Funding competition Semiconductor manufacturing scale-up - feasibility

UK registered organisations can apply for a share of up to £1.5 million. This is part of a feasibility study into ways to improve and scale-up semiconductor design and manufacture within the UK.

Competition opens: Monday 27 February 2023
Competition closes: Wednesday 29 March 2023 11:00am

This competition is now closed.

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Description

Innovate UK, part of UK Research and Innovation, will invest up to £11.5 million in innovation projects. These are to assist the improvement and scale up for semiconductor manufacture within the UK.

The aim of this competition is to enable UK businesses in the semiconductor supply chain to develop their manufacturing capability. This will be achieved by building resilience in the UK supply chain for the key area of enabling technologies.

In this feasibility study phase Innovate UK will invest up to £1.5 million with the aim of:

understanding the existing facilities and capabilities
identifying best practice
establishing innovations and new manufacturing techniques
encouraging new collaborations across industry and academia

Your proposal must identify or deliver a clear, game-changing intervention and address an identified industrial requirement or improvement. This must realistically and significantly meet and provide a long-term commitment to supporting the UK semiconductor industry.

Your proposal must align to the scope criteria for this competition.

This competition is split into 2 strands:

Semiconductor industry skills and training
Semiconductor manufacturing scale-up - feasibility (this strand)

This feasibility strand of the competition is phase 1 of a potential 2-phase competition.

A further competition, Innovate UK Transformative Technologies, is open in conjunction with the Semiconductor manufacturing scale up feasibility competition.

It is your responsibility to ensure you submit your application to the correct competition and 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 closes at 11am UK time on the deadline stated.

Funding type

Grant

Project size

Your project’s total costs must not exceed £150,000.

Who can apply

Your project

Your project must:

have total project costs of up to £150,000
start by 1 August 2023
end by 31 November 2023
last up to 4 months
carry out all of its project work in the UK
intend to exploit the results from or in the UK

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 and Belarusian entity as lead, partner or subcontractor. This includes any goods or services originating from a Russian and Belarusian source.

If your project’s total costs or 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 or work alone your organisation must:

be a UK registered business of any size
be or involve at least one grant claiming micro, small or medium-sized enterprise (SME)

If collaborative you can work with other UK registered organisations.

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 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.

To be an eligible collaboration, the lead and at least one other organisation must apply for funding when entering their costs into the application.

Non-funded partners

Your project can include partners that do not receive any of this competition’s funding. 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.

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

A business 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 up to 3 applications.

Previous applications

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

We will not award you 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

Subsidy control (and State aid where applicable)

This competition provides funding in line with the Subsidy Control Act 2022. Further information about the Subsidy requirements can be found within the Subsidy Control Act 2022 (legislation.gov.uk)

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 Subsidy Control Act 2022 or the State aid rules, you should take independent legal advice. We are unable to advise on individual eligibility or legal obligations.

You must always 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.

Funding

Up to £1.5 million has been allocated to fund projects in this feasibility phase of this programme. Funding will be in the form of a grant.

If 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 but for the purpose of this project will be undertaking commercial or economic activity.

For feasibility studies, 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 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 45% 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 45% 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

In this feasibility study phase Innovate UK will invest up to £1.5 million with the aim of:

understanding the existing facilities and capabilities
identifying best practice
establishing innovations and new manufacturing techniques
encouraging new collaborations across industry and academia

Your proposal must identify or deliver a clear, game-changing intervention and address a clear industrial requirement or improvement. This must realistically and significantly meet and provide a long-term commitment to supporting the UK semiconductor industry requirement.

Portfolio approach
We want to fund a variety of projects addressing key technologies and industrial requirements to support the UK semiconductors landscape. We call this a portfolio approach.

Specific themes

Your project can focus on one or more of the following:

compound semiconductors
silicon semiconductors
development of Process Design Kits (PDKs)
manufacturing process development and best practice for scale-up
device and circuit simulation and design
semiconductor wafer and device fabrication
front end of line processes
back end of line processes
in-line and end of line test
assembly packaging and test
wafer fabrication operations sustainability
cross-sectoral solutions
hybridisation or heterogeneous development,
system-on-chip development
system-in-package development
open access foundries models
accelerate development cycles
proof of concept and validation of designs
test innovative designs and processes

This list is not intended to be exhaustive.

Research categories

We will fund feasibility projects as defined in the guidance on categories of research.

