Funding competition Innovate UK Net Zero Living Digital

UK registered small and micro businesses can apply for a share of up to £2 million to develop data driven digital applications solving challenges in delivering net zero. This funding is from Net Zero Living and Telecoms Technology Missions Fund programmes

Competition opens: Tuesday 2 January 2024
Competition closes: Wednesday 24 January 2024 11:00am

This competition is now closed.

Start new application

Description

The aim of this competition is to provide a package of targeted support to enable ambitious UK registered micro and small businesses to develop and deliver net zero solutions through data driven digital applications.

For the Net Zero living Digital projects, £1.5 million has been allocated for innovative approaches using multiple databases, generating synthetic data to create a product or a service that supports the net zero agenda. Businesses should acknowledge and support Innovate UK net zero living data guidance principles. You must focus on data driven digital innovation supporting the net zero agenda.

For the Telecoms Technology Missions Fund projects, £500,000 has been allocated for innovation in the telecommunications domain specifically.

Innovate UK is offering UK registered small and micro businesses a share of up to £2 million in grants. In addition to the grant support, you will be offered tailored business support delivered by Innovate UK EDGE.

Your innovation must lead to new products, processes or services that are significantly ahead of others currently available, or propose an innovative use of existing products, processes or services. It can also involve a new or innovative business model.

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

Innovate UK manages many competitions, and each will have different eligibility and scope requirements. The guidance in this competition brief will always supersede any other guidance. If you are unsure or have any questions, please contact our Customer Support Service who will assist you further.

Funding type

Grant

Project size

Your project’s total costs and grant request must be between £25,000 and £50,000.

Who can apply

Your project

Your project must:

have total project costs and grant request of between £25,000 and £50,000
start by 01 April 2024
end by 30 September 2024
last between 3 and 6 months in duration
carry out its project work in the UK
intend to exploit the results from or in the UK

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. If you exceed the total project costs of £50,000 you will be ineligible and your application will not be sent for assessment.

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.

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 organisation

To lead a project your organisation must be a UK registered micro or small business.

If your business has been funded directly by Innovate UK previously, you are not eligible to apply for this competition. If however you have received funding directly from Innovate UK EDGE or a Catapult scheme, you are still eligible to apply for this competition.

Businesses with directors who have previously received a grant or Innovation Loan from Innovate UK as part of a different company, are eligible to apply but will be considered on a case by case basis.

A business with a previous award to a parent or subsidiary would also be eligible to apply, but the parent company must be classified as a micro or small business. Applications will be considered on a case by case basis.

If you are unsure, contact our customer support team by email at least 10 working days before the submission deadline.

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 also provide a detailed rationale, evidence of the potential UK contractors you approached and the reasons why they were unable to work with you.

We expect all subcontractor costs to be justified and appropriate to the total eligible project costs. We will not accept a cheaper cost as a sufficient reason to use an overseas subcontractor.

Number of applications

An eligible UK business can submit one application only. We will only award grant funding to one project per business.

Previous applications

You can use a previously submitted application to apply for this competition. This means you can submit an application that was unsuccessful in one previous competition.

We will not award you funding if you have:

been previously funded by Innovate UK
failed to exploit a previously funded project
an overdue independent accountant’s report
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:

Minimal Financial Assistance (previously referred to as Special Drawing Rights)
De Minimis Regulation

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

We have allocated up to £2 million to fund innovation projects in this competition. We will allocate £1.5 million to businesses that focus on developing and delivering net zero solutions through data driven digital applications. An additional £500,000 of this funding will be allocated to businesses that focus on innovation within the telecommunications domain specifically.

Each eligible business can apply for a grant of between £25,000 and £50,000.

Your total project costs will be 100% funded. Total project costs detailed within your application must not exceed the maximum project size. If your total project costs are below the minimum of £25,000 or exceed the maximum of £50,000 then your application will be made ineligible.

You can make reference to any additional voluntary contribution in your application answers. However, it must not be detailed in the finance section.

We will aim to pay:

70% of your grant request within a month of your agreed project start date
a further 20% in arrears, after approval of your 70% claim and the evidence of spend made, submitted with your claim
the remaining 10% of the grant 10 to 14 days after Innovate UK approve your final claim

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

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

For the Net Zero living Digital projects, £1.5 million has been allocated for innovative approaches using multiple databases, generating synthetic data to create a product or a service that supports the net zero agenda. We want the businesses to acknowledge and support Innovate UK net zero living data guidance principles. You must focus on data driven digital innovation supporting the net zero agenda

Your proposal must be a software or data lead solution in one or more of the net zero challenges:

power
heat
mobility
product manufacture and usage

Your digital product must be for domestic, commercial, industrial, or public authority users. Links to other sectors are also welcome where relevant to the delivery of net zero.

