Funding competition Innovate UK Unlocking Potential Award 2023: Begin

Innovators can apply for an award to make their business idea a reality. The award will include a grant for £5,000, a living allowance and tailored business support.

This competition is now closed.

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Competition sections

Description

Innovate UK, part of UK Research and Innovation, will invest up to £6.2 million in innovation projects.

One of the greatest assets we have in the UK is the incredible diverse talent available. This diversity is not currently reflected in the UK innovation sector. For the UK to thrive as an innovation nation, we must unlock the power of innovation talent and skills in every part of the UK and throughout society.

The Innovate UK Unlocking Potential Award is a two strand pilot competition that aims to empower today’s untapped innovators and businesses to increase investment in diverse talent across the UK. It aims to level the playing field and unlock potential for innovation by supporting and funding innovators from groups that are currently underrepresented or overlooked in innovation.

The competition focuses on attracting innovators with different backgrounds and experiences. We are looking for a diverse group of innovators that with our help, can turn their great ideas into successful businesses. The competitions will be open to a range of innovators, from those who are just beginning their career, to those who are expanding their businesses.

This competition is split into 2 strands:

  • Innovate UK Unlocking Potential Award 2023: Begin – awards will include a grant amount of £5,000, a living allowance and tailored business support (this strand)
  • Innovate UK Unlocking Potential Award 2023: Build – awards will include a grant amount of £50,000 and tailored business support

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

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

Funding type

Grant

Project size

The Innovate UK Unlocking Potential Award: Begin strand will provide £5,000 of funding, plus a living allowance and tailored business support.

Who can apply

This competition is open to sole applicants only.

Your award

Your award will:

  • have a total grant funding request of £5,000
  • start on 1 December 2023
  • end on 30 November 2024
  • last for 12 months

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

You must only include eligible project costs in your application.

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

You will be made ineligible if you exceed the Minimal Financial Assistance limit. You must submit a complete declaration as part of your application.

Lead applicant

To be eligible for an award you must:

  • identify with a community that is currently considered by Innovate UK as underrepresented in the innovation ecosystem
  • be a UK resident, carry out all project work in the UK, and exploit the results from or in the UK
  • be aged 18 and above on the date of competition close
  • be able to commit on average 15 hours per week to working on your funded project
  • not have received any Innovate UK award

You must be able to commit to:

  • working on average for 15 hours per week on your Innovate UK Unlocking Potential Award: Begin project, including some weekday time to meet with your Innovation Champion
  • attending two development sessions
  • providing at least four days over the duration of the award to be a role model to inspire others

Innovate UK wants to support untapped talent from anywhere in the UK. We are looking to find people with exciting, breakthrough innovative businesses or ideas driving positive economic, environmental and societal change.

We particularly encourage women and young people to apply to the Innovate UK Unlocking Potential Award, building on the success of the Women in Innovation and Young Innovator programmes. In addition, we want to attract and support underrepresented innovators from a variety of backgrounds or experiences. This also includes intersectionality, recognising the way multiple characteristics interconnect and can worsen inequities.

For the purpose of this competition, Innovate UK considers the following groups of people as underrepresented in the innovation ecosystem:

  • disabled, including and not limited to mental health conditions, learning disabilities, neurodiversity and physical disabilities
  • ethnic minority groups
  • LGBTQIA+
  • non-binary and all marginalised genders
  • people with primary caring responsibilities
  • people from low socioeconomic backgrounds
  • people from non-traditional educational routes into innovation
  • women
  • younger (aged 18 to 30) and older (aged 60+) people

This is a pilot competition and who Innovate UK considers as underrepresented is based on Innovate UK and ecosystem evidence. The underrepresented groups will be regularly reviewed and where necessary updated.

Subcontractors

Collaborative partners and subcontractors are not allowed in this competition.

Number of applications

You can only make one application, for this competition, across the two strands. If you submit more than one eligible application, only the first submission will be sent for assessment.

Previous applications

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

We will not award you funding if you have:

  • been previously funded by Innovate UK
  • failed to comply with grant terms and conditions

Minimal Financial Assistance (and De minimis where applicable)

Grant funding in this competition is awarded as Minimal Financial assistance (MFA). This allows public bodies to award up to £315,000 to an enterprise in a 3-year rolling financial period.

In your application, you will be asked to declare previous funding received by you. This will form part of the financial checks ahead of Innovate UK making a formal grant offer.

To establish your eligibility, we need to check that our support added to the amount you have previously received does not exceed the limit of £315,000 in the ‘applicable period’.

The applicable period is made up of:

(a) the elapsed part of the current financial year, and

(b) the two financial years immediately preceding the current financial year.

You must include any funding which you have received during the applicable period under:

You do not need to include aid or subsidies which have been granted on a different basis, for example, an aid award granted under the General Block Exemption Regulation.

