Design Foundations Round 6
UK registered organisations can apply for a share of up to £2 million for people centred and systemic design projects. These are across a range of themes and innovation areas to influence, inform and de-risk R&D activities.
- Competition opens: Monday 4 November 2024
- Competition closes: Wednesday 15 January 2025 11:00am
Or sign in to continue an existing application.
Competition sections
Description
Innovate UK, part of UK Research and Innovation, will invest up to £2 million in innovation projects that use people centred and systemic design methods. These will be to influence, inform and de-risk their future research and development (R&D) activity.
The aim of this competition is to help businesses use people centred and systemic design methods. These will lay foundations for innovative ideas that can deliver significant benefits to people, the planet, and society as a whole. The ideas can be for new or significantly improved products, services, places or business models.
Your proposal must be one or more of the following:
- identify new opportunities to innovate, and plan how to respond to them
- generate new ideas in response to a known need or opportunity
- improve existing innovative ideas
Your project must address needs and opportunities from the perspective of the stakeholders involved. Stakeholders can be people, communities, places, the planet, or socio-technical systems.
By involving stakeholders perspectives you must ensure your solutions are more:
- desirable
- responsible
- beneficial
- likely to be adopted
We encourage applications from organisations new to design methods and suggest collaborating with design experts to achieve optimal results and enhance their own design capabilities.
In applying to this competition, you are entering into a competitive process. This competition has a funding limit, so we may not be able to fund all the proposed projects. It may be the case that your project scores highly but we are still unable to fund it.
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
Your project’s grant funding request must be between £40,000 and £80,000.
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
Your project must:
- have a grant funding request of between £40,000 and £80,000
- have a grant funding request that matches your total project costs
- last between three and six months
- carry out its project work in the UK
- intend to exploit the results from or in the UK
- start by 1 June 2025
- end by 30 November 2025
Projects must always start on the first of the month, even if this is a non-working day. You must not start your project until your Grant Offer Letter has been approved by Innovate UK. Any delays within Project Setup may mean we need to delay your project start date.
You must only include eligible project costs in your application. See our overview of eligible project costs. For specific guidance, see the eligibility section in this competition.
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 business of any size
- collaborate with at least one other grant claiming UK registered organisation
Lead organisations must agree to contribute a minimum of one day and up to two days, in support of Innovate UK activities.
These activities are to promote the use of design in business innovation, or to help improve products and services.
This activity can include:
- taking part in interviews
- supporting the creation of case studies
- contributing to seminars or showcases
You will not be required to share confidential information or intellectual property.
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 a UK registered:
- business of any size
- academic institution
- charity
- not for profit
- public sector organisation
- research and technology organisation (RTO)
Your project team must include appropriate expertise in people centred and systemic design. Lead organisations without this capability are encouraged to work with designers as project partners or subcontractors.
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 and completing their Project Impact questions in the application.
To be an eligible collaboration, the lead and at least one other organisation must apply for funding when entering their costs into the application.
Subcontractors
Subcontractors are allowed in this competition, but they are limited to no more than 80% of the total eligible costs.
You can work with multiple subcontractors on your project. Each subcontractor must be named on the application form with a unique and clearly defined role within the project.
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 cannot 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
A business of any size can only lead on one application but can be included as a collaborator in two further applications.
An organisation that is not leading any application, can collaborate on any number of applications.
Sanctions
This competition will not fund you, or provide any financial benefit to any individual or entities directly or indirectly involved with you, which would expose Innovate UK or any direct or indirect beneficiary of funding from Innovate UK to UK Sanctions. For example, through any procurement, commercial, business development or supply chain activity with any entity as lead, partner or subcontractor related to these countries, administrations and terrorist groups.
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.
If you have previously submitted an application that reached our assessment stage, you can re-apply once more with the same proposal.
If there are minor differences to the proposal, but it is judged by us to be ‘not materially different’, the same rule applies.
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
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 three 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 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, 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.
Your total project costs will be 100% funded. Total grant funding request and total project costs, detailed within your application, must not exceed the maximum project size of £80,000. If your total project costs do exceed the maximum, then your application will be made ineligible.
You can make reference to any additional voluntary contribution in your application answers. It must not be detailed in the finance section.