It must make use of a number of open and shared data sets or synthetic data across a range of net zero relevant topics, including but not limited to:

energy vectors and assets
citizens and communities
buildings
geography
transport
carbon emissions
industry
economy

Your digital products or services must help to accelerate the net zero agenda, be replicable and scalable. You can focus on decision making tools, cost evaluation, reporting tools, prioritisation, or citizen engagement.

For the Telecoms Technology Missions Fund projects, £500,000 has been allocated for innovation in the telecommunications domain specifically. Projects funded will develop and deliver solutions using data to drive Net Zero in networks including public and private fixed and wireless.

In your application, you must demonstrate that you:

have a great idea
need public funding
have the capability to deliver the project
will deliver the project

We are particularly interested in how your proposal will help you:

develop both your ambitious idea and your business
create a new revenue stream, for example new products, services or IP
evidence and enable your market, funding and commercialisation plans
show what is feasible, in helping you decide whether to pursue your idea further
catalyse further innovation on your path to commercial success
respond to changing market conditions

Portfolio approach

We want to fund a variety of projects across:

specific challenge themes and technologies
project durations
project costs, including demonstrating value for money
UK regions

We call this a portfolio approach.

Projects we will not fund

We are not funding projects that:

do not meet the competition eligibility or scope requirements
do not support the net zero agenda
do not focus on innovative data applications and utilisation of data sets
purely result in reports, academic papers or similar
do not evidence potential for the proposed innovation to lead to significant and positive economic or societal impact
do not evidence value for money

We cannot fund projects that:

involve primary production in fishery and aquaculture
involve primary production in agriculture
have activities relating to the purchase of road freight transport
are not allowed under De minimis regulation restrictions
are not eligible to receive Minimal Financial Assistance
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
are 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

22 November 2023: Online briefing event: watch the recording
2 January 2024: Competition opens
9 January 2024: Q&A Sessions: register to attend
24 January 2024 11:00am: Competition closes
20 February 2024 4:02pm: 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

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 4 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. 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 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 people from your organisation will work with you on the project and invite those people to help complete the application.

Application details

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

Project summary

Describe your project briefly and be clear about what makes it innovative. We use this section to assign experts to assess your application.

Your answer can be up to 400 words long.

Public description

Describe your project in detail, and in a way that you are happy to see published. Do not include any commercially sensitive information. If we award your project funding, we will publish this description. This could happen before you start your project.

Your answer can be up to 400 words long.

Scope

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

Your answer can be up to 400 words long.

2. Application questions

Applications will be recommended for funding, descending from a maximum score of 100 points until the budget is committed. An assessor will score questions 7 to 10

Where a group of applications share a score at the budget cut-off point, they will be prioritised in order of:

the idea
the impact and added value
business resources and capabilities
work plan and costs
a balanced portfolio across the UK

The resulting funding list will be validated by a senior Innovate UK official.

You will then receive email notification to offer grant funding or to inform you that your application has been unsuccessful on this occasion.

You will not receive any feedback on your application following assessment, whether successful or unsuccessful in receiving grant funding.

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

Question 1. Applicant location (not scored)

You must state the name and full registered address of your organisation and any subcontractors working on your project.

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

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. Where did you hear about this competition? (not scored)

Select one of the options from the list below

UKRI website
Innovate UK Facebook
Innovate UK Instagram
Innovate UK LinkedIn
Innovate UK Twitter
Innovate UK employee
Gov.UK website
Innovate UK KTN
Innovate UK EDGE
Northern Irish Scottish or Welsh government agencies
Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP)
Third party website
Innovate UK newsletter
Events
Other

Question 4. Challenge themes (not scored)

Select one main category from the specific challenge themes list in the ‘Scope’ section of this competition for your project. You cannot choose more than one.

Net Zero solutions through data driven digital applications
Telecoms

Question 5. Your innovation area (not scored)

Select your Innovation area from the list below. You can only select one.

Heat and cooling
Retrofitting
Home automation for net zero
Energy storage
Energy generation
Energy efficiency
Energy systems
Power trains
Transport optimisation
Manufacturing for net zero
Supply chains for net zero
Circular economy
Decision making tools for net zero
Data analysis and model development to optimise data processing for net zero in telecoms
Creation of open data and computational models to aid net zero uses of telecoms
Data analysis and model development to create energy efficient architectures and network deployments in telecoms

Question 6. Describe the funding plans for the company to support the success of the project? (not scored, but will be used to assess financial viability)

How will you fund the 30% of your project costs that are not being paid in advance?