Projects we will not fund

We are not funding projects that are:

printed circuit board (PCB) fabrication
PCB assembly and test, excluding bare die operations
discrete passive devices, excluding on-chip integration

We cannot fund projects that 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
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

27 February 2023: Competition opens
3 March 2023: Online briefing event: register to attend
29 March 2023 11:00am: Competition closes
15 May 2023: Applicants notified

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
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 3 sections:

1. Project details.

2. Application questions.

3. Finances.

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.

Research category

Select the type of research you will undertake.

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 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 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.

Your answer can be up to 400 words long.

Question 2. Need or challenge

What problems or opportunities will your project address relating to the UK semiconductor supply chain? Why is it important, and how does your project relate to the overall objectives needs to support the UK semiconductor landscape?

Explain:

the main motivation for the project and why it will be transformative for the UK semiconductor industry
the business need, technological challenge or market opportunity
whether you have identified any similar innovation and its current limitations, including those close to market or in development
any work you have already done to respond to this need, for example if the project focuses on developing an existing capability or building a new one
the wider economic, social, environmental, cultural or political challenges which are influential in creating the opportunity,

Your answer can be up to 400 words long.

Question 3. Approach and innovation

What approach will you take and where will the focus of the innovation be for the UK semiconductor supply chain?

Explain:

how you will address the semiconductor supply chain need identified in question 2
the sector in which the proposed solution is used and describe how it will be innovative for semiconductor manufacturing
whether the innovation will focus on existing technologies in new areas, the development of new technologies for existing areas or a totally disruptive approach
the freedom you have to operate
how this project fits with your current product, service lines or offerings
how it will make you more competitive
the nature of the outputs you expect from the project for example report, demonstrator, know-how, new process, product or service design and how these will help you to target the need, challenge or opportunity identified

Your answer can be up to 600 words long.

You can submit one appendix to support your answer. 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.

Question 4. Team and resources

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

Explain:

the roles, skills and experience of all members of the project team that are relevant to the approach you will be taking
the resources, equipment and facilities needed for the project and how you will access them
the details of any vital external parties, including subcontractors, who you will need to work with to successfully carry out the project
if your project is collaborative, the current relationships between project partners and how these will change as a result of the project
how you have considered equality, diversity and inclusion in the development of your project

Your answer can be up to 600 words long

You can submit one appendix with a short summary of the main people working on your project to support your answer. It must be a PDF, up to 4 A4 pages long and no larger than 10MB in size. The font must be legible at 100% zoom.

Question 5. UK Semiconductor awareness

What does the UK semiconductor market or sector you are targeting look like?

Describe:

the target markets for the project outcomes and any other potential markets (domestic, international or both)
the current state-of-the-art in the area where your innovation is aimed
the size of the target markets for the project outcomes, backed up by references where available
the structure and dynamics of the target markets, including customer segmentation, together with 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 or explain:

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

Your answer can be up to 400 words long.

Question 6. Outcomes and route to market

How are you going to grow your business and increase long term productivity as a result of the project?

Explain:

your current position in the markets and supply or value chains outlined, and whether you will be extending or establishing your market position
your target customers or end users, and the value to them, for example, why they would use or buy your product
how you are going to profit from the innovation, including increased revenues or cost reduction
how the innovation will affect your productivity and growth, in both the short and the long term
your strategy for targeting the other markets you have identified during or after the project
any likely collaborative outcomes and how these will be exploited

If there is any research organisation activity in the project, describe:

your plans to spread the project’s research outputs over a reasonable timescale
how you expect to use the results generated from the project in further research activities

Your answer can be up to 400 words long.

Question 7. Wider impacts

What impact might this project have outside the project team?

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

external parties
customers
others in the supply chain
broader industry
the UK economy

Describe and, where possible, measure:

any expected impact on government priorities
any expected environmental impacts, either positive or negative
any expected regional impacts of the project

Describe any expected social impacts, either positive or negative on, for example:

quality of life
social inclusion or exclusion
jobs, such as safeguarding, creating, changing or displacing them
education
public empowerment
health and safety
regulations
diversity

Your answer can be up to 400 words long.

Question 8. Project management

How will you manage your project effectively?

Explain:

the main work packages of your 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

Your answer can be up to 400 words long.

You must submit a project plan or Gantt chart as an appendix to support your answer. 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.

Question 9. Risks

What are the main risks for this project?

