Funding competition ATI programme: batch 43 SME

The ATI Programme funds industrial research to make the UK civil aerospace sector more competitive. This is an invite only competition, you must be invited into the competition by Innovate UK.

Competition opens: Monday 22 April 2024
Competition closes: Thursday 30 May 2024 11:00am

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Description

The ATI Programme has been allocated £685 million from the government for the financial years 2022 to 2023 through 2024 to 2025.

This programme is co-ordinated and managed by:

The Department for Business and Trade (DBT).
Innovate UK, part of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI).
The Aerospace Technology Institute (ATI).

All three organisations work in partnership, offering support to deliver a portfolio of projects. Projects must meet the objectives and priorities of the UK Aerospace Technology Strategy, and to maintain and grow the UK’s competitive position in civil aerospace.

UK registered businesses of any size must be invited into this competition by Innovate UK and can lead an industrial research project.

This is phase 2 of an SME competition within the ATI Programme. There are two phases to each SME competition. The whole assessment process takes at least six months.

Outline stage (OS): opens regularly and your proposal is reviewed by the Aerospace Technology Institute only. The DBT is responsible for the decision to progress your OS proposal to phase 2 based on the Aerospace Technology Institute’s recommendation. There is no funding in this phase, funding will be awarded in phase 2.
Full stage application (FSA) Batch 43 SME projects (this competition): Your proposal will be subject to an independent assessment by Innovate UK, value for money (VfM) and policy review by DBT and strategic review by the Aerospace Technology Institute in parallel.

The DBT as the budget holder for the ATI Programme has the final funding decision.

If you are successful, Innovate UK will perform financial viability and eligibility checks. You will be contracted by Innovate UK.

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 in this Innovate UK competition brief. We cannot guarantee other government or third party sites will always show the correct competition information.

Funding type

Grant

Project size

The grant funding you can apply for is limited. See Eligibility for details. The project duration must be between 12 and 36 months, be appropriate and in proportion to the planned objectives and prioritisation within the UK Aerospace Technology Strategy.

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 making reasonable adjustments, for people who have a disability or a long-term condition and face barriers applying to us.

You can contact us at any time to ask for guidance.

We recommend you contact us at least 15 working days before this competition’s closing date to allow us to put the most suitable support in place. The support we can provide may be limited if you contact us close to the competition deadline.

You can contact Innovate UK by email or call 0300 321 4357. Our phone lines are open from 9am to 12pm and 2pm to 5pm UK time, Monday to Friday (excluding bank holidays).

Who can apply

Your project

The grant funding you can apply for is limited.

Your project must:

have total grant funding request of no more than £1.5 million
have a duration of between 12 and 36 months
be appropriate and in proportion to the planned objectives and priorities within the submitted proposal

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.

Lead organisation

To lead a project or work alone you must:

be invited into the competition by Innovate UK
be a UK registered micro, small or medium sized enterprise
be a UK registered business of any size with at least one micro, small or medium sized enterprise in the consortium
plan to carry out your aerospace research project work in the UK
intend to exploit the results from or in the UK
align to the UK Aerospace Technology Strategy, Destination Zero
sign up to the Aerospace Technology Institute framework agreement on the ATI website
claim funding by entering costs into the Innovation Funding Service during the application

We will make your application ineligible and it will not be assessed if you have not been invited into the competition by Innovate UK on behalf of the Department for Business and Trade.

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

Project team

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

business of any size
academic institution
charity
not for profit
public sector organisation
research and technology organisation (RTO)
research organisation

Your organisation must:

carry out its project work in the UK
intend to exploit the results from or in the UK
be invited to take part by the lead applicant
sign up to the Aerospace Technology Institute framework agreement

Each partner organisation must be invited into the Innovation Funding Service (IFS) 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 IFS. They are responsible for entering their own project costs 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.

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. The Department for Business and Trade (DBT) will review this on a case-by-case basis.

You must provide a detailed rationale, evidence of the potential UK contractors you approached and the reasons why they were unable to work with you. We will not accept a cheaper cost as a sufficient reason to use an overseas subcontractor.

