funding is permitted for a previously funded project, subject to demonstrating successful delivery of the previous project’s outcomes and evidence of positive additional impact from the new project. Any previous submissions to this fund regarding the same Knowledge Asset, and related assessments, may be shared with assessors to inform scoring of the latest submission.

We do not accept duplicate applications in the same funding round. If you have multiple projects which are similar, for example, with similar outputs or products, you can consider combining the projects.

We will not award funding if you or your organisation has failed to:

complete and return a Knowledge Asset Grant Fund final report following the conclusion of a project previously funded under the KAGF
comply with grant terms and conditions for a project previously funded under KAGF

If other projects led by your organisation fall into one of these scenarios, then the KAGF secretariat reserves the right to not award funding until the issue is addressed.

No subsidy (and non-aid where applicable)

No subsidy

This competition has been designed to provide funding that is not classed by Innovate UK as a subsidy.

Your eligibility to be given an award on a ‘No Subsidy’ basis will be determined by Innovate UK after you have submitted your application.

You should still seek independent legal advice on what this means for you, before applying.

Further information about the Subsidy Control Act 2022 requirements can be found within the Subsidy Control Act 2022 (legislation.gov.uk).

It is the responsibility of the lead organisation to make sure all collaborators in the project remain compliant with the ‘No Subsidy’ status they are awarded. .

It is important to note that it is the activity that an organisation is engaged in as part of the project and not its intentions, that define whether any support provided could be considered a subsidy.

EU State aid rules now only apply in limited circumstances. Please see the Windsor Framework to check if these rules apply to your organisation.

Further Information

If you are unsure about your obligations under the Subsidy Control Act 2022 regime you should take independent legal advice. We cannot advise on individual eligibility or legal obligations.

Funding

The programme has funding up to March 2026 across all grant streams. The budget limits are imposed at each panel meeting to ensure only the best proposals are funded.

Funding will be in the form of a grant.

You can request 100% funding for your eligible project costs up to a maximum of £25,000. Total project costs detailed within your application must not exceed the maximum project size. If your total project costs do exceed the maximum then your application will be made ineligible.

Eligible cost include, but are not restricted to:

market research
building prototypes
testing asset development
gathering supporting data
scoping end-users requirements
exploring IP protection
accessing expert advice to support development of the knowledge asset

You must only include eligible project costs in your application

If successful, your award will be finalised pending receipt of a grant agreement. This must be signed by the Senior Responsible Owner, with the appropriate delegation from their Accounting Officer, up to and including the full cost of your project.

Your grant agreement will also commit you to apply trusted research principles in this project as a condition of grants offered by DSIT.

Your proposal

The Knowledge Assets Grant Fund (KAGF) aims to unlock the potential for developing and exploiting public sector knowledge assets. The KAGF provides financial support to help unearth potentially valuable knowledge assets and to develop the exploitation pathway of assets outside of business as usual purposes.

The aim of this competition is to support the identification and development of public sector knowledge assets, including repurposing, commercialisation or expanded use.

These assets can include:

inventions
designs
certain research and development (R&D) outcomes
data and information
creative outputs such as text, video, graphics, software and source code
know-how and expertise
business processes, services
other intellectual resources

Potential value includes financial, economic and social benefits and can be achieved through commercialisation or expanded use of the asset across government and stakeholder organisations.

Assets do not have to be potentially revenue generating to attract funding but you must provide a clear plan and timeline to leverage value, for example, as a spinout, licence, open source or prototype.

The Knowledge Asset Grant Fund will support projects, or project stages, which are not suitable to secure investment from private sources. For example, this could be to develop an asset for use across different organisations within government which usually do not collaborate.

If you are unsure whether your project is in scope, you can contact the KAGF secretariat at GrantFund.GOTT@dsit.gov.uk. You can also visit the GOTT Grant Fund webpages where we offer further guidance and support for our applicant community.

Specific themes

The Government Office for Technology Transfer (GOTT) reserves the right to prioritise projects within specific themes to help meet the Government’s objectives. This Summer funding call is specifically not themed.

If actioned, themed calls will be scheduled within existing funding rounds. The next themed round is planned for Autumn 2024.

The introduction of themed calls will not have an impact on deadlines and panel dates. GOTT will support themes by providing substantive guidance and application support to ‘on-theme’ projects.

Further information will be made available when applicable.

