Funding competition MyWorld Collaborative Research & Development

UK registered organisations can apply for a share of up to £2million for collaborative R&D projects in creative technology.

This competition is now closed.

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Competition sections

Description

Innovate UK, part of UK Research and Innovation, is delivering this competition on behalf of MyWorld, a project funded by the UKRI Strength in Places Fund. It builds on the West of England’s strengths in creative media production, technology and research.

MyWorld is a 5 year programme that presents opportunities to create, deliver and understand experiences in creative technology, driving forward the future of media in the UK and beyond.

The aim of this competition is to help the UK to grow and maintain a position as an international leader in advanced media production. MyWorld is combining research excellence, industrial stakeholders and a history of collaboration in the Bristol and Bath region.

Your proposal must demonstrate a positive impact in the West of England area.

In applying to this competition, you are entering into a competitive process. This competition closes at 11am UK time on the deadline stated.

Funding type

Grant

Project size

Your project’s total grant funding request must be between £100,000 and £200,000.

Who can apply

Your project

Your project must:

  • have a total grant funding request of between £100,000 and £200,000
  • start by 1 January 2023
  • end by 31 December 2024
  • last between 12 and 24 months
  • carry out all of its project work in the UK
  • intend to exploit the results from or in the West of England area

If your project’s duration falls outside of our eligibility criteria, you must provide justification by email to support@iuk.ukri.org at least 10 working days before the competition closes. We will decide whether to approve your request. If you have not requested approval or your application has not been approved by us, you will be made ineligible. Your application will then not be sent for assessment.

Lead organisation

To lead a project your organisation must:

  • be a UK registered business of any size, not for profit or charity
  • collaborate with other UK registered organisations
  • intend to exploit the results from or in the West of England area

Academic institutions cannot lead but can be a collaborative partner.

The lead organisation may be based outside of the West of England area. Justification must be made in your application as to why the project could not be led by an organisation from the West of England area.

The lead organisation must collaborate with at least one research organisation or research and technology organisation in the West of England area.

Project team

To collaborate with the lead, your organisation must be one of the following UK registered:

  • business of any size
  • academic institution
  • charity
  • not for profit
  • public sector organisation
  • research and technology organisation (RTO)

Each partner organisation must be invited into the Innovation Funding Service by the lead to collaborate on a project. Once accepted, partners will be asked to login or to create an account and enter their own project costs into the Innovation Funding Service.

The lead and at least one other organisation must claim funding by entering their costs during the application.

Your project can include partners that do not receive any of this competition’s funding, for example non-UK businesses. Their costs will count towards the total project costs.

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.

If you use subcontractors from outside of the West of England area you must make the case in your application as to why you could not use suppliers from the area. You must provide a detailed rationale, evidence of the potential regional contractors you approached and the reasons why they were unsuitable for your project. We will not accept a cheaper cost as a sufficient reason to use a subcontractor from outside the stated area.

If you use subcontractors from overseas you must make the case by email to support@iuk.ukri.org for approval at least 10 days before the competition closes 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.

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

Number of applications

A business, charity or not for profit can only lead on one application but can be included as a collaborator in a further 2 applications.

If a business, charity or not for profit is not leading any application, it can collaborate in up to 3 applications.

An Academic Institution or research and technology organisation (RTO) can collaborate on any number of applications.

Previous applications

You cannot use a previously submitted application to apply for this competition.

We will not award you funding if you have:

Subsidy control (and State aid where applicable)

This competition provides funding in line with the UK's obligations and commitments to Subsidy Control. Further information about the UK Subsidy Control requirements can be found within the EU-UK Trade and Cooperation agreement and the subsequent guidance from the department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS).

Innovate UK is unable to award organisations that are considered to be in financial difficulty. We will conduct financial viability and eligibility tests to confirm this is not the case following the application stage.

EU State aid rules now only apply in limited circumstances. Please see our general guidance to check if these rules apply to your organisation.