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

Number of applications

When a business leads on an application it can collaborate in two further applications.

If a business is not leading any application, it can collaborate in up to three applications.

An academic institution, charity, public sector organisation and research and technology organisation can collaborate on any number of applications.

If you apply to the SME competition and the ATI programme strategic batch and you are successful in both, you can only accept one of the awards.

Use of animals in research and innovation

Innovate UK expects and supports the provision and safeguarding of welfare standards for animals used in research and innovation, according to best practice and up to date guidance.

Applicants must ensure that all of the proposed work within projects, both that in the UK and internationally, will comply with the UKRI guidance on the use of animals in research and innovation.

Any projects selected for funding which involve animals will be asked to provide additional information on welfare and ethical considerations, as well as compliance with any relevant legislation as part of the project start-up process. This information will be reviewed before an award is made.

Previous applications

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

You can make a maximum of two submissions to Innovate UK with any given proposal. If Innovate UK judges that your proposal is not materially different from your previous proposal, it will be counted towards this maximum.

If your application goes through to assessment and is unsuccessful, you can reapply with the same proposal once more.

We will not award you funding if you have:

failed to exploit a previously funded project
an overdue independent accountant’s report
failed to comply with grant terms and conditions

Subsidy control (and State aid where applicable)

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

Innovate UK is unable to award organisations that are considered to be in financial difficulty. We will conduct financial viability and eligibility tests to confirm this is not the case following the application stage.

EU State aid rules now only apply in limited circumstances. Please see the Windsor Framework to check if these rules apply to your organisation.

Further Information

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

You must always make sure that the funding awarded to you is compliant with all current Subsidy Control legislation applicable in the United Kingdom.

This aims to regulate any advantage granted by a public sector body which threatens to, or actually distorts competition in the United Kingdom or any other country or countries.

Funding

The ATI Programme has been allocated £685 million from the government for the financial years 2022 to 2023 through 2024 to 2025. The DBT have allocated up to £10 million per year for the SME competitions. The SME competitions will align with the strategic batch competitions, which run three times per year.

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.

The balance between your total project costs and the amount of grant awarded must be funded by the organisation receiving the grant.

For 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

The funding rates are a maximum rate, the funding you request should be the minimum amount to make your project viable. This is something DBT will review as part of their value for money (VfM) assessment.

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.

Micro, small and medium company participation

At least 50% of the total eligible project costs must be borne by UK registered micro, small and medium sized companies undertaking economic activity as part of the project.

Large company participation

UK registered large businesses undertaking 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 large business undertaking economic activity, this maximum will be shared between them.

Research participation

The 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.

Research organisations undertaking non-economic activity as part of the project can claim grant funding of:

up to 80% of full economic costs (FEC) if you are a Je-S registered institution such as an academic
up to 100% of your project costs if you are an RTO, charity, not for profit organisation, public sector organisation or research organisation

Your proposal

Your project must have a primary application within the civil aerospace sector. This can include dual use technologies.

Your proposal must align with the UK Aerospace Technology Strategy, Destination Zero, which is split into these areas:

zero-carbon emission aircraft technologies: zero-carbon emission technologies are focused on propulsion and infrastructure development to enable zero-carbon tailpipe emissions. This encompasses battery, hydrogen, and fuel cell technologies, much of which are in early stages of development
ultra-efficient aircraft technologies: ultra-efficient technologies are focused on improving energy efficiency and hence impact CO2 emissions, NOx and noise. Continued development of crucial high value, sustainable, high productivity manufacturing technologies will position the UK to be a first choice location for the industry
cross-cutting enabling technologies: To enable both the zero-carbon and ultra-efficient opportunities, the UK must develop cross-cutting enabling technologies and capabilities for whole aircraft design and analysis. These capabilities should extend to the aircraft lifecycle from design, through manufacture and assembly, operation, and end of life

The focus of the strategy and DBT’s investments is to deliver clean growth for the UK aerospace sector. These technologies will deliver lower emissions, improved competitiveness and grow the UK’s market share.

