Funding competition UK-Israel open collaborative R&D competition 2019

UK businesses can apply for a share of up to £1.5 million to develop innovative technologies targeting global markets in partnership with Israeli companies.

This competition is now closed.

Register and apply online

Competition sections

Description

Innovate UK, part of UK Research and Innovation, is investing up to £1.5 million to fund collaborative research and development (CR&D) projects focused on industrial research.

The UK and Israel are announcing a joint funding competition under the EUREKA framework. This will support collaborative, business led research and development (R&D) projects which should result in a new product, industrial process or service. Projects must be innovative, involve a technological risk and target large global markets.

The competition will fund projects from any technological or market area.

The national funding agencies will fund their respective participants in the projects.

All documents required by Innovate UK must be completed and uploaded to the Innovate UK secure site by midday 12pm UK time on the deadline stated.

The EUREKA project application form must be completed and emailed to projects@eurekanetwork.org by 10:59pm UK time (11:59pm Central European Time) on the deadline stated.

Funding type

Grant

Project size

UK project total eligible costs are expected to be between £200,000 and £250,000.

Who can apply

State aid

Any UK business claiming funding must be eligible to receive state aid at the time we confirm you will be awarded funding. If you are unsure please take legal advice. For further information see our general guidance.

Your project

Total eligible costs per project are expected to be between £200,000 and £250,000 for the UK partner. Other total eligible costs will be considered.

Your project is expected to last up to 2 years. We expect your project to start by 1 November 2020 but this is dependent on the national funding procedures of the countries involved in your project.

If your project’s total eligible costs fall outside of our eligibility criteria, you must provide justification by email to support@innovateuk.ukri.org at least 10 days before the competition closes. We will decide whether to approve your request.

Projects must be collaborative.

UK lead applicant

To lead a project as a UK registered organisation you must:

  • be a business, of any size
  • collaborate with at least one business of any size from Israel, which must be a separate non-linked legal entity to the UK partners
  • follow the full process correctly

You can also collaborate with other UK registered businesses of any size.

UK research organisations, including universities, can participate as subcontractors.

UK subcontractors

Your project can include subcontractors but they must not account for more than 20% of the UK partners’ combined total eligible costs.

UK project partners

Projects must balance the total eligible project costs between the partners from the participating countries. No more than 75% can be claimed by either:

  • a single partner
  • or by all partners from a single participating country collectively

Each partner must carry out the majority of its funded work within the country from which it receives funding. That is the UK for Innovate UK and Israel for the Israel Innovation Authority.

UK partners not claiming funding

Your project can include partners that do not receive any of this competition’s funding. Their costs will count towards the total eligible project costs.

A non-grant claiming UK partner cannot lead on a project.

Organisations from other EUREKA member states can participate provided:

  • your project meets the minimum participation levels for UK and Israel organisations
  • the partners have secured their own funding

Multiple applications

Any one UK business can lead on one application and collaborate in a further 2 applications.

If a UK business is not leading an application, it can collaborate in up to 3 applications.

A UK research organisation can be a subcontractor in any number of applications.

Terminology

The terminology differs between EUREKA and Innovate UK. The lead applicant is responsible for the application and the entire project but EUREKA uses the term ‘main participant’. For partners in the collaboration it uses ‘other participants’.

Previous applications

Resubmissions

You can use a resubmission to apply for this competition. A resubmission is a proposal Innovate UK judges as not materially different from one you have submitted before. It can be updated based on the assessors' feedback.

If you submit a new proposal this time you will be able to use it in no more than one future competition that allows resubmissions.

Failure to exploit (UK organisations)

If you applied to a previous Innovate UK competition as the lead or sole organisation and were awarded funding by Innovate UK or UK Research and Innovation, but did not make a substantial effort to exploit that award, Innovate UK will award no more funding to you, in this or any other Innovate UK competition. You will not be able to contest this decision. Innovate UK will:

  • assess your efforts in the previous competition against your exploitation plan for that project
  • review the monitoring officers’ reports and any other relevant sources for evidence
  • document our decision, which will be made by 3 team members, and communicate it to you in writing

Previous projects (UK organisations)

Under the terms of Innovate UK funding, you are required to submit an independent accountant’s report (IAR) with your final claim. If you or any organisation in your consortium failed to submit an IAR on a previous Innovate UK project, we will not award funding to you in this or any other competition until we have received the documents.