Projects we will not fund

We are not funding:

fundamental research and development aimed at creating new knowledge assets
projects which have already advanced to the point where they could be eligible for investment by private funding sources
projects that are directly or indirectly requesting funding for an existing commercial entity that is not a government body
projects that aim to subsidise ‘business as usual’ activities, for example, activities directed by Ministers or set out in organisational strategies or remit, unless they address new markets or customers
projects that only benefit the organisation applying or existing customers and users
privately owned companies, including spin-out companies
which are classed as State aid under EC regulations or a subsidy under the EU-UK TCA
with undertakings which gain a selective economic or commercial advantage from the funding

Organisations not eligible to apply for the KAGF include, but are not limited to:

universities and academic institutions
local governments and their organisations
local Enterprise Partnerships
devolved administrations and organisations overseen by the Scottish Government, Welsh Government or Northern Ireland Executive, this includes NHS Scotland and Wales, and Health and Social Care in Northern Ireland
publicly owned commercial organisations, such as The Crown Estate
NHS secondary and tertiary care sector, including NHS trusts
private sector organisations
independent charities

29 April 2024: Competition opens
22 June 2024: Notification - Drawdown 1
28 October 2024: Notification - Drawdown 2
27 January 2025: Notification - Drawdown 3
No submission deadline: This is open-ended competition and applications can be submitted at any time.

Before you start

You must read the guidance on applying for a competition on the Innovation Funding Service before you start.

Before submitting, it is the lead applicant’s responsibility to make sure:

that all the information provided in the application is correct
your proposal meets the eligibility and scope criteria
all sections of the application are marked as complete

You can reopen your application once submitted, up until the competition deadline. You must resubmit the application before the competition deadline.

What we ask you

The application is split into three sections:

Project details.
Application questions.
Finances.

Accessibility and Inclusion

You can contact us at any time to ask for guidance.

You can contact Innovate UK by email or call 0300 321 4357. Our phone lines are open from 9am to 12pm and 2pm to 5pm UK time, Monday to Friday (excluding bank holidays).

Assessments and panels

Applications will first be assessed for eligibility by the Government Office for Technology Transfer (GOTT) secretariat. Eligible applications will then be sent to a team of external panel members who will carry out an initial assessment. Applications that do not meet the quality threshold at this stage will not go on to a panel assessment but will receive feedback.

Grant applications will be assessed by written review and scored by three panellists who will decide the funding outcome. Feedback will be provided to the applicants.

Your application will be assessed based on:

the quality of the project
the likelihood of project success considering the team, need and track-record
the likelihood of future impact and benefit to the UK

You will be notified if you have been successful or not by email and you will receive feedback based on comments from the reviewers within a week of notification.

For more support on how to draft a strong application and more details on our eligibility criteria, you can refer to the GOTT Grants Guidance on our website.

1. Project details

This section provides background for your application and is not scored.

Your application will be managed in a secure and confidential manner, along with any conflicts of interest.

Application team

Decide which people from your organisation will work with you on the project and invite those people to help complete the application.

Application details

Give your project’s title, start date and duration.

Project title and executive summary

Provide a brief executive summary for your proposal. This will only be accessed by the KAGF Secretariat and assessors.

Explain:

what the aims of your proposal are
what the funding you are requesting will be used for, providing a brief summary of funded activities
how you will know if the project has been successful
how any technical activities funded through this grant will support the expanded use of the asset and journey towards intended benefits

Your application name, or project title, will be published on gov.uk as part of GOTT’s register of projects if successful. Please ensure this title is accessible and can be understood by a lay-person, avoiding acronyms and jargon where possible.

Your answer can be up to 250 words long.

Public description

Provide a summary that concisely explains your project to a lay-person. Outline the intended purpose and anticipated impact of your knowledge asset, any gaps in the market or issues it intends to solve and who it might benefit. The summary must be suitable to be published on gov.uk if the project is awarded funding. Do not include any commercially sensitive information, particularly anything that could jeopardise any intellectual property (IP) protection.

Your answer can be up to 200 words long.

2. Application questions

Questions 1 to 8 are for data collection purposes only and will not be scored.

Questions 6 to 8 will also provide key information for GOTT to assess your project eligibility. Any responses that do not comply with the eligibility criteria will result in your project being excluded from the competition.

The assessors will score questions 9 to 11. You will receive feedback for each scored question. Find out more about how our assessors assess and how we select applications for funding.

You must answer all questions. Do not include any website addresses (URLs) in your answers.