The ATI Programme partners will monitor changes between your phase 1 and phase 2 submissions. We will not accept unjustified major changes in the consortium or costs.

Applications for the ATI Programme are assessed by the three partner organisations in parallel:

The Department for Business and Trade (DBT) VfM and policy assessment: scrutinises each project according to its value for money (VfM), wider exploitation and fit with policy priorities
Aerospace Technology Institute strategic assessment: examines the project for contribution and alignment to the UK Aerospace Technology Strategy, and to the broader portfolio
Innovate UK independent assessment: provides an independent technical assessment

Portfolio approach

We want to fund a variety of projects across different technologies, markets, technological maturities and location. We call this a portfolio approach. The Department for Business and Trade has the final funding decision.

Research categories

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

Projects we will not fund

We are not funding projects that:

have not been invited by Innovate UK to enter this competition
are outside the scope of the UK aerospace technology strategy
are focused solely on defence, space or other industrial sectors, but we will recognise dual use technologies providing the primary application is in civil aerospace
are focused on fundamental research, early-stage technologies or experimental development
are conducting feasibility studies

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

22 April 2024: Competition opens
24 April 2024: Online briefing event: watch the recording
30 May 2024 11:00am: Competition closes
26 June 2024: Invite to interview
15 July 2024: Interview panel starts
19 July 2024: Interview panel ends
15 August 2024: Applicants notified

Before you start

You must read the guidance on applying for a competition on the Innovation Funding Service as well as the ATI Programme SME guidance before you start.

Before submitting, it is the lead applicant’s responsibility to make sure:

that all the information provided in the application is correct
your proposal meets the eligibility and scope criteria
all sections of the application are marked as complete
if collaborative, that all partners have completed all assigned sections and accepted the terms and conditions (T&Cs)

You can reopen your application once submitted, up until the competition deadline. You must resubmit the application before the competition deadline.

What we ask you

The application is split into three sections:

Project details.
Application questions.
Finances.

Accessibility and Inclusion

You can contact us at any time to ask for guidance.

You can contact Innovate UK by email or call 0300 321 4357. Our phone lines are open from 9am to 12pm and 2pm to 5pm UK time, Monday to Friday (excluding bank holidays).

Interviews

If your application passes the first stage of assessment, you may be invited to attend an interview, where you must give a presentation. Your interview will take place online. The date and time of your interview will be included in your invitation.

Before the interview and by the deadline stated in the invitation email, you:

must send a list of who will attend the interview
must send your interview presentation slides

List of attendees

Agree the list with your consortium. Up to nine people from your project can attend, ideally one person from each organisation. They must all be available on all published interview dates. We are unable to reschedule slots once allocated.

Presentation slides

Your interview presentation must:

use Microsoft PowerPoint
not include any video or embedded web links
be no longer than 20 minutes
have no more than 21 slides

You cannot change the presentation after you submit it or bring any additional materials to the interview. You should use your presentation to address assessor feedback given at the written stage and include appropriate supporting information.

Interview

After your presentation the panel will spend 30 minutes asking questions based on your presentation. You will be expected to answer based on the information you provided in your application form and presentation. You must not assume the panellists have access to your slides prior to the interview.

After your interview

The panellists will individually score your application and these will be averaged for your overall interview score. This score will supersede the one you received from initial written assessment.

1. Project details

This section provides background for your application and is not scored.

Application team

Decide which organisations will work with you on your project and invite people from those organisations to help complete the application.

Application details

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

Research category

Select the type of research you will undertake.

Project summary

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

Your answer can be up to 400 words long.

Public description

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

Your answer can be up to 400 words long.

Scope

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

Your answer can be up to 400 words long.

2. Application questions

Your application will be assessed by Innovate UK, the Department for Business and Trade (DBT) and the Aerospace Technology Institute in parallel.