Funding

UK funding

Innovate UK has allocated up to £1.5 million to fund innovation projects in this competition.

For industrial research projects, you could get funding for your eligible project costs of:

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

This competition provides state aid funding under article 25 of the General Block Exemption Regulation (GBER). It is your responsibility to make sure that your organisation is eligible to receive state aid.

Israel funding

The funding support is in the form of a conditional grant. This generally amounts to up to 50% plus regional incentives for companies located in the designated ‘development zones’ of the eligible R&D budget. Further details regarding development zones, grants and payment of royalties are available at the Israel Innovation Authority website.

Your proposal

This EUREKA competition provides innovation research and development (R&D) funding for industrial research projects.

Your proposal must demonstrate:

  • a clear game-changing and/or disruptive innovative idea leading to new products, processes or services
  • a strong and deliverable business plan that addresses (and documents) market potential and needs
  • a team, business arrangement or working structure with the necessary skills and experience to run and complete the project successfully and on time
  • awareness of all the main risks the project will face (including contractor or equipment failure, recruitment delays and so on) with realistic management, mitigation and impact minimisation plans for each
  • sound, practical financial plans and timelines
  • good value for money, which will always be a consideration in Innovate UK funding decisions
  • a clear, evidence based plan to deliver significant economic impact, return on investment (ROI) and growth through commercialisation, as soon as possible after project completion
  • clear, considerable potential to significantly impact both the UK and the Israeli economy and/or productivity in a positive way
  • the benefit of participants from the 2 countries working together
  • how this adds value
Innovate UK reserves the right to apply a ‘portfolio’ approach for the selection of projects in this competition. This is described in more detail in the guidance for this competition.

Research categories

Your project must focus on industrial research but we may consider funding some experimental development activities. Please see the general guidance to help you decide which category your project fits in.

Projects we will not fund

We will not fund projects that:

  • have non-civilian applications
  • do not include at least one UK and one Israel based business
  • are not in scope
  • do not meet Innovate UK’s eligibility criteria
  • do not submit all mandatory documentation

11 November 2019
Competition opens
12 November 2019
Online briefing event recording
19 February 2020 12:00pm
Registration closes
26 February 2020
EUREKA form email deadline 10:59pm UK time
26 February 2020 12:00pm
Competition closes
13 July 2020
Applicants notified

Before you start

Stage 1

The UK lead applicant must:

If you do not submit all required documentation your application will be ineligible and will not be sent for assessment.

After the competition deadline Innovate UK will check your application is eligible and in scope.

Israeli lead applicants must follow the funding rules and guidelines of the Israel Innovation Authority.

Stage 2

Independent assessment will take place in both the UK and Israel.

Stage 3

A joint UK and Israel consensus panel will agree which projects to fund. The EUREKA Network will decide which of the successful projects are put forward for funding.

More information about the application process will be on the EUREKA calls for projects website once the competition opens.

Background and further information

About EUREKA

EUREKA is an intergovernmental network launched in 1985. Its aim is to support market-oriented R&D and innovation projects by industry, research centres and universities across all technological sectors. It is composed of 41 member states, including the European Union, represented by the European Commission, and 3 associated states:

  • Canada
  • South Africa
  • Chile

There is also a partner country, South Korea.

With its flexible and decentralised network, EUREKA offers project partners:

  • rapid access to skills and expertise across Europe
  • national public and private funding schemes

The joint UK-Israel call for proposals is an initiative between Innovate UK and the Israel Innovation Authority which results from the 2017 memorandum of understanding between the 2 countries in industrial collaboration.

Extra help for UK applicants

If you want help to find a project collaborator, contact the Knowledge Transfer Network or the Enterprise Europe Network.

If you need help with the EUREKA project application form, contact EUREKA directly.

If you need more information on submitting to Innovate UK, email us at support@innovateuk.ukri.org or call the competition helpline on 0300 321 4357 between 9am and 5:30pm, Monday to Friday.

Israel Innovation Authority contact details

Mr. Uzi Bar-Sadeh, ISERD

Tel: +972-3-5118185

Email: uzi@iserd.org.il

Need help with this service? Contact us