Question 1. How did you hear about this competition (not scored)

Select one:

Innovate UK GOV.UK website
Government Office for Technology Transfer (GOTT) GOV.UK website
internet searching or browsing
word-of-mouth (through a colleague or networks)
social media
The Government Office for Technology Transfer emails, newsletter or KA Champion Network
interaction with individuals in GOTT
other

Question 2. Applicant organisation and location (not scored)

You must state the name and full registered address of your organisation and any subcontractors working on your project. You must also include the working location of your project if it different to the registered address.

We are collecting this information to understand the geographical location of all applicants.

Your answer can be up to 200 words long.

Question 3. Senior Responsible Owner (not scored)

Does your organisation have a Senior Responsible Owner (SRO) for knowledge asset management, as described in HMG Rose Book guidance?

If an SRO for knowledge asset management has been appointed, you must provide their:

name
job title
email address

If no SRO has been appointed or is not known type ‘Not Known’ in the text box.

Your answer can be up to 100 words long.

Question 4. Knowledge Asset Management Strategy (not scored)

Does your organisation have a Knowledge Asset Management Strategy (KAMS), as described in HMG Rose Book guidance?

If your organisations has a Knowledge Asset Management Strategy (KAMS), briefly describe how your proposed project fits into that strategy.

If not, please outline any corporate support you will receive from your organisation.

Your answer can be up to 200 words long.

Question 5. Animal testing (not scored)

Will your project involve any trials with animals or animal testing?

You must select one option:

We will only support innovation projects conducted to the highest standards of animal welfare.

Further information for proposals involving animal testing is available at the UKRI Good Research Hub and NC3R’s animal welfare guidance.

Question 6. Additionality check (eligibility check, not scored)

Explain why your project cannot be funded by your organisation.

For example:

there is no financial resource allocated for this activity
the activity is ineligible for external grants
part or fully funding the project would take away funding from core activity
DSIT funding would lever funding or resources from your organisation that otherwise would not be made available

If your project is eligible for other funding sources other than the KAGF you must explain what these are and why they are not suitable.

Where you have applied for other sources of funding, list them and the outcome of the applications.

Your answer can be up to 300 words long.

Question 7. Conflicts of interest (eligibility check, not scored)

You must declare whether you, or any person involved in this project, have any personal interests that could conflict with those of your organisation as a grant applicant or those of The Government Office for Technology Transfer (GOTT) as funder of this project.

Select:

I declare there are no conflicts of interest
I declare that there is a conflict of interest

Some conflicts of interest can be managed fairly within a KAGF project. If you have declared a potential conflict of interest, you must describe the conflict that is present in your project in an appendix to support your answer. The KAGF secretariat will make an assessment and inform you of their decision.

The appendix must be a PDF, up to 1 A4 page long and no larger than 10MB in size. The font must be legible at 100% zoom.

Question 8. Ownership and control of the assets (eligibility check, not scored)

Describe who owns, or will own, and controls the assets, for example, any protected intellectual property (IP), know-how or materials.

You must list:

the assets that you bring into your project
the assets that you will develop during your project
whether it is solely you, your organisation or a third party with an ownership position, stating this position and percentage share

To be eligible, the knowledge assets developed in the project must be majority owned by the public sector. For example, background IP may be used from another source, but KAGF funding cannot be used to develop that background IP to benefit a non-public sector owner.

If information arises that you did not disclose in this answer, this may be grounds for your project being made ineligible.

Your answer can be up to 400 words long.

Question 9. Your knowledge asset and project (scored)

What is your knowledge asset and how your project will develop it?

Describe:

what your knowledge asset is
the background or landscape to your knowledge asset
the knowledge, social or market gaps your knowledge asset will address
previous development of your knowledge asset
if this knowledge asset has previously received funding from GOTT for example, from the KAGF, briefly describe the outcome of that activity and how it created the foundation for this new project

how your knowledge asset will be developed over the course of the project, providing a comprehensive list of funded activities, including exploitation activities, not just technical development

Your answer can be up to 750 words long.

You must download, complete and upload the KAGF Project Planning and Costs template as an appendix to support your answer. The completed template must be saved and uploaded in a PDF format, no larger than 10MB in size. The font must be legible at 100% zoom.

The template plan must include:

a list of the discrete work packages of your project, indicating the lead assigned to each
the total cost and completion timelines for each work package
a forecast of the costs for your project

Question 10. Project management, risk mitigation and project team (scored)

How will you manage your project effectively? How will you manage risks, and where applicable, government reputation in line with current government policy.

Describe:

your approach to project management, identifying any major tools and mechanisms you will use to ensure a successful and innovative project outcome
any potential risks for your project and how you intend to manage them

Your answer can be up to 300 words long.