Innovate UK independent assessment: The Innovate UK independent assessors will score your answers to questions 4 to 13, questions 1 to 3 are not scored. Find out more about how our assessors assess and how we select applications for funding. Your answers to questions 14 to 19 are not scored by Innovate UK independent assessors but may be used as supporting evidence. You may be invited to an interview by Innovate UK, see interview section above.

DBT Value for Money (VfM) assessment: primarily based on your answers to Question 7, 12 and 14 to 19. It is important to note the amount of funding you request has a direct impact on the DBT VfM assessment and therefore it should be made clear that you are requesting the minimum amount to make your project viable in the UK. The DBT will not score your questions individually.

Aerospace Technology Institute Strategic Review: based on the entire application and all the attached appendices. It will not score your questions individually. It will consider the following criteria:

market value: this includes the strength and validity of the business need and market opportunity, and the extent to which the delivery of this project provides UK competitive advantage
market risk: this includes the level of market risk involved in delivering the stated economic value and the level of commitment to the exploitation within the UK
technology value: this includes alignment with the UK Aerospace Technology Strategy, the credibility and viability of the approach and an evaluation of the potential to deliver innovation
technology risk: this includes the match of technical capabilities and skills of the consortium, including the management processes and procedures, project, technical, risk and innovation management

You must pass all three assessments to be recommended for funding. The DBT has the final funding decision, taking into account government resources and strategic priorities, applying a portfolio approach where necessary.

The DBT will notify you whether you have been successful or not by email and will include feedback for the DBT VfM assessment, ATI Strategic Review and Innovate UK interview if applicable.

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

Question 1. Applicant location (not scored)

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

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

Your answer can be up to 400 words long.

Question 2. Animal testing (not scored)

Will your project involve any trials with animals or animal testing?

You must select one option:

We will only support innovation projects conducted to the highest standards of animal welfare.

Further information for proposals involving animal testing is available at the UKRI Good Research Hub and NC3R’s animal welfare guidance.

Question 3. ATI Framework Agreement (not scored)

To receive funding from the ATI Programme, all partners must agree to sign up to the framework agreement within 30 days of successful notification.

You must confirm that you and all your project partners are aware of this.

Your answer can be up to 50 words long.

Question 4. Business opportunity

What is the business opportunity that your project addresses?

Describe:

the business opportunity identified and how you plan to take advantage of it
how it is done today and the limits of current practice
the customer needs that have been identified and how the project will meet them
the challenges you expect to face and how you will overcome them

Where possible, quantify the problems and project outputs that you will be targeting.

Your answer can be up to 400 words long.

You can submit one appendix to support your answer. It can include diagrams and charts. It must be a PDF, up to 5 A4 pages long and no larger than 10MB in size. The font must be legible at 100% zoom.

Question 5. Market

What is the size of the potential market for your project?

Describe:

the details of the target market, including the size, margins, market leaders, main competitors, price competition and barriers to entry
the expected share of market, such as wide body, narrow body or services
the growth opportunity your project will create, including the projected market share it will make possible
the specific target product, platform and service applications underpinning the market opportunity, and when you expect them to come into service
the return on investment that the project could achieve, providing relevant source data references
the existing or future customer relationships that would benefit from this project

Your answer can be up to 400 words long.

You can submit one appendix to support your answer. It can include diagrams and charts. It must be a PDF, up to 5 A4 pages long and no larger than 10MB in size. The font must be legible at 100% zoom.

Question 6. Results

How will you exploit and disseminate your project results?

Address and describe your:

expected project outputs, including products, services, processes and capabilities
types of exploitation, such as licence to manufacture, manufacturing or direct sales
consortium exploitation plan, including the route to market (such as current and future aircraft platforms), intellectual property, changes to business models or processes, research and development (R&D), and manufacturing services
end user or customer engagement
consortium spill-over or dissemination plan, demonstrating how your activities will contribute to the wider aerospace industry and other sectors
technology and market roadmaps

Your answer can be up to 400 words long.

You can submit one appendix to support your answer. It can include diagrams and charts. It must be a PDF, up to 5 A4 pages long and no larger than 10MB in size. The font must be legible at 100% zoom.