You must include:

the source of the funds currently available, such as the company’s own funds for example, management accounts
your funding strategy and how you will continue to support the development of the innovation following completion of the project, with a view towards its eventual commercialisation

Your answer can be up to 400 words long.

Question 7. The idea

We will score this question out of 25.

What is the problem you wish to solve and why is your proposed approach a good and innovative solution?

You must consider the following in your answer:

the specific innovation you propose to develop and how this is different and better than alternative solutions
the specific need and size of opportunity
why is your solution affordable and investable
any barriers to adoption and how they could be overcome

Your answer can be up to 600 words long.

Question 8. Impact and added value

We will score this question out of 25.

What will be the impact of receiving the grant to your business?

You must consider the following in your answer:

why public funding is necessary and value for money, for example, is there currently a lack of investment, or market failure
the impact on your business
the tangible outputs of the project in terms of specific deliverables and how they will benefit the UK
what are the expected impacts on society, the economy and the environment

Your answer can be up to 600 words long.

Question 9. Business resources and capabilities

We will score this question out of 25.

Explain why your business is capable of delivering this project.

You must consider the following in your answer:

what resources you can access, including the main people involved, relevant track records, and any external resources
your capability to deliver in the required timeframe given your existing business activities or constraints
how you will deliver outcomes and impact beyond the life of the project, what is your route to market
how equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) is incorporated into your proposed project or business activities, for example, in the development of your innovation, accessibility of project results, team composition, work environment

Your answer can be up to 600 words long.

Question 10. Work packages and costs

We will score this question out of 25.

What will you do with the grant funding? How will you manage the project and risks effectively?

You must consider the following in your answer:

what the funding will be spent on, referring to costs for the main work packages
project risks and how you will mitigate them
your freedom to operate for example, patents, IP

Your answer can be up to 600 words long.

3. Finances

You must complete your project costs, organisation details and funding details in the application.

Both your projects total costs and grant funding request must be between the minimum of £25,000 and the maximum of £50,000. If your grant funding request falls outside of this range then your application will be made ineligible.

You can make reference to any additional voluntary contribution in your application question answers but these must not be detailed in this finance section.

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 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

Net Zero Living

The Net Zero Living programme’s objective is to help places to open markets by removing the non-technical barriers to demand. It also aims to drive widespread business growth and innovation across the economy and unlock significant additional private investment to enable true levelling-up, both between and within places.

The programme has 2 challenge areas:

Thriving Places: providing support to local authorities, their partners and communities to overcome non-technical systemic barriers to the scaling and adoption of net zero solutions
User-Focussed Products: supporting business to better understand and respond to the needs, opportunities and barriers that are preventing the large-scale roll out of net zero solutions

This competition forms a part of the ‘User-Focussed Products’ Challenge area.

The wider Net Zero Living programme will include a community of over 50 Local Authorities and organisations such as businesses, public sector and the third sector, who are tackling Net Zero challenges based on place, across the UK.

Successful projects through this competition will have opportunities to present their project outcomes and networking opportunities with the Net Zero Living community of organisations.

Net Zero Living Data Guidance

Innovate UK has developed a Net Zero Living Data Guidance which is a set of 12 principles to improve data governance, management, sharing and publication of open data from projects and businesses funded through Net Zero programmes.

The objective of the guidance is to enable organisations across the UK to benefit from data in the Net Zero domain and capitalise on the relevant data driven economic opportunities by unlocking the economic and societal benefits of data while protecting societal values.

Projects and organisations funded through the Net Zero Living Programme will be required to apply the Net Zero Living Data Guidance principles to data created and used throughout their projects.

Support in understanding and applying the Net Zero Living Data Guidance will be provided to projects funded in this competition. This will include at least a workshop to introduce the guidance and principles and dedicated technical support for each project from an Innovate UK delivery partner.

Telecoms Technology Missions Fund (TMF)

The Telecoms TMF funding for this competition is part of a 70m investment by the UKRI into Future Telecommunication technologies.

The investment is designed to fund application-focused challenges to accelerate market-ready solutions and foster collaboration in the UK’s telecoms sector. The net zero telecommunications challenge in this call is part of this investment and offers the opportunities for innovative companies to develop net zero solutions into the sector.

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.

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.

NZ telecoms FS - assessor guidance for applicants .pdf (opens in a new window)

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 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
evidence of funding resources

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 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

Your application may score well 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 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 12pm and 2pm to 5pm, Monday to Friday (excluding bank holidays).

Need help with this service? Contact us