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.
Research participation
The research organisations undertaking non-economic activity as part of the project can share up to 80% 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 80% you can 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 eligible project costs if you are an RTO, charity, not for profit organisation, public sector organisation or research organisation
Your proposal
The aim of this competition is to help businesses use people centred and systemic design methods. These will lay foundations for innovative ideas that can deliver significant benefits to people, the planet and society as a whole. The ideas can be for new or significantly improved products, services, places or business models.
To be within scope of this competition, your proposal must be one or more of the following three categories:
- Defining innovation opportunities: You will use people centred and systemic design methods to identify, understand and prioritise needs and innovation opportunities that are relevant and valuable to your business. You will plan design led innovation activity to address these opportunities, including generating, testing and improving new ideas.
- Generating new ideas: You have identified a specific need or opportunity and will use design methods to verify it, then generate and develop new or improved ideas in response.
- Improving existing innovative ideas: You have an innovative idea and will use design methods to simulate, test, and validate it, enhancing its quality and the benefits it provides throughout its lifecycle.
Your project must explore opportunities and ideas from the perspective of key stakeholders involved with or affected by them.
This may include:
- people
- organisations
- communities
- the planet
You must consider their:
- experiences
- motivations
- behaviours
You must also consider the technical, social and environmental factors that influence or are influenced by your solution. These insights must guide your approach to challenges and idea development.
Your project must engage relevant stakeholders early and at appropriate stages to ensure:
- the most important and valuable problems and opportunities are prioritised
- that proposed solutions are more desirable, beneficial, and responsible
- that new ideas are more likely to be adopted and promote positive changes in behaviour
All projects must apply design methods that support responsible innovation. This involves creating solutions that are ethically sound, sustainable and socially desirable, while anticipating unintended consequences.
Design approaches can be used to explore how innovation within your specific business context can be undertaken responsibly.
Your project team can reflect the characteristics, culture and lived experiences of the people they are designing for, or take steps to bring those perspectives permanently into the project.
All prototyping activity within your project must:
- focus primarily on making discoveries about the quality of experience, the likelihood of the idea being adopted or its potential to promote positive changes in behaviour
- be as quick and low cost as possible, and aim for the lowest level of fidelity and functionality necessary to get the required feedback
- be used to share ideas and make discoveries early in the design process, so they can be acted on before it becomes too expensive or time consuming to do so
During your project you will be encouraged to respond to feedback and new discoveries made during the research and design process. This may lead to changing, rethinking or adapting your original ideas, or shifting the focus of your planned R&D activities.
Innovate UK will consider justified project change requests where it does not change the original project scope.
Portfolio approach
We want to fund a variety of projects across different themes, sectors, outputs, location, design applications and range of company size. We call this a portfolio approach.
We reserve the right to select a portfolio of successful applicants based on these criterion.
Specific themes
Your project can focus on one or more of the following:
- net zero
- artificial intelligence and machine learning
- other emerging or advanced digital technologies
- health and wellbeing
- food and agriculture (except primary production)
Projects we will not fund
We are not funding projects that:
- are the design of experiments, policies or research methodologies
- do not follow best practice design methods and principles as described in the competition scope
- focus on the final finish or specification of an idea where fundamental design decisions have already been made, for example, where new customer feedback or discoveries will have little influence on the design outcome
- seek only to validate technical feasibility or progress the technology readiness level of an idea, rather than improving the quality of the experience or its benefits for people or the planet
- are likely to be harmful to people or the planet
- are proposals to create prototypes or demonstrators, in cases where the prototype requires a majority of the project cost or time to build
- is a demonstration to be made fully functional at considerable effort or cost when partial or simulated functionality would suffice
- is a demonstration intended primarily to test technical feasibility or performance rather than the customer experience and benefits
- will only be shared with stakeholders late in the project, for example, with no time allowed to make changes in response to feedback
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
- 4 November 2024
- Competition opens
- 12 November 2024
Online briefing event: watch the recording
Briefing slides are now available to download from supporting information.- 15 January 2025 11:00am
- Competition closes
- 7 March 2025
- Applicants notified
- 1 June 2025
- Project start date
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 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:
- Project details.