Question 7. Benefits

What economic, social and environmental benefits do you expect your project to deliver, and when?

Describe all the benefits expected, both inside and outside of the consortium for:

1. Project expenditure: Describe the R&D, capital and training expenditure which you expect to be made as a result of this project. What do you expect the expenditure to be made on?

Refer to the figures provided in the ’Projects expenditure’ spreadsheet of the value for money workbook.

2. Jobs impacts: How many jobs do you expect the project partners to either safeguard or create as a direct result of this project? Which jobs will be safeguarded?

Explain why the project is needed to safeguard or create the jobs figures given in the ‘Jobs’ spreadsheet of the value for money workbook. Where relevant you can also describe any expected training or jobs safeguarded or created as an indirect result of this project.

3. Other impacts: Describe any other impacts that would not happen without your project, for example, effects on greenhouse gas, noise, air quality.

Your answer can be up to 400 words long.

The text box does not support tables or graphics, but you can use bullet points and numbered lists.

You must download and complete the value for money (VfM) workbook template and upload it to this question as a spreadsheet.

You can also submit one further appendix to support your answer. It can include diagrams and charts. It must be a PDF, up to 5 A4 pages long and no larger than 10MB in size. The font must be legible at 100% zoom.

Question 8. Technical approach

What technical approach will you use and how will you manage your project?

Describe the areas of work and your objectives. List all resource and management needs. Provide an overview of the technical approach.

You must:

describe the technical approach, including the main objectives of the work
explain how and why the approach is appropriate
tell us how you will make sure the innovative steps in the project are achievable
describe rival technologies and alternative R&D strategies
explain how you will measure your success

Your answer can be up to 400 words long.

You can submit one appendix to support your answer. It can include diagrams and charts. It must be a PDF, up to 5 A4 pages long and no larger than 10MB in size. The font must be legible at 100% zoom.

Question 9. Innovation

What is innovative about your project?

Tell us:

how it will push boundaries beyond current leading-edge science and technology
how it will apply existing technologies in new areas
what competitors are doing, and how they are trying to achieve the same outputs
how and why any intellectual property (IP) from the project will be free from restriction and readily exploited
how the research is novel

Give evidence in support of any statements or claims.

You can detail the level of innovation through patent search results, competitor analyses or literature surveys. If relevant, you should also outline your own IP rights.

Your answer can be up to 400 words long.

You can submit one appendix to support your answer. It can include diagrams and charts. It must be a PDF, up to 5 A4 pages long and no larger than 10MB in size. The font must be legible at 100% zoom.

Question 10. Risks

What are the technical, commercial and environmental risks to your project’s success? What is your risk management strategy?

Identify or give:

the main risks and uncertainties within the project
a detailed risk analysis and mitigation steps taken or planned for each risk
the new level of risk with mitigation in place
the project management resources required to minimise operational risk

Your answer can be up to 400 words long.

If you are using a graphical risk matrix, you can submit it as a single appendix to support your answer. It must be a PDF no larger than 10MB and up to 5 A4 pages long. The font must be legible at 100% zoom.

Question 11. Team and facilities

Does your project team have the right skills, experience and facilities to deliver this project?

Demonstrate that the project team has:

the right mix of skills and experience to complete the project
a track record in managing research and development projects
clear objectives and roles or responsibilities
justified the use of the identified sub-contractors, who you will need to work with to successfully carry out the project

If part of a consortium, describe the benefits of the collaboration. What advantages does being part of a consortium offer the project?

Your answer can be up to 400 words long.

You can submit one appendix to support your answer. It can include diagrams and charts. It must be a PDF, up to 5 A4 pages long and no larger than 10MB in size. The font must be legible at 100% zoom.

Question 12. Costs

What will your project cost?