Who is in your project team and what are their roles and expertise?

You must download, complete and upload the project team template provided, as an appendix to support your answer.

The template will ask you to list and describe:

the roles, skills, experience and track record of all members of the project team that are relevant to delivering this project
who in the team will have the overall responsibility to manage the project and its delivery, labelling them as the Lead
for each team member, an outline of the approximate amount of time (%) they will be allocated to the project
any external parties, including subcontractors, who you will work with and what their contribution will be

The completed template must be saved and uploaded in a PDF format, no larger than 10MB in size. The font must be legible at 100% zoom.

Question 11. Potential benefit, outcomes, and next steps (scored)

How does the development of the knowledge asset benefit the UK in the long term?

At the end of this project, how do you intend to continue to develop the assets and progress their exploitation?

Explain:

your next steps
further funding, resources or partners you are planning for

Your answer can be up to 400 words long.

3. Finances

You must complete your own project costs, organisation details and funding details in the application.

For full details on what costs you can claim see our project costs guidance.

It is also mandatory for you to fully complete the ‘Project Planning and Costs’ template enclosed in Question 9.

Data sharing

This competition is led by the Government Office for Technology Transfer (GOTT), part of the Department for Science Innovation and Technology (DSIT), supported by Innovate UK (each an 'agency')

Any relevant information submitted and produced during the application process concerning your application can be shared by one agency with the other, for its individual storage, processing and use.

This means that any information given to or generated by Innovate UK in respect of your application may be passed on to GOTT and vice versa. This would include, but is not restricted to:

the information stated on the application, including the personal details of all applicants
scoring and feedback on the application
information received during the management and administration of the grant, such as Monitoring Officer reports and Independent Accountant Reports

Innovate UK and GOTT are directly accountable to you for their holding and processing of your information, including any personal data and confidential information. Data is held in accordance with their own policies. Accordingly, Innovate UK, and GOTT will be data controllers for personal data submitted during the application.

Innovate UK’s Privacy Policy

Department for Science Innovation and Technology’s Privacy Policy

Innovate UK complies with the requirements of UK GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018, and is committed to upholding data protection legislation, and protecting your information in accordance with data protection principles.

The Information Commissioner’s Office also has a useful guide for organisations, which outlines the data protection principles.

Join The Knowledge Assets Network

The Knowledge Assets Network is a growing community for those working with Knowledge Assets or who would like to learn more on the subject. The network offers advice, facilitates the exchange of best practices and insights, and brings forth new topics.

Whether successful in your application or not, we are open to anyone working in central government, arm’s length bodies and public sector research establishments. We have over 150 members from 50 organisations.

To join the network or find out more, please contact alison.cotter@dsit.gov.uk.

Assessment

Your application will be reviewed by three independent assessors based on the content of your application and their skills or expertise relevant to your project. All of the scores awarded will count towards the total score used to make the funding decision unless you are notified otherwise.

You can find out more about our assessment process in the General Guidance.

Next steps

If you are successful with this application, you will be notified and a Grant Offer Letter (GOL) issued. Please be sure to work promptly with us, including getting your GOL signed, to get your project started.

Once awards are made, all correspondence on your project must be made to GrantFund.GOTT@dsit.gov.uk. GOTT will help you get started, including setting up a purchase order number for your project.

You must expect to invoice GOTT regularly for project payments. Any substantial changes in your project, whether these are delays or a change in milestones, must be communicated at the earliest opportunity.

If your application is unsuccessful

If you are unsuccessful with your application this time, you can view feedback from the assessors. This will be available to you on your IFS portal following notification.

Sometimes your application will have scored well, and you will receive positive comments from the assessors. You may be unsuccessful as your average score was not above the funding threshold or your project has not been selected under the portfolio approach if this is applied for this competition.

Contact us

If you need any more information about the eligibility or scope of the competition you can email GrantFund.GOTT@dsit.gov.uk.

If you need more information about how to apply or you want to submit your application in Welsh, email support@iuk.ukri.org or call 0300 321 4357.

Our phone lines are open from 9am to 12pm and 2pm to 5pm UK time, Monday to Friday (excluding bank holidays).

Innovate UK or any of our partners will not tolerate abusive language in any written or verbal correspondence, applications, social media or any other form that might affect staff.

Feedback

The Knowledge Assets Grant Fund would be grateful for feedback to help inform refinements and improvements for future years.

Please send feedback to GrantFund.GOTT@dsit.gov.uk, using the subject line ‘Feedback’.

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