Describe:

the main risks and uncertainties of the project, including the technical, commercial, managerial and environmental risks
how you will mitigate these risks
any project inputs that are critical to completion, such as resources, expertise, and data sets
any output likely to be subject to regulatory requirements, certification, ethical issues and so on, and how you will manage this

Your answer can be up to 400 words long.

You must submit a risk register as an appendix to support your answer. 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.

Question 10. Added value

How will this public funding help you to accelerate or enhance your approach to developing your project towards commercialisation? What impact would this award have on the organisations involved?

Explain:

what advantages public funding would offer your project, for example, appeal to investors, more partners, reduced risk or a faster route to market
the likely impact of the project outcomes on the organisations involved
what other routes of investment you have already approached
what your project would look like without public funding
how this project would change the R&D activities of all the organisations involved

Your answer can be up to 400 words long.

Question 11. Costs and value for money

How much will the project cost and how does it represent value for money for the team and the taxpayer?

In terms of your project goals, explain:

your total project costs
the grant you are requesting
how each partner will finance their contributions to your project
how this project represents value for money for you and the taxpayer
how it compares to what you would spend your money on otherwise
the balance of costs and grant across the project partners
any subcontractor costs and why they are critical to your project

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

The UK government is currently undertaking a strategic review of the UK semiconductors landscape which is due to be published in the Spring of 2023. The technology is foundational, so likely to support innovation in a wide range of sectors. It is necessary for development of technologies already prioritised by the UK government policy in its innovation strategy.

Semiconductors play essential roles in all of the seven technology families defined in the UK Innovation Strategy:

Advanced Materials and Manufacturing
AI, Digital and Advanced Computing
Bioinformatics and Genomics
Engineering Biology
Electronics, Photonics and Quantum
Energy and Environment Technologies
Robotics and Smart Machines

The roles cover the digital, analogue and hybrid domains.

Digital:

In their most recognisable guise in the digital domain, forming the processors, memory and data services for computers across all areas of engineering and sciences.

Analogue:

On the analogue side providing:

power electronics
optical sources and detectors
sensors
control for interacting to the real world

Hybrid:

The mixture of semiconductor materials and technologies to form small footprint, highly functional modules that will find increasing uses in:

telecoms
quantum
renewable
healthcare

These lists are not intended to be exhaustive.

The semiconductors industry is wide and diverse covering a range of materials, processes and supply chains all potentially at differing stages of maturity or development hence it can appear daunting to address across the board.

UKRI current commitment to semiconductors is predominantly funded from the applications side, where advancements in the technology are targeted at specific areas, for example:

digital security
automotive drives
power electronics for renewables

This application led approach is not well suited to address some of the more fundamental aspects and requirements to support the UK semiconductor industry as a whole.

This programme takes a more holistic approach to identify and address common problems and underlying issues experienced throughout the community such as:

supply chain resilience
access to manufacturing and test facilities
skills shortages

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 Innovate UK KTN.

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 Innovate UK EDGE, delivered by a knowledgeable and objective specialist near you.

Next steps

If you are successful with this application, you will be asked to set up your project.

You must follow the unique link embedded in your email notification. This takes you to your IFS Set Up portal, the tool that Innovate UK uses to gather necessary information before we can allow your project to begin.

You will need to provide:

the name and contact details of your project manager and project finance lead
a redacted copy of your bank details
a collaboration agreement, if required
an exploitation plan

In order to process your claims, we need to make sure that the bank details you give to us relate to a UK high street bank that is regulated by the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA). The account must have a BACS clearing facility and be in the same company name as your application.

If you have any doubts that your bank account will not meet Innovate UK's funding criteria, you can use the sort code checker. If you input the sort code and find a tick next to the ‘BACS Direct Credit payments can be sent to this sort code’, this will give you an indication that the bank account you hold is acceptable.

Finance checks

We will carry out checks to make sure you are an established company with access to the funds necessary to complete the project.

You must check your IFS portal regularly and respond to any requests we have sent for additional information to avoid any delays.

Failure to complete project setup may result in your grant offer being withdrawn.

Your Grant offer letter (GoL)

Once you have successfully completed project setup, we will issue your GOL.

The GoL will be made available on your IFS portal. You will need to sign and upload this before you start your project.

Your GoL will show the start date for your project, do not start your project before this date. Any costs incurred before your start date cannot be claimed as part of your grant.

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 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