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

EU Commission 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, you should take independent legal advice. We cannot advise on individual eligibility or your legal obligations.

Funding

Innovate UK, part of UK Research and Innovation, will invest up to £6.2 million in innovation projects.

The total funding available for this competition can change. The funders have the right to:

  • adjust the funding allocations between the two competition strands
  • apply a ‘portfolio’ approach

Funding will be in the form of a grant. We will also provide a bespoke package of mentoring, coaching and business support to successful applicants.

If successful, the funding will be paid in instalments called claim periods.

In total, every award holder in this strand will get £5,000 plus a contribution to living allowances of £10,000, making a total of £15,000.

The funding will be paid in three instalments if successful:

  • £7,500 in December 2023, equivalent to 50% of the award

  • £6,000 at the mid-point June 2024, equivalent to 40% of the award

  • £1,500 in September 2024, equivalent to 10% of the award

Claims will need to be agreed with your Monitoring Service Provider and Innovation Champion, who we will allocate to you.

You will need to provide evidence to your Monitoring Service Provider to show how your grant was spent over each claim period before your next claim can be submitted.

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 European Commission De minimis.

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

Your proposal

The Innovate UK Unlocking Potential Award is a pilot competition that aims to empower today’s untapped innovators and businesses to increase investment in diverse talent across the UK. It aims to level the playing field and unlock potential for innovation by supporting and funding innovators from groups that are currently underrepresented or overlooked in innovation.

We are looking to fund and support a diverse portfolio of innovative award holders:

  • who will be relatable role models and inspire people from all backgrounds
  • from all regions across the UK
  • who are solving a range of pressing societal, environmental and economic challenges in a variety of innovation areas
  • who are most likely to benefit from the package of support on offer

Your proposal must:

  • address a problem
  • be innovative
  • be significantly better than what is currently on offer including from existing businesses

Your innovative idea can be:

  • ready to be developed into a new business
  • within an existing business

As an award holder you will receive tailored business support, including but not limited to:

  • media and communications
  • branding
  • business planning strategy
  • growing your networks
  • funding and finance options

As part of your application, you must share with us a short video on YouTube, up to 3 minutes long. If the assessors cannot view your video or it is hosted on a platform other than YouTube, your application will be made ineligible.

Role model work

If you are successful, as an award holder you will be required to work as a role model for at least four days over the 12 month duration of the award. This will offer opportunities to generate interest in your story and business.

A role model is a person perceived by others as setting an example of best practice which, if replicated, can enable the achievement of goals. A role model is frequently associated with undertaking activities, including but not limited to, mentoring, coaching, presentations, advice, and guidance. In this case, a role model will help encourage and inspire others to enter a career in innovation and promote diversity and inclusion in innovation.

Portfolio approach

We want to fund a diverse cohort of innovators across different parts of the UK we call this a portfolio approach.

We have the right to select a portfolio of award holders:

  • that are located throughout the UK and meet all the eligibility criteria
  • between the two strands of the competition

Projects we will not fund

We are not funding awards that:

  • have applicants that have previously received Innovate UK funding
  • have applicants who would not benefit from the package of support on offer
  • have applicants who do not intend to use the full award package, for example, just the funding
  • have applicants who are younger than 18 on the close date of the competition
  • have a negative impact on the environment or society
  • have a detrimental effect on equality, diversity, and inclusion
  • do not involve any research and development or innovation, for example, the creation of information only websites
  • do not meet the competition eligibility or scope
  • involve primary production in fishery and aquaculture
  • involve primary production in agriculture
  • include activities relating to the purchase of road freight transport
  • are projects not allowed under De minimis regulation restrictions
  • are projects not allowed under Minimal Financial Assistance

We cannot fund projects that are:

  • dependent on export performance, for example giving an award to a baker on the condition that they export a certain quantity of bread to another country
  • dependent on domestic inputs usage, for example if we give an award to a baker on the condition that they use 50% UK flour in their product
10 July 2023
Competition opens
11 July 2023
Online briefing event at 10.00 am: watch the recording
13 July 2023
Applicant Support Session: watch the recording
26 July 2023
Video Support Session: watch the recording
1 August 2023
Grant Writing Workshop: watch the recording
16 August 2023
Applicant Support Session: watch the recording
30 August 2023
Grant Writing Support Session: join here
5 September 2023
Applicant Support Session: join here
6 September 2023 11:00am
Competition closes
6 October 2023
Applicants notified
8 February 2024
Development Session
10 September 2024
Development Session

Before you start

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

We encourage you to view the webinar recordings and resources available on the Innovate UK KTN webpage before you make your application.