- Application questions.
- Finances.
- 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 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).
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.
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 can 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 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, 3 and 4. 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, your partners 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. Each partner 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.
Each partner must complete all the fields on their form before uploading.
The lead applicant must write “declaration attached” in the question text box.
The lead applicant must upload all the completed declarations as an appendix. It must be a PDF no larger than 10MB. It 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 six years and be prepared to release it to any public funding body which requests it.
Question 3. Animal testing (not scored)
Will your project involve any trials with animals or animal testing?
You must select one option:
- Yes
- No
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 4. 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 5. Need or challenge
What is the business need, technological challenge, or market opportunity behind your innovation?
Explain:
- the main motivation for the project
- 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
Question 6. 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 the nearest current state-of-the-art identified
- whether the innovation will focus on the application of 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, report, 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 no larger than 10MB. It can be up to two A4 pages and must be legible at 100% zoom.
Question 7. 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
- 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 no larger than 10MB. It can be up to two A4 pages and must be legible at 100% zoom.
Question 8. Market awareness
What does the market you are targeting look like?
Describe:
- the target markets for the project outcomes and any other potential markets, either 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 to be
- how your project will try to explore the market’s potential
Question 9. 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 10. 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 11. Project management
How will you manage the project effectively?
Explain:
- the main work packages of the 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
You must submit a project plan or Gantt chart as an appendix to support your answer. It must be a PDF no larger than 10MB. It can be up to two A4 pages but must be legible at 100% zoom.
Question 12. Risks
What are the main risks for this project?
Describe:
- 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 so on, and how you will manage this
You must submit a risk register as an appendix to support your answer. It must be a PDF no larger than 10MB. It can be up to two A4 pages and must be legible at 100% zoom.
Question 13. 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
- the likely impact of the project outcomes on the organisations involved
- what other routes of investment or means of support you have already engaged with 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 14. 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 the project goals, explain:
- the total eligible project costs
- the grant you are requesting
- how each partner will finance their contributions to the 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 project partners
- any subcontractor costs and why they are critical to the project
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.
Your projects total grant funding request must not exceed the maximum of £80,000. If your grant funding request does exceed this maximum, 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 an overview on what costs you can claim, see our project costs guidance. Note this is general guidance, for specific guidance please see the eligibility section in this competition.
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.
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.Assessment
Your application will be reviewed by three 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:
Background and further information
Briefing slides
Watch the briefing event recording.
Briefing slides are available to download here.
If your application is successful
If you are successful with this application, you will be asked to set up your project.
You will be notified by email on the date published for this competition. Notifications may be sent any time up to 5pm.
You must follow the unique link embedded in your email notification. This takes you to your Innovation Funding Service (IFS) Set Up portal, where we gather the information to set up your project.
Watch our video on what steps there are before a project starts.
During the project set up you will be assigned a delivery executive who will guide you through the whole project set up process.
Following your email notification, you will need to provide the following within 5 days (including weekends and bank holidays):
- the name and contact details of your project manager and project finance lead
- a finance contact for all partners
- a copy of your bank details
You will need to provide the following within 30 days (including weekends and bank holidays):
- a collaboration agreement
- an exploitation plan
You will have 90 days (including weekends and bank holidays) to complete all of your project set up. Within this time, you will also be required to submit:
- project location
- any answers to financial queries we have requested
- any requested documentation to support your project such as a spend profile
Your funding offer may be withdrawn if project setup is not completed within this or an alternative timeframe as advised by Innovate UK.
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
- Modulr FS 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.
During our financial due diligence checks you must provide evidence of how you will finance your project costs for the duration of your project. Grant claims are submitted three months in arrears.
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.Find a project partner
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.Protecting your innovation
A Secure Innovation campaign has been developed to help founders and leaders of innovative startups protect their technology, competitive advantage, and reputation.
This was developed by UK’s National Protective Security Authority (NPSA) and the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC).
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 and Innovate UK Business Connect will be data controllers for personal data submitted during the application.
Innovate UK Business Connect 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.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).
Innovate UK or any of our partners will not tolerate abusive language in any written or verbal correspondence, applications, social media or any other form that might affect staff.
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