Funding competition Knowledge Asset Grant Fund: Explore, Autumn 2023

Eligible UK public sector organisations can apply for up to £25,000 from the Knowledge Asset Grant Fund in this strand. The funding will aid exploitation of intangible assets that have a broader application or client base than their owner organisation.

This competition is now closed.

Start new application

Competition sections

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 from 2021 to March 2025. Budget limits are imposed at each panel meeting to ensure only the best proposals are funded.

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 3 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 are applying 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 does not meet the eligibility criteria.

There is currently one further round of funding planned in the financial year 2023 to 2024 with a competition deadline in December.

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 a maximum of £25,000.

Who can apply

Your project

Your project must:

  • have a maximum grant funding request of up to £25,000
  • start by 1 December 2023
  • end by 31 March 2025
  • last between 2 and 14 months
  • spend at least 50% of the budget during the first half of the project, unless the project starts and ends within the same financial year
  • generate social, financial or economic benefits to the UK
  • develop a knowledge asset that is majority owned by the UK government organisation applying for funding

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 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 are eligible for the Knowledge Asset Grant Fund.

The previous round of the Knowledge Asset Grant closed on 8 June 2023. From that point onward, organisations in the NHS secondary and tertiary care sector, and publicly owned commercial organisations, will not be eligible to apply for grant funding or other services from the Government Office for Technology Transfer (GOTT).

We would encourage NHS Trusts to look at alternative funding schemes available to the NHS secondary and tertiary care sector by viewing Health Technology Pathway: Navigation Tool for Innovators in England document.

If you have any queries, you can contact the KAGF secretariat at GrantFund.GOTT@beis.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.

Previous applications

You can use a previously submitted application to apply for this competition where there has been a significant improvement of the application.

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.



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

The programme has £15 million total funding available from 2021 to March 2025 across all grant streams. 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.

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 Officer Responsible, 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 The Department for Science Innovation and Technology (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@beis.gov.uk. You can also visit the GOTT Grant Fund webpages where we offer further guidance and support for our applicant community.

Specific themes

This competition will prioritise projects in either of the following two themes:

  • a digital economy
  • environment and sustainability

These two themes support the government’s ambition for a greener and more digitally advanced future as set out in the Science and Technology Framework.

We welcome applications from off-theme projects in this round. On-theme projects will be prioritised where funding is limited.

Further information for the scope and themes can be found at GOTT’s funding page and their recent blog.

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

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

Funding will not be conditional on:

  • export performance, for example, awarding funding to a baker on the condition that it exports a certain quantity of bread to another country
  • UK content, for example, awarding funding to a baker on the condition that it uses 50% UK flour in their product

16 June 2023
Online briefing event: watch the recording
16 June 2023
Competition opens
7 September 2023 11:00am
Competition closes
30 October 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 of the information provided in the application is correct
  • your proposal meets the eligibility 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 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. Watch the video 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).

Assessments and panels

Assessment
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 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 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 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 will be published on gov.uk if the project is awarded funding. Do not include any commercially sensitive information, particularly anything that could jeopardise any IP protection.

Your answer can be up to 200 words long.

2. Application questions

Questions 1 to 3 are for data collection purposes only and will not be scored. Questions 4 to 6 will 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 7 to 9. You will receive feedback for each scored question.

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

Question 1. 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 2. 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 Senior Responsible Owner has been appointed or is not known type ‘Not Known’ in the text box.

Your answer can be up to 100 words long.

Question 3. 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 4. 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
  • Department for Science Innovation and Technology (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 5. 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 6: 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 7: 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 8. Project management, risk mitigation and project team (scored)

How will you manage your project and any risks effectively?

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 9. 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.

Question 10. How did you hear about this competition (not scored)

Select one:

  • The Innovate UK GOV.UK website
  • The Government Office for Technology Transfer (GOTT) GOV.UK website
  • Internet searching/browsing
  • Word-of-mouth (through Colleague and networks)
  • Social media
  • Government Office for Technology Transfer emails/newsletter/KA Champion Network
  • Interaction with individuals in GOTT
  • Other

3. Finances

Each organisation in your project must complete their 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 7.

Background and further information

The previous round of the Knowledge Asset Grant closed on 8 June 2023. From that point onward, organisations in the NHS secondary and tertiary care sector, and publicly owned commercial organisations, will not be eligible to apply for grant funding or other services from the Government Office for Technology Transfer (GOTT).

We have welcomed a range of innovative projects from within the NHS secondary and tertiary care sector and publicly owned commercial organisations over the last two years and would like to thank all of those clients who have worked with us. We now need to show success in other sectors that require our help.

GOTT has a cross-government mandate and must ensure that our limited resources avoid duplicating support and funding that is already available.

We would encourage NHS Trusts to look at alternative funding schemes available to the NHS secondary and tertiary care sector by viewing Health Technology Pathway: Navigation Tool for Innovators in England document.

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 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.

Contact us

If you need any more information about the eligibility or scope of the competition you can email grantfund.gott@beis.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 5pm, Monday to Friday (excluding bank holidays).

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@beis.gov.uk, using the subject line ‘Feedback’.

Need help with this service? Contact us