Funding competition UK-US Offshore Wind Collaborative R&D

UK registered organisations can apply for a share of up to £2 million for offshore wind R&D projects. UK projects must work in collaboration with separately funded US projects. This funding is from Innovate UK and for UK projects only.

This competition is now closed.

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Competition sections

Description

Innovate UK, part of UK Research and Innovation, will invest up to £2 million in UK offshore wind R&D projects to work collaboratively with separately funded US projects.

UK projects must partner with US projects which are funded separately through a US application process run by the National Offshore Wind Research and Development Consortium (NOWRDC).

The aim of this competition is to reduce the cost and risk of offshore wind development projects throughout the US. UK-US collaboration must be significant and meaningful, with your UK project demonstrating integration with the US project.

Your proposal must comply with the scope and eligibility requirements, and include a consortium made up of non-linked US and UK partners.

Only UK registered partners must be listed in the Project Partner section of your application on the Innovation Funding Service (IFS). Your US partners will not receive any of this UK competition funding.

This is a single phase competition.

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 eligible costs must be between £150,000 and £600,000.

Who can apply

Your UK project

Your project must:

  • have total costs between £150,000 and £600,000
  • last between 12 and 24 months
  • carry out at least 80% of its project work in the UK
  • intend to exploit the results from or in the UK
  • start by 1 October 2024
  • end by 30 September 2026
  • work collaboratively with an R&D project in the US which is funded by NOWRDC

To be eligible for an Innovate UK grant award, the US project which you intend to collaborate with must also be awarded funding from NOWRDC.

Applications identified as not eligible by either Innovate UK or NOWRDC will not be sent for assessment.

All businesses, whether in the UK consortium, or in the US project you intend to collaborate with, must be separate legal and non-linked entities. This is to ensure that projects encourage genuine international collaboration, not internal company research. Linked companies are considered a single entity under the parent company.

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, Innovate UK 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.

UK Lead organisation

To lead a project your organisation must:

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

If the lead organisation is an RTO it must collaborate with at least 2 UK registered businesses (one SME, and one business of any size).

Academic institutions cannot lead or work alone.

UK Project team

Only UK registered partners must be listed in the Project Partner section of your application on the Innovation Funding Service (IFS). Your US partner will not receive any of this UK competition funding. US partners will be funded by NOWRDC following a parallel application.

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

  • business of any size
  • academic institution
  • public sector organisation
  • research and technology organisation (RTO)

Each organisation in your consortium will receive funding from its respective national funding body.

Each UK partner organisation must be invited into the Innovation Funding Service by the lead to collaborate on a project. Once partners have accepted the invitation, they will be asked to login or to create an account in the Innovation Funding Service. They are responsible for entering their own project costs and completing their Project Impact questions in the application.

Non-funded partners

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

You cannot include US partners that do not receive Innovate UK funding, and their costs will not count towards the total project costs.

Subcontractors

Subcontractors are allowed in this competition, but they are limited to no more than 20% of each UK organisation’s eligible project costs.

Subcontractors can be from anywhere in the UK and you must select them through your usual procurement process.

You can use subcontractors from the European Economic Area (EEA) 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 EEA subcontractor.

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

Number of applications

A business or research and technology organisation (RTO) can only lead on one application but can be included as a collaborator in a further 2 applications.

If a business is not leading any application, it can be included as a collaborator in up to 3 applications.

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

An academic institution or a public sector organisation can collaborate on any number of applications.

Previous applications

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

We will not award you funding if you have:

Subsidy control (and State aid where applicable)

This competition provides funding in line with the 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 £2 million has been allocated to fund UK partners’ costs for innovation projects in this competition. 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 and industrial research projects, you could get funding for your eligible project costs of:

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

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

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

For more information on company sizes, please refer to the company accounts guidance.

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 UK research organisations undertaking non-economic activity as part of the project can share up to 30% of the total eligible project costs. If your consortium contains more than one research organisation undertaking non-economic activity, this maximum is shared between them. Of that 30% you could get funding for your eligible project costs of up to:

  • 80% of full economic costs (FEC) if you are a Je-S registered institution such as an academic
  • 100% of your project costs if you are an RTO or public sector organisation

Your proposal

The aim of this competition is to reduce the cost and risk of offshore wind development projects throughout the US. UK-US collaboration must be significant and meaningful.

Your UK project must demonstrate integration with the US project.

Your project’s scope must address one or more of the challenge areas for this competition:

Challenge 1: Solutions to facilitate offshore wind resiliency and transmission coordination

  • 1a: Development and demonstration of solutions that improve offshore wind power reliability
  • 1b: Development and demonstration of innovations in coordinated transmission solutions that optimize efficiency across multiple large projects, minimize environmental impacts, and conform with onshore grid constraints
  • 1c: Development and demonstration of solutions for integration of long duration energy storage of greater than 10 hours with offshore wind, to facilitate offshore wind resiliency, transmission coordination and integration.