Describe, with supporting evidence:

the total project costs and level of grant funding you are requesting
justification for large project expenditure, and any significant costs such as subcontractors
reassurance that the budget is realistic for the scale and complexity of the project
a statement that funding is within the limits set by this competition
a list of any other sources of funding outside of the programme, and explain why they are needed
a realistic breakdown, for each project partner, of the eligible cost per project quarter of the information submitted in the finance section using the attached quarterly spend profile template
the justification and costing of individual work packages
any ineligible project costs including partners not receiving grant funding for this competition

Your answer can be up to 400 words long.

You must download and complete the quarterly spend profile template. The completed template must be uploaded as an appendix to support your answer. The font must be legible at 100% zoom.

Question 13. Added value to the UK

How does financial support from the ATI Programme add value to the UK?

Address both of the following:

Why do you need this amount of funding? Explain what other sources of funding have been considered, including private investment, and why it is not available. Supporting evidence can include, but is not limited to: business cases, internal rate of return analysis, letters of support, or other financial comparisons of the scenarios with funding and without funding.

What will happen to the project in the absence of funding? Describe and provide evidence for what will occur if the application for funding is not successful. In particular whether:

some or all of your project would be likely to be carried out overseas, listing overseas sites able to carry out the work, explaining the implications for cost, quality and timescales, and outlining any likely support from overseas governments
your project investment and benefits will be scaled back in the UK, explaining where applicable the impact a delay or a change of scope would have on starting your project

Your answer can be up to 400 words long.

You can submit one appendix to support your answer. It can include diagrams and charts. It must be a PDF, up to 5 A4 pages long and no larger than 10MB in size. The font must be legible at 100% zoom.

Questions 14 to 19 below are to provide narrative to supplement the data you entered in the VfM spreadsheet. They are assessed by DBT as part of the VfM assessment they are not scored by either Innovate UK independent assessors or ATI but may be used as part of their assessments.

Question 14. The DBT value for money (VfM) technology readiness level and manufacturing readiness level (TRL & MRL)

How will the TRL and MRL of the developed technologies progress through your project?

Provide a narrative outlining how the R&D developments will fit into the TRL and MRL framework, including further developments needed and likely timescales to commercialise R&D outcomes.

Your answer can be up to 400 words long.

Question 15. DBT VfM Project Spend

What is the proposed R&D and other spend in the Innovate UK funded R&D project? Address the following issues, providing narrative or tables where needed for:

any overseas spending, provide details of organisation name, country, task or activity and why a UK based organisation cannot be used
all expected UK subcontractors name, location, activities and expected amount of spending

Your answer can be up to 400 words long.

Question 16. DBT VfM Project Jobs

How will the R&D project lead to job safeguarding and creation?

Provide narrative or tables to explain how the jobs data in the VfM spreadsheet has been calculated for question 15 of the workbook. These will be financed by the expenditure stated in the project spend worksheet. Include R&D and manufacturing jobs where prototyping occurs during the project.

Your answer can be up to 400 words long.

Question 17. DBT VfM Post Project Spend

What is the proposed R&D and other spend after the end of the Innovate UK funded R&D project?

Address the following issues, providing narrative or tables where needed:

providing details and evidence of how post project spend figures have been calculated, including what steps and assumptions you have made
evidencing how post project funding will be financed by all private sector companies and describe any risks of the funding not being available in the future
identifying any separate government funding, for example, sourced from English local enterprise partnerships (LEP) or devolved administrations (DA)
including further Innovate UK grants or other government sourced funding, state the purpose of the government funding, for example, LEP funding for land or buildings, and identify any conditional private sector funding
for any overseas spending provide details of organisation name, country, activity, amounts, whether it is for R&D or capital and why a UK based organisation cannot be used
for all expected UK subcontractors name, location, activities and expected amount of spending

Your answer can be up to 400 words long.

Question 18. DBT VfM Post Project Jobs

How will the project lead to further job creation and safeguarding after the end of the project?

Provide narrative or tables where needed to explain how the post project job figures have been calculated. You must be clear what the source of your evidence is, and what steps and assumptions you have made in your calculations.

Your answer can be up to 400 words long.

Question 19. DBT VfM Product Sales

How will the project lead to product sales after the end of the project?