Further Information

If you are unsure about your obligations under the UK Subsidy Control regime or the State aid rules, you should take independent legal advice. We are unable to advise on individual eligibility or legal obligations.

You must at all times make sure that the funding awarded to you is compliant with all current Subsidy Control legislation applicable in the United Kingdom.

This aims to regulate any advantage granted by a public sector body which threatens to, or actually distorts competition in the United Kingdom or any other country or countries.

If there are any changes to the above requirements that mean we need to change the terms of this competition, we will tell you as soon as possible.

Eligibility overview

Here is a diagram showing a summary of eligibility.

This is a new way of showing you eligibility. Your feedback will help us to improve it.

Funding

Up to £2million has been allocated to fund innovation projects in this competition. Funding will be in the form of a grant.

If the majority of your organisation’s work on the project is commercial or economic, your funding request must not exceed the limits below. These limits apply even if your organisation normally acts non-economically.

For feasibility studies and industrial research projects, you could get funding for your eligible project costs of:

  • up to 70% if you are a micro or small organisation
  • up to 60% if you are a medium sized organisation
  • up to 50% if you are a large organisation

For experimental development projects which are nearer to market, you could get funding for your eligible project costs of:

  • up to 45% if you are a micro or small organisation
  • up to 35% if you are a medium sized organisation
  • up to 25% if you are a large organisation

For more information on company sizes, please refer to the company accounts guidance. This is a change from the EU definition unless you are applying under State aid.

If you are applying for an award funded under State aid Regulations, the definitions are set out in the European Commission Recommendation of 6 May 2003.

Research participation

The research organisations undertaking non-economic activity as part of the project can share up to 30% of the total eligible project costs. If your consortium contains more than one research organisation undertaking non-economic activity, this maximum is shared between them.

Of that 30% you could get funding for your eligible project costs of up to:

  • 80% of full economic costs (FEC) if you are a Je-S registered institution such as an academic
  • 100% of your project costs if you are an RTO, charity, not for profit organisation, public sector organisation or research organisation

Your proposal

The aim of this competition is to support business focused research and innovation in the creative industries in the West of England.

MyWorld supports the generation of innovative ideas and solutions for the creative industries. It addresses the need to develop diverse technologies associated with:

  • the capture, manipulation, distribution and consumption of experiences effectively
  • the understanding of audiences' responses-to and interactions-with those experiences

This includes the requirement to deliver adaptive audience experiences efficiently, at scale and quality across a multitude of devices.

Your project must:

  • provide solutions that tackle new or emerging challenges or needs of the Creative Continuum
  • demonstrate a realistic potential to deliver business growth, scale up, and job creation
  • actively share knowledge and outputs with the MyWorld programme and wider creative technology industry

MyWorld will select and fund a range of projects from the applications received.

We want to fund a variety of projects across different technologies, markets, technological maturities and research categories. We call this a portfolio approach.

Specific themes

Your project must focus on screen based and immersive technologies within the creative sector industries.

Creating experiences:

How acquisition, production and delivery relate to narrative, aesthetic and content type in modulating experience, leading to new intelligent acquisition and production methods that facilitate immersion.

For example:

  • utilising machine learning for virtual human capture
  • rigging and animation
  • low light video acquisition and restoration
  • creation and testing of automated physical platforms for cameras
  • refining motion capture data with machine learning and large datasets

Delivering experiences:

Platforms, network technology and representations that support new forms of content delivery and interactivity, delivery processes that ensure the preservation of immersive properties during transmission.

For example:

  • developing Mobile Edge Computing to support enhanced location accuracy
  • improved latency
  • media aware network slicing
  • exploiting the potential of deep learning for enhancing video compression

Measuring experiences:

Perceptually robust means of assessing media quality and immersion that inform creative practice and editorial decision making and that differentiate the impacts of technology and narrative.

