Funding competition Health and Life Science Accelerators: Expression of Interest

Organisations are invited to apply to be part of a pool of accelerator service providers for future health and life science focussed Innovate UK programmes. This is an expression of interest competition.

• Competition opens: Wednesday 2 November 2022
• Competition closes: Wednesday 16 November 2022 11:00am

This competition is now closed.

Competition sections

Description

Innovate UK will support the development of early-stage health and life science businesses in the UK by funding a series of business accelerators. These accelerators will recruit spinouts, start-ups, and entrepreneurial minded academics to test their ideas and develop concepts with support from key stakeholders from relevant ecosystems.

The aim of this expression of interest (EoI) competition is to recruit accelerator providers to deliver a series of health and life sciences focussed accelerators. You must have the capacity to run a minimum of 2 accelerators to start between January 2023 and March 2025. Each accelerator will have themes determined by Innovate UK. The subject theme areas can include but are not limited to:

• child health
• FemTech (or female technology)
• engineering biology
• neuroscience and neurotech
• microbiome and biofilm innovation
• MedTech and diagnostics
• oncology

Applicants for to be accelerator service providers must be able to demonstrate ability to run accelerators across the UK.

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

There will be no funding awarded from this expression of interest competition. Subsequent funding of up to £500,000 will be available for successful providers to run each accelerator.

Who can apply

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

Lead organisation

To lead an application your organisation must be a UK registered:

• business of any size
• academic institution
• public sector research establishment (PSRE)
• research council institute
• independent research organisation (IRO)
• not for profit research and technology organisation (RTO), including catapults

Your organisation must not act in any way to gain selective commercial or economic advantage from the outputs of this proposal.

More information on the different types of organisation can be found in our Funding rules.

Project team

To collaborate with the lead, your organisation must be a UK registered:

• business of any size
• academic institution
• research council institute
• 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 details into the Innovation Funding Service.

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.

Number of applications

An eligible organisation can only lead on one application but can be included as a collaborator in a further 2 applications.

If an organisation is not leading any application, it can collaborate in any number of applications.

Previous applications

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

We will not award you future funding if you have:

• failed to exploit a previously funded project
• an overdue independent accountant’s report
• failed to comply with grant terms and conditions

Funding

Successful applicants will join a pool of Accelerator Providers. You will be eligible for funding of up to £500,000 for each accelerator you are asked to manage. We expect to fund up to 10 accelerators by March 2025. We will recruit between 2 to 6 accelerator suppliers.

At this expression of interest (EoI) phase you are not required to provide a detailed breakdown of your activity or budget. You will be required to provide a more detailed budget forecast in advance of any accelerator you are asked to manage

Future funding can be used to cover staff time and overheads, travel and subsistence, venue hire and equipment. Further information on eligible costs can be found in our project costs guidance.

Future funding cannot be used to pay members of the public for their involvement, for example, for attending a workshop or taking part in a focus group. You must use a subcontractor if you wish to use the funding for this type of incentive.

The organisations undertaking non-economic activity as part of the project can share up to 100% 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 100% 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 expression of interest (EoI) competition is to recruit accelerator service providers to deliver health and life sciences focussed accelerators. You must have the capacity to run a minimum of 2 accelerators to start between January 2023 and March 2025

We want accelerators to support organisations with the potential to enable fair, impartial and sustainable forms of community participation in research across the UK.

No funding will be provided in this EoI competition.

Potential providers selected at this EoI phase will be invited to run accelerators. Further details about the timeline and requirements for this phase will be released in due course.

As an accelerator provider you will be awarded funding to:

• promote the opportunity and recruit interested parties to a workshop or bootcamp
• develop a methodology to assess and choose a final cohort of up to ten participants to attend and complete an accelerator
• develop and deliver an accelerator programme to support a subject theme area
• partner with or subcontract organisations that represent the ecosystem associated with the subject theme area
• advise and support the participants, including scientific, commercial, regulatory and investment expertise
• provide a package of training that instils the fundamentals of commercialisation and entrepreneurship in the members of the cohort

Your proposal must describe how you will set up and manage your accelerators.

Your proposal for each accelerator must be 8 to 9 weeks in length and must include in person and online workshops. At the end of each accelerator, participants must be able to seek investment or feasibility grant funding.

Portfolio approach

We want to include a variety of proposals across different locations, organisation types, existing activity levels and community need. We call this a portfolio approach.

Specific themes

Innovate UK will instruct you on the subject theme areas for your accelerators. These can include but are not limited to:

• child health
• FemTech (female technology)
• engineering biology
• neuroscience and neurotech
• microbiome and biofilm innovation
• MedTech and diagnostics
• oncology

Projects we will not fund

We cannot fund projects:

• 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

• 2 November 2022: Competition opens
• 9 November 2022: Online briefing event: watch the recording
• 16 November 2022 11:00am: Competition closes
• 30 November 2022: Applicants notified

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
• if collaborative, that all partners have completed all assigned sections and accepted the terms and conditions (T&Cs)

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 2 sections:

1.Project details.

2.Application questions.

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 providing support, in the form of reasonable adjustments, for people who have a disability or a long-term condition and face barriers applying to us. Read more on how we are making our application process more accessible and inclusive for everyone.

You must contact us as early as possible in the application process. We recommend contacting us at least 15 working days before the competition closing date to ensure we can provide you with the most suitable support possible.

You can contact us by emailing support@iuk.ukri.org or calling 0300 321 4357. Our phone lines are open from 9am to 5pm, Monday to Friday (excluding bank holidays).

1. Project details

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

Application team

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

Application details

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

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.

Scope

Describe how your project fits the scope of the competition. If your project is not in scope, it will not be eligible for funding.

Your answer can be up to 400 words long.

2. Application questions

The assessors will score all your answers apart from question 1. 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 any partners or subcontractors working on your project.

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

Question 2. Experience and ability to deliver

Describe your organisation’s experience of delivering accelerator programmes for health and life sciences. Provide examples and outcomes.

You must provide details of:

• relevant accelerator programmes you delivered
• how you measured success
• lessons learned from your previous experience that will help you in delivering this accelerator programme
• your capacity to deliver your proposed accelerators programme
• why your proposed approach will be successful

Your answer can be up to 800 words long.

Question 3. Programme Structure

Outline your proposed programme structure which aligns with the competition scope.

Describe:

• your proposed programme structure
• what will be your preferred themes and why
• your estimated total cost associated with the delivery of your accelerator programme

Include the estimated total costs associated with delivery of each of your accelerators.

Innovate UK will instruct you on the subject theme areas for your accelerators. These can include but are not limited to:

• child health
• FemTech (female technology)
• engineering biology
• neuroscience and neurotech
• microbiome and biofilm innovation
• MedTech and diagnostics
• oncology

Your answer can be up to 1000 words long.

Question 4. Team, resource, and ecosystem

Who is in the project team and what are their specific roles?

Describe:

• the roles, skills and experience of all members of the project team that will deliver your accelerator programme
• the people and organisations that you will recruit
• why are they essential to the success of the project
• how will you attract and recruit an appropriate ecosystem
• how you will engage innovation communities across the UK in your accelerator
• what are the expected challenges to developing your ecosystem and how will you mitigate against these

Your answer can be up to 800 words long.

Data sharing

This competition is operated by Innovate UK.

Innovate UK is directly accountable to you for its holding and processing of your information, including any personal data and confidential information. Data is held in accordance with our own policies. Accordingly, Innovate UK will be data controllers for personal data submitted during the application. Innovate UK’s Privacy Policy is accessible here.

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.

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).

Need help with this service? Contact us