When you start an application, you will be asked to login or create an account on the Innovation Funding Service (IFS). You will need an account to submit your application and track its progress. Some mandatory fields in the IFS system will ask you to select if you are a business as part of your application. You must select business, even if you do not yet have a business.

As the applicant you will be responsible for:

  • collecting the information for your application and ensuring it is correct
  • ensuring your proposal meets the eligibility and scope criteria
  • ensuring all sections of the application are marked as complete

Your application may be marked ineligible if it is not clear which individual will be receiving the award. We will not accept late submissions.

If your application does not meet the competition’s eligibility criteria it will not be sent for assessment.

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, including your video pitch.
  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).

1. Project details

This section provides background for the assessors and is not scored. The assessors will not have access to the equality diversity and inclusion survey data.

Application details

You must complete this section. Give your project’s title, start date and duration. Projects must start on 1 December 2023 and be of 12 months’ duration.

Project summary

Describe yourself and your idea briefly and be clear about what makes your idea innovative. We use this section to assign 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 application fits the scope of the competition. If your application 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 your answers for questions 10 to 14, questions 1 to 9 are not scored. 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 other than the link to your video for question 10.

Question 1. Applicant location (not scored)

You must state the name and full registered address of your organisation. If you don’t have a registered business you must use your home address.

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

Your answer can be up to 50 words long.

Due to our portfolio approach, we reserve the right to withdraw your award if your location changes before your start date.

Question 2. Minimal Financial Assistance declaration (not scored)

You must download the declaration template. You must complete this, declaring any funding received under Minimal Financial Assistance (previously referred to as Special Drawing Rights) or De minimis awards, (from any source of public funding) in the applicable period.

You must complete all the fields on your form before uploading.

You must write “declaration attached” in the question text box.

You must upload the completed declaration as an appendix. It must be a PDF and the font must be legible at 100% zoom.

You must keep all documentation relating to Minimal Financial Assistance (previously referred to as Special Drawing Rights) and other De minimis awards for a period of 6 years and be prepared to release it to any public funding body which requests it.

Question 3. Registered business (not scored)

Do you have a registered business, or will you have a registered business by the closing date of this competition?

Your answer to this question will not affect your eligibility for the Innovate UK Unlocking Potential Award Begin Strand.

Please select either yes or no.

Question 4. Underrepresentation in innovation (not scored)

Do you identify with a community that is currently underrepresented in innovation?

For the purpose of this competition, Innovate UK considers the following groups of people as underrepresented in the innovation ecosystem:

  • disabled, including and not limited to mental health conditions, learning disabilities, neurodiversity and physical disabilities
  • ethnic minority groups
  • LGBTQIA+
  • non-binary and all marginalised genders
  • people with primary caring responsibilities
  • people from low socioeconomic backgrounds
  • people from non-traditional educational routes into innovation
  • women
  • younger (aged 18 to 30) and older (aged 60+) people

Please select either yes or no.

If you do not identify with one or more of the underrepresented groups defined above, your application will be made ineligible.

We want to ensure that there are no barriers to any eligible applicant applying for this competition. It is important to note that you will never be asked to publicly disclose your association to the underrepresented groups at any stage of the competition process or award programme. If successful, you will have the opportunity to opt out of being featured in competition marketing.

Question 5. Time commitment (not scored)

Can you confirm that you are able to commit on average 15 hours per week, to working on your funded project from December 2023 for 12 months?

Please select either yes or no.

If you select no, your application will be made ineligible and not sent for assessment.

Question 6. Project costs (not scored)

Confirm that you are requesting £5,000 grant funding for this project.

If your project grant request in this application is not £5,000 exactly, your application will be made ineligible.

Please select yes to confirm that your project grant request is £5,000. If you select no, your application will be made ineligible and not sent for assessment.

Question 7. Previous funding (not scored)

Have you ever received any funding from Innovate UK?

Please select either yes or no.

If you select yes, your application will be made ineligible and not sent for assessment.

Question 8. Previous support (not scored)

Have you previously received support from the Innovate UK group including Innovate UK EDGE, Innovate UK KTN and the Catapults?

Previous business support will not affect your eligibility for the Innovate UK Unlocking Potential Award Begin competition.

Please state yes or no as part of your answer and explain what support you have received.

Your answer can be up to 200 words long.

Question 9. Additional support (not scored)

Even if you are unsuccessful, we may be able to find you some support. Are you happy for us to share your details with Innovate UK EDGE and Innovate UK KTN?

Please select either yes or no.

Question 10. Your potential to be a leader and role model to inspire others and promote EDI in Innovation – video pitch (scored)

As part of the award, you will be expected to commit to at least four days of role modelling over the course of the 12 month project, to inspire others and promote EDI in innovation.