For example:

  • creation of new tools and platforms for audience assessment
  • assessment of existing tools and platforms

We define screen based and immersive experiences as multisensory narrative or interactive experiences mediated through technologies including:

  • ambisonic and binaural sound
  • application of Artificial intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) to creative technology
  • audience assessment, measurement tools and platforms
  • distribution technologies, 5G, EDGE,
  • filming and post production tools, including virtual production studios, drones, robotics,
  • haptics and other sensory interfaces
  • virtual, mixed and augmented reality (VR, AR, MR)
  • other creative, content and screen experiences and interfaces, including but not limited to, public displays, live events, theatre, cinema, hybrid performance, emerging devices, for example: AR glasses

Examples of the industry sectors this may address include:

  • advertising and marketing
  • design, product, graphic and fashion
  • broadcast, film, TV, video and audio
  • computer games and services
  • heritage, museums, archives, galleries and libraries
  • live events, music, performing and visual arts
  • sports and esports
  • creator tools and services, including user generated
  • production and consumer electronics
Neither list is intended to be exhaustive.

We will consider all proposals that address the challenge areas and meet the criteria for eligibility.

Research categories

We will fund feasibility projects, industrial research projects and experimental development projects, as defined in the guidance on categories of research.

Projects we will not fund

Projects we will not fund

We will not fund projects that:

  • do not demonstrate the potential to positively impact on the economy of the West of England area
  • do not demonstrate clear advancement of technology and potential application or novel application of existing technology to solve challenges
  • request substantial funding for non-UK based partners or subcontractors
  • do not meet the competition eligibility or scope
  • do not address the size, potential and access to market for the innovation
  • do not evidence the potential for their idea or concept to lead to significant return on investment (ROI), positive economic impact, growth and scale-up of the business
  • do not commit to sharing their knowledge and outputs with the MyWorld Programme and wider industry
  • are dependent on export performance – for example giving a subsidy to a baker on the condition that it exports a certain quantity of bread to another country
  • are dependent on domestic inputs usage – for example giving a subsidy to a baker on the condition that it uses 50% UK flour in their product
25 April 2022
Competition opens
4 May 2022
Online briefing event: watch the recording
1 June 2022 11:00am
Competition closes
4 August 2022
Applicants notified

Before you start

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

What we ask you

The application is split into 3 sections:

1. Project details.

2. Application questions.

3. Finances.

1. Project details

This section provides background for the assessors and is not scored.

Application team

Decide which organisations will work with you on the project. Invite people from those organisations to help complete the application.

Application details

The lead applicant must complete this section. Give your project’s title, start date and duration.

Subsidy basis

Will the project, including any related activities you want Innovate UK to fund, affect trade between Northern Ireland and the EU?

You and all your project partners must respond and mark this question as complete, before you can submit your application.

Research category

Select the type of research you will undertake.

Equality, diversity and inclusion

We collect and report on equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) data to address under-representation in business innovation and ensure equality, diversity and inclusion across all our activities.

All participants must complete this EDI survey and the lead applicant must then select yes in the application question. The survey will ask you questions on your gender, age, ethnicity and disability status. You will always have the option to ‘prefer not to say’ if you do not feel comfortable sharing this information.

Project summary

Describe your project briefly and be clear about what makes it innovative. We use this section to assign the right experts to assess your application.

Your answer can be up to 400 words long.

Public description

Describe your project in detail and in a way that you are happy to see published. Do not include any commercially sensitive information. If we award your project funding, we will publish this description. This could happen before you start your project.

Your answer can be up to 400 words long.

Scope

Describe how your project fits the scope of the competition. If your project is not in scope it will be immediately rejected and will not be sent for assessment. We will tell you the reason why.

Your answer can be up to 400 words long.

2. Application questions

The assessors will score all your answers apart from questions 1, 2 and 3. You will receive feedback for each scored question. Find out more about how our assessors assess.