You must be clear what the source of your evidence is, and what steps and assumptions you have made in your calculations.

Your answer can be up to 400 words long.

3. Finances

Each organisation in your project must complete their own project costs, organisation details and funding details in the application. Academic institutions must complete and upload a Je-S form.

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

Background and further information

ATI Programme

The ATI Programme represents to date a £3.2 billion joint government and industry investment to maintain and grow the UK’s competitive position in civil aerospace.

The Department for Business and Trade (DBT) is the government department accountable for the overall ATI programme budget. The DBT decides which projects will be funded with government resources and strategic priorities, applying a portfolio approach where necessary. It also performs value for money (VfM) assessments on project proposals.

Innovate UK is the funding agency for the programme. It delivers the competitions processes including independent assessment of project proposals in phase 2 and provides funding recommendations to DBT. Following funding award, Innovate UK manages the programme, from contracting projects, through project change requests and to completion.

The Aerospace Technology Institute’s mission is to help the UK realise growth by creating a coherent and ambitious portfolio of research and technology (R&T) projects. It carries out strategic assessment of the Outline Stage (OS) and phase 2 competitions and provides recommendations to DBT. It is responsible for developing the UK Aerospace Technology Strategy and encourages projects that fit with this strategy and maximise the potential to the UK economy.

In securing grant funding from this programme, each industry participant receiving a grant will pay an industrial contribution to the Aerospace Technology Institute operating budget. This will be proportional to its grant. Contributions are detailed by the Aerospace Technology Institute contributions document.

Extra help

If you want help to find a project partner, email competitions@ati.org.uk.

We recommend you engage with the Aerospace Technology Institute before you submit your application. Meetings with the Aerospace Technology Institute give them the opportunity to discuss the key requirements of the full stage application and give feedback on any parts of the proposal that require additional development.

At no point will the Aerospace Technology Institute give a preliminary indication of project evaluation against the assessment criteria. At all times the responsibility for the application and its completion rests with the lead organisation and its partners.

You can also contact the Aerospace Technology Institute to arrange a meeting with DBT to discuss the information needed for the value for money (VfM) assessment. The DBT can meet with applicants to explain the information applicants need to provide. The DBT can also give feedback on draft value for money returns.

The Aerospace Technology Institute and DBT can only provide developmental feedback and VfM feedback on completed draft applications, and within a reasonable timeframe. The DBT will only be able to provide feedback up to two weeks before the competition closing date.

Data sharing

This competition is operated by Innovate UK for and on behalf of the Department for Business and Trade (DBT), the budget holder and the funding decider of the Aerospace Technology Institute (ATI) Programme. Innovate UK, DBT and ATI are partners in the ATI Programme (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 DBT or ATI 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, DBT and ATI 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, DBT and ATI will be data controllers for personal data submitted during the application.

Innovate UK’s Privacy Policy

Department for Business and Trade Privacy Policy

Aerospace Technology Institute Privacy Policy

Innovate UK complies with the requirements of UK GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018, and is committed to upholding data protection legislation, and protecting your information in accordance with data protection principles.

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 Business Connect or the Aerospace Technology Institute.

Support for SMEs from Innovate UK Business Growth

If you receive an award, you will be contacted about working with an innovation and growth specialist at Innovate UK Business Growth. 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 Business Growth, delivered by a knowledgeable and objective specialist near you.

Assessment

Your application will be reviewed by up to five Innovate UK 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.

ATI batch 43, SME assessor guidance for applicants .pdf (opens in a new window)

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
if required, a collaboration agreement
an exploitation plan

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

The bank account which grant is to be paid into must:

be a business account in the same name as the organisation listed in IFS
be from a UK bank regulated by the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA)
have a cheque and credit clearing facility

Online accounts are eligible as long as they meet the above criteria.

Innovate UK will accept most banking societies apart from:

Viva Wallet
Intesa Sanpaolo
Equals Money UK Limited

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 UK time, Monday to Friday (excluding bank holidays).

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