In your video we would like you to:

  • introduce yourself
  • briefly speak about your innovative idea or project
  • outline your vision for your business or idea and where you hope to be in 5 to 10 years
  • describe what equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) mean to both you as an innovator and to your project
  • explain why you want to be a role model for potential innovators, especially in relation to your sector, innovation area, or region, and in the context of speaking to young people
  • share what role modelling activities you are interested in and what your key messages will be to encourage others into innovation
  • include any additional information about you and your idea that will help to strengthen your application

Please note there is no expectation to declare any personal information in your response to this question.

You must upload a video to YouTube. The video can be in any style; it will be assessed on its content and not the production quality. It must be no longer than 3 minutes. If your video is over 3 minutes long, only the first 3 minutes will be used to assess your application.

You must ensure your video is ‘unlisted’ in the privacy settings using YouTube. You must provide the link and any passwords required as your text answer to this question.

The video must remain available until 1 January 2024.

If the assessors cannot view your video or it is hosted on a platform other than YouTube, the assessors will be unable to assess this question and your application will be ineligible.

If you cannot upload your video to YouTube, you must contact support@iuk.ukri.org at least 10 working days before the competition closes for advice.

Your application will be ineligible if you submit your application without a video. Requests for extensions due to problems uploading a video will not be accepted.

This question is worth 30% of the total score.

Your answer can be up to 10 words long.

Question 11. What is your value proposition? (scored)

A value proposition is a short, powerful statement that explains why the customer should buy from you. It is the kind of claim that you see on the home page of a website.

Explain:

  • what problem your product or service solves
  • the benefits the customer can expect when they buy from you
  • why the customer should buy from you rather than from competitors

Your answer can be up to 300 words long.

This question is worth 17.5% of the total score.

Question 12. Your plan for the Award (scored)

Describe the five most important steps that you need to take in the 12 months duration of the project to turn your idea for business into a reality.

For each step identify the areas where you think you need the most support to make a success of your business idea.

Your answer can be up to 500 words long.

This question is worth 17.5% of the total score.

Question 13. What difference will this award make to you personally and your business idea? (scored)

Provide information about the impact this award will deliver to you personally and your business idea.

Explain how you will use the full package of support provided by the award. Describe the work that you have carried out already to develop your idea. If you have received other business support, outline how this award will add value.

What new idea or business opportunity would you like to develop with the award, and why is this support critical for developing your idea or business?

The Innovate UK Unlocking Potential Award includes tailored business support including, but not limited to:

  • media and communications
  • branding
  • business planning strategy
  • growing your networks
  • funding and finance options

Your answer can be up to 500 words long.

This question is worth 17.5% of the total score.

Question 14. Risks (scored)

What are the main risks for your project idea?

Explain:

  • the main risks and uncertainties of turning your idea into a reality with this award, this could include technical, commercial, environmental or personal risks
  • how you will mitigate these risks

You can submit a risk register as an appendix to support your answer. This is not compulsory. 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 300 words long.

This question is worth 17.5% of the total score.

3. Finances

To complete the finances section in your application, you must only enter £5,000 under ‘other costs’. This does not mean your award can only be spent on other costs. This section is simply a mandatory part of the application that needs to be completed.

Innovate UK will add the living allowance grant to the fixed £5,000 project costs grant if your application is successful. The grant and living allowance are paid in three instalment payments through the life of your project.

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

Background and further information

Supporting a diverse range of innovators

We are looking to award a diverse range of innovators. This is in accordance with our duty to advance equality of opportunity between those who share a protected characteristic and those who do not.

In particular, building on the success of the Innovate UK Women in Innovation and Young Innovator programmes, we aspire to provide 50% of the awards to women and 50% to people aged 18 to 30, from diverse communities.

The competitions has two levels of support:

  • Innovate UK Unlocking Potential Award 2023: Begin Strand – awards will include a grant for £5,000, a living allowance and tailored business support (this strand)
  • Innovate UK Unlocking Potential Award 2023: Build Strand – awards will include a grant of £50,000 and tailored business support

Diversity and inclusion is at the heart of the two strands of competitions, and forms an integral part of Innovate UK’s 2021-2025 Plan for Action for UK Business Innovation.

Other useful links: UK Innovation Strategy, The UK Governments R&D People and Culture Strategy and the Levelling Up Agenda.

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.

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.

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 Innovation Funding Service (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
  • 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 for us to approve before you can start your project. If your GOL is approved on or before the fifteenth of the month it will be dated from the first of that month. If your GOL is approved after the fifteenth, it will be dated the first of the next month.

You must not start your project before the date stated on your GOL. Any costs incurred before your agreed 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.

Your application may score well and receive positive feedback from the assessors but be unsuccessful. This can be because your average score has not reached the funding threshold for this competition or your project has not been selected under the portfolio approach if applied to 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