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

Question 1. Applicant location (not scored)

You must state the name and full registered address of your organisation and all partners working on your project. We are collecting this information to understand the geographical location of all applicants.

The location of all partners will be taken into consideration when selecting the portfolio of projects to be funded. If you are based outside of the West of England please make clear why you should be involved with or lead your project.

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

Question 2. Awareness of funding opportunity (not scored)

How did you become aware of this funding opportunity?

Please indicate the primary channel through which you heard about this competition:

  • Innovate UK portal
  • Knowledge Transfer Network
  • MyWorld website, newsletter, LinkedIn or Social channels (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter)
  • Digital Catapult website, newsletter, LinkedIn or Social channels (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter)
  • MyWorld promotion or events
  • other LinkedIn channel (please enter)
  • other Facebook, Instagram or Twitter (please enter)
  • other (please enter)

Your answer to this question can be up to 100 words long.

Question 3. Social Value

This question will not be scored but this will be taken into consideration when assessing the portfolio of projects selected. MyWorld will expect successful projects to demonstrate and report on the social value they create.

Describe how your project will deliver social value, making reference to impact in the West of England and on your project team.

Explain:

  • how your project team defines social value and will deliver social impact
  • any additional activities that contribute to social value that you will deliver through this project
  • your commitment to delivering social value and what difference this grant would make to your ability to achieve your targets, the desired impact of this commitment beyond the lifetime of your project

Examples of social value might be (but are not limited to):

  • a commitment to creating sustainable employment in the region
  • delivery of skills and training activities
  • building your businesses and products in responsible and resilient ways
  • any activity that addresses how we create a more equitable and sustainable future

You may find the resources provided by SocialValueUK useful to help you develop your answer to this question.

You can submit one appendix that demonstrates your work in this area, for example case studies or social value plans. It can include diagrams and charts. It must be a PDF, up to 2 A4 pages long and no larger than 10MB in size. The font must be legible at 100% zoom.

Your answer to this question can be up to 400 words long.

Question 4. Need or challenge

What is the business need or opportunity for your innovation?

  • what creative, technical and commercial opportunity could your proposal unlock
  • what is the challenge it seeks to address

Explain:

  • the main motivation for your project in terms of the business need, technological challenge or market opportunity
  • who would benefit from your innovation in the immediate and longer term
  • any work you have already done to respond to this need and how this project fits with your current product, service lines, offerings, or activities
  • the wider economic, social, environmental, cultural, or political challenges which are influential in creating the opportunity.

Your answer to this question can be up to 400 words long.

Question 5. The innovation

What approach will you take and where will the focus of the innovation be?

Describe:

  • how your project responds to the need, challenge or opportunity identified
  • the nature of the outputs you expect from your project and how these will help you to target the need, challenge or opportunity identified
  • how your innovation delivers new production or delivery processes, products, or services; or improves on the nearest current state-of-the-art or competitors’ products, processes or services
  • whether the innovation will focus on the application of existing creative practice and technology in new areas, the development of new technology for existing areas, or a totally disruptive approach

You can also submit one additional appendix to support your answers to this question. It can include diagrams and charts. It must be a PDF and can be up to 2 A4 pages long and no larger than 10MB in size. The font must be legible at 100% zoom.

Your answer can be up to 600 words long.

Question 6. Team and resources

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

Describe:

  • the roles, skills and experience of all members of your project team that are relevant to the approach you will be taking
  • the resources, equipment and facilities needed for your project and how you will access them
  • the details and role of any owned intellectual property, rights or a cultural brand that your collaborators contribute to your project
  • the details of any vital external parties, including subcontractors, who you will need to work with to successfully carry out your project
  • the current relationships between project partners and how these will change as a result of your project
  • any gaps in the team that will need to be filled or any roles you will need to recruit for
  • any roles you will need to recruit for, taking into account the impact of COVID-19 restrictions on the team structure

MyWorld has access to a range of facilities that we encourage you to utilise on your project (see Background and Further Information).