Challenge 2: Operation & Maintenance (O&M) Systems Development

  • 2a: Technologies and strategies that advance the effectiveness, cost efficiency, and safety of O&M
  • 2b: Technologies and strategies that advance O&M supply chain development and flexibility

Challenge 3: Innovation to facilitate ocean area coexistence

Technology concepts that reduce offshore development and operational impacts on the marine biosphere

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

Specific themes

Your project can focus on the following themes for each of the challenges.

Challenge 1: Solutions to facilitate offshore wind resiliency and transmission coordination

1a:

  • voltage control
  • frequency response
  • production forecasting and grid integration
  • black-start and grid forming capability
  • other wind powered reliability innovations

1b:

  • improved cable routing or shared cable landfall
  • offshore backbone and meshed grid or multi-terminal HVDC
  • dynamic array cables at 132 kilovolt (kV) and or dynamic export cables
  • other transmissions solutions

1c:

  • feasibility studies on the techno-economic analysis of differing energy storage solutions with offshore wind, such as hydrogen, thermal storage and pumped storage
  • feasibility studies joining up the physical requirements of the offshore wind-energy storage system with policy, market, dispatchability and digital arrangements
  • energy systems-level modelling for offshore wind-energy storage integration and consideration of demand side response
  • energy storage integration technologies with offshore wind development, considering turbine, farm and onshore network options
  • other energy storage integration solutions

Challenge 2: Operation & Maintenance (O&M) Systems Development

2a:

  • comparative assessments of O&M requirements and considerations associated with different substructure designs
  • technologies to improve offshore wind turbine component health monitoring, including corrosion monitoring and management
  • offshore wind turbine digital twin development and application in-practice
  • technological innovations to facilitate wind farm maintenance for example robotic inspection technologies and integration into practice, LiDAR, drone, sensor
  • innovations or assessment of opportunities to address technical and efficiency challenges associated with large-scale offshore wind buildout in deeper water and at greater distances from shore
  • solutions to improve operational safety for example safety vessels, electrical safety at substation, fire safety, novel uses of drone and autonomous vehicles
  • innovation in simulated workforce training
  • other O&M safety and efficiency systems

2b:

  • programmatic assessment for implementation of ocean-based testing and validation of approaches and technologies for O&M
  • technoeconomic analysis of port and vessel upgrades specifically for O&M purposes
  • other O&M supply chain technologies and strategies

Challenge 3: Innovation to facilitate ocean area coexistence

  • technologies that attenuate adverse impacts on marine life for example reducing noise impacts, reducing siting conflicts and the impacts of installation practices
  • structural alternatives or deployment methods that avoid or mitigate noise generation
  • mooring line sensors for detection of secondary entanglement, marine growth, and line failure
  • AI tools and other technologies, such as sonar, hydrophones, or camera systems, that improve detection and monitoring of fisheries and wildlife; or that improve marine navigation in and around offshore wind areas
  • technology solutions that mitigate and reduce interactions with federally managed, protected, and endangered species and their habitats
  • process or technology solutions to coordinate and integrate fisheries and wildlife monitoring and assessment including database and data sharing capacity building
  • other innovations to facilitate ocean area co-existence

Research categories

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

Projects we will not fund

We are not funding projects that are:

  • energy storage integration solutions that have a duration of less than 10 hours
  • energy storage R&D that is not specifically related to the optimisation or integration of energy storage with offshore wind
  • energy storage system balance of plant unless this R&D is specifically related to optimising or integrating existing long duration energy storage systems with offshore wind
  • focused on baseline environmental data collection, surveys or studies

We are not funding projects that include R&D of core energy storage technology components and systems, whether existing or novel, such as:

  • electrochemical energy storage components and systems
  • mechanical energy storage components and systems
  • thermal energy storage components and systems

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

16 October 2023
Competition opens
18 October 2023
Applicant briefing event online: watch the recording
10 January 2024 11:00am
Competition closes
22 March 2024
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
  • that all partners invited into IFS 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 four sections:

1.Project details.

2.Application questions.

3.Finances.

4.Project Impact.

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.

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 12pm and 2pm 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 UK 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 and which challenge area your project aligns with. 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 questions 1, 2 and 3. You will receive feedback for each scored question. Find out more about how our assessors assess and how we select applications for funding.

You must answer all questions. Your answer to each question can be up to 400 words long. 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. The US project (not scored)
Briefly describe the US project you intend to collaborate with during your UK project.

Provide:

  • the National Offshore Wind Research and Development Consortium (NOWRDC) proposal reference number for the US project if available
  • the US project proposal or project title
  • the organisation names of the US project partners
  • a high-level summary of the US project

Confirm the status of the US project’s application to NOWRDC.

Is it not yet submitted or submitted but not yet awarded?

Question 3. Permits and licences (not scored)

Will you have the correct permits and licences in place to carry out your project?