You can submit a single appendix that can include details of your project teams qualifications or experience and the IP and cultural branding owned. as a PDF no larger than 10MB and up to 4 pages long to support your answer. The font must be legible at 100% zoom.

Your answer can be up to 400 words.

Question 7. Market awareness

What does the market you are targeting look like?

Describe:

  • the markets and audiences (domestic, international or both) you will be targeting in your project and any other potential markets
  • the size of the target markets for your project outcomes, backed up by references where available
  • the structure and dynamics of the target markets, including audience segmentation, major players and competitors
  • predicted growth rates within clear timeframes
  • the target markets’ main supply or value chains and business models, and any barriers to entry that exist
  • the current UK position in targeting these markets
  • the size and main features of any other markets not already listed

If your project is highly innovative, where the market may be unexplored, describe:

  • what the market’s size might to be
  • how your project will explore the market’s potential

Your answer can be up to 400 words.

Question 8. Route to market

How are you going to grow your organisation as a result of your project?

Explain your route to market for your project outputs including:

  • how near to commercialisation you are
  • what extra steps need to be taken for them to be commercialised
  • the structure and dynamics of the target markets and your current position in these markets
  • your target customers or end users
  • your proposed business model and route to market
  • how you are going to profit from the innovation, for example, increased revenues, productivity gains, transition to net-zero in both the short and the long term
  • how you will protect and exploit your project outputs to maximise your market potential
  • how you will actively engage in knowledge dissemination to use the results generated from your project in further research or development activities to support the West of England economy and society in general

Your answer can be up to 600 words long.

Question 9. Economic impact

What is the economic impact that your project outputs will have beyond your project team, including:

  • external parties, including audiences and customers
  • others in the supply chain
  • broader creative industry sectors
  • wider industry
  • the UK economy

Describe and, where possible, measure the economic benefits from your project such as productivity increases and import substitution, to:

  • to the economy of the West of England, for example, job creation, increased productivity, additional Gross Value Added (GVA) to the creative sector, inward investment, further collaborative grant funding, new businesses and spin-outs
  • to the UK economy, for example new international partnerships, translation of creative technology to projects outside the creative industries
  • to the creative industries, for example new production processes, products or commissions, new international partnerships, reaching new audiences (B2B or B2C)

Your answer can be up to 400 words long

Question 10. Project management

How will you manage your project effectively ?

Explain:

  • the main work packages of the project, indicating the lead partner assigned to each and the total cost of each one
  • your approach to project management, identifying any major tools and mechanisms you will use to get a successful and innovative project outcome
  • the management reporting lines
  • your project plan in enough detail to identify any links or dependencies between work packages or milestones
  • how you will promote equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI)

You must submit a project plan or Gantt chart as an appendix to support your answer. It must be a PDF, can be up to 2 A4 pages long and no larger than 10MB in size. The font must be legible at 100% zoom.

Your answer can be up to 600 words long.

Question 11. Risk management

What is your approach to the identification, management, and mitigation of risks to deliver your project?

Explain:

  • the main risks and uncertainties of your project, including the technical, commercial, managerial, and environmental risks
  • how you will manage and mitigate these risks throughout your project
  • any project inputs that are critical to completion, such as resources, expertise, networks, data sets
  • any output likely to be subject to regulatory requirements, certification or ethical issues, and how you will manage this
  • any limitation on sharing project outputs due to existing or potential agreements outside of the consortium

You must submit a risk register as an appendix to support your answer. It must be a PDF and can be up to 2 A4 pages long and no larger than 10MB in size. The font must be legible at 100% zoom.

Your answer can be up to 400 words long

Question 12: Added value

What added value would this funding mean for your project?

Explain:

  • why you are not able to wholly fund your project from your own resources or other forms of private-sector funding
  • what would happen if the application were unsuccessful
  • the difference that public funding would make to your project
  • the likely impact of your project on the partners involved, including increased R&D activities or spending

Your answer can be up to 400 words long.

Question 13. Funding requirements

How has your project been costed and how will it be funded? You must:

  • indicate the total eligible costs for your project and the balance of costs across your project partners
  • provide a full breakdown of the costs and justify them
  • include detail of budget provision for communication and showcasing activities throughout and at the end of your project
  • clearly state the grant funding requested by each partner
  • explain how each partner will finance their own contributions to your project
  • explain and provide rationale for any subcontractor costs and why they are critical to your project
  • explain how this project represents value for money for you, your project partners if appropriate, and the taxpayer

Your answer can be up to 400 words long.

3. Finances

Each organisation in your project must complete their own project costs, organisation details and funding details in the application. Academic institutions must complete and upload a Je-S form.

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

Background and further information

MyWorld is an engine which will catalyse the creative technology industry. It will produce new ideas, products and processes, driving forward the future of media in the UK and beyond. It provides opportunities to create, deliver and understand experiences in creative sectors and is fuelled by research excellence, industrial success, and a history of collaboration between technologists and creative artists, industry and academia in the West of England region.

MyWorld is a response to the recognition of the West of England’s contribution to economic, skills and technological growth in the creative sector.

The tangible outcomes of the programme include: research & development; accessible knowledge & facilities, business development; and, inclusive, sustainable and responsible transformation. Research and development creates intellectual property, commercial opportunities and stimulates further research avenues. Accessible knowledge and facilities fuels the Creative Continuum removing barriers to inclusive exploration. Business development creates employment, grows skills and will produce a significant contribution to the local, and national, economy.

West of England

What do we mean by the West of England? The simplest definition is ‘the area administered by the West of England Combined Authority’.

Map of WECA. However, primarily we are looking for clear evidence of project impact within the region.

Accessible Knowledge & Facilities

MyWorld has access to an ever growing bank of facilities and a breadth of knowledge and experience. View the register of the current offers and how to access them. We encourage you to consider how these resources could be best utilised to support your project.

Data sharing

This competition is jointly operated by Innovate UK the Digital Catapult and MyWorld (each an “agency”).

Your submitted application and any other information you provide at the application stage can be submitted to each agency on an individual basis for its storage, processing and use. Any relevant information 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 the Digital Catapult and MyWorld and vice versa.

Innovate UK is directly accountable to you for its holding and processing of your information, including any personal data and confidential information. It is held in accordance with its Information Management Policy.

Innovate UK the Digital Catapult and MyWorld 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, the Digital Catapult and MyWorld will be data controllers for personal data submitted during the application.

Innovate UK complies with the requirements of GDPR, and is committed to upholding the data protection principles, and protecting your information. The Information Commissioner’s Office also has a useful guide for organisations, which outlines the data protection principles.

Find a project partner

If you want help to find a project partner, contact the Innovate UK KTN or the Digital Catapult.

Support for SMEs from Innovate UK EDGE

If you receive an award, you will be contacted about working with an innovation and growth specialist at Innovate UK EDGE. This service forms part of our funded offer to you.

These specialists focus on growing innovative businesses and ensuring that projects contribute to their growth. Working one-to-one, they can help you to identify your best strategy and harness world-class resources to grow and achieve scale.

We encourage you to engage with EDGE, delivered by a knowledgeable and objective specialist near you.

Contact us

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 5pm, Monday to Friday (excluding bank holidays).

Innovate UK is committed to making support for applicants accessible to everyone.

We can provide help for applicants who face barriers when making an application. This might be as a result of a disability, neurodiversity or anything else that makes it difficult to use our services. We can also give help and make other reasonable adjustments for you if your application is successful.

If you think you need more support, it is important that you contact our Customer Support Service as early as possible during your application process. You should aim to contact us no later than 10 working days before the competition closing date.

Need help with this service? Contact us