We are unable to fund projects who do not have the correct permits or licences in place by your project start date.

You must select one option:

  • Yes
  • No
  • In process of being applied for
  • Not applicable

Question 4. Need or challenge

What is the business need, technological challenge, or market opportunity behind your innovation?

Explain:

  • the main motivation for the project
  • 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, such as incoming regulations and using our Horizons tool if appropriate

Question 5. Approach and innovation

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

Explain:

  • how you will respond to the need, challenge or opportunity identified
  • how you will improve on any similar innovation that you have identified
  • 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 reports, demonstrator, know-how, new process, product or service design, and how these will help you to target the need, challenge or opportunity identified

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 6. 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 collaborating with other UK organisations, the current relationships between project partners and how these will change as a result of the project
  • any roles you will need to recruit for

You can submit one appendix, with a short summary of the main people working on the 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 7. Market awareness

What does the market or markets you are targeting look like?

Describe:

  • the target markets for the project outcomes and any other potential markets (domestic, international or both)
  • 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

Question 8. 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
  • your route to market
  • 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
  • how you will protect and exploit the outputs of the project, for example through know-how, patenting, designs or changes to your business model
  • your strategy for targeting the other markets you have identified during or after the project

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

Question 9. 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

Question 10. 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
  • the dependencies between your UK project and the US project you will collaborate with

You must submit a UK 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 11. Risks

What are the main risks for this project?

Explain:

  • 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 other requirements identified, and how you will manage this

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 12. 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 (this list is not exhaustive)
  • the likely impact of the project outcomes on the organisations involved
  • what other routes of investment or means of support you have already approached and why they were not suitable
  • how any existing or potential investment or support will be used in conjunction with the grant funding
  • what your project would look like without public funding
  • how this project would change the R&D activities of all the organisations involved

Question 13. 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 you and each of your UK partners 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 UK project partners
  • any subcontractor costs and why they are critical to your project

Question 14. International collaboration

Further to the outline in question 2, you must describe:

  • the US project’s US work programme, key milestones and how your UK project contributes to this
  • how the US project contributes and adds value to your UK R&D project
  • the role of each of the UK and US project partners
  • the particular capabilities each partner brings to the UK-US collaboration
  • the project management approaches and tools you will use to manage the international collaboration

You must submit a draft international collaboration agreement that is ready for signature as an appendix to this question. It must be a PDF. The font must be legible at 100% zoom. A template international collaboration agreement is available from John Ransford at Innovate UK KTN.

3. Finances

Each UK 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.

Do not include any US project costs in this Innovate UK application.

For full details on what costs you can claim see our project costs guidance. You can also view our Application Finances video.

4. Project Impact

This section is not scored but will provide background to your project.

Each UK partner must complete the Project Impact questions before being able to submit the application.

More information can be found in our Project Impact guidance and by viewing our Impact Management Framework video.

Background and further information

The aim of this competition is to fund UK projects collaborating with US projects which will be funded separately by the National Offshore Wind Research and Development Consortium (NOWRDC).

NOWRDC is a nationally focused, not-for-profit organization collaborating with industry on prioritized R&D activities to reduce the levelized cost of energy (LCOE) of offshore wind in the U.S. while maximizing other economic and social benefits. It was set up and funded initially by the US Department of Energy and the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA). Funding is now provided both from federal and state funds.

US project applicants need to apply for US funding from NOWRDC via the competition solicitation page.

Innovate UK and NOWRDC have been in partnership since 2018.

Data sharing

This competition is jointly operated by Innovate UK, and National Offshore Wind Research and Development Consortium, (NOWRDC) (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 NOWRDC 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 NOWRDC 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 NOWRDC 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.

In addition, you can upload your company profile on the b2match platform. This b2match platform is your opportunity to find potential UK and US collaboration partners by posting a profile about your innovation, your project idea, and the type of organisation you would like to collaborate with. You can also arrange 1-2-1 online meetings to take your discussions forward.

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.

Assessment

Your application will be reviewed by up to 5 independent assessors based on the content of your application and their skills or expertise relevant to your project. All of the scores awarded will count towards the total score used to make the funding decision unless you are notified otherwise.

You can find out more about our assessment process in the General Guidance.

Your submitted application will be assessed against these criteria.

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 between your UK project partners, if applicable
  • an international collaboration agreement between the Lead Organisation of your UK project and the Prime Contractor of the US project
  • an exploitation plan

In order for us to process your claims, you must make sure you have a valid UK bank account. It is possible that it can take several weeks for a new account to be created. We would recommend starting this process as early as possible to avoid any delays to you project start date.

The bank details you give to us must 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. Once approved we will send you an email with permission to start your project on your confirmed start date.

You must not start your project before the date stated on your email and GOL. Any costs incurred before your agreed start date cannot be claimed as part of your grant.

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.

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 12pm and 2pm to 5pm, Monday to Friday (excluding bank holidays).

Need help with this service? Contact us