Funding competition EUREKA collaborative R&D: advanced materials, March 2020
UK registered businesses can apply for a share of up to £1 million for advanced materials R&D projects partnering with EUREKA country organisations, including South Korea.
- Competition opens: Thursday 5 March 2020
- Registration closes: Wednesday 24 June 2020 12:00pm
This competition is now closed.
Competition sections
Description
Innovate UK, part of UK Research and Innovation, is investing up to £1 million to fund collaborative business led research and development (R&D) projects. These must result in a new product, industrial process or service. Projects must be innovative and involve a technological risk.
Your project must aim to develop one of the following:
- innovative products
- technology-based applications
- technology-based services
It must have high market potential in the participating regions and/or globally.
Projects must include at least one partner from one of the participating regions of the EUREKA call on advanced materials.
All documents required by Innovate UK must be completed and uploaded to the Innovate UK secure FTP site by midday 5pm British summer time on the deadline stated.
The EUREKA project application form must be completed and emailed to projects@eurekanetwork.org by 6pm central European summer time (5pm British summer time) on the deadline stated.Funding type
Grant
Project size
Total eligible project costs must be between £100,000 and £1 million. This includes costs from all partners, from the UK and all other regions. The total grant available to the UK applicants on the project is up to £350,000.
Who can apply
State aid
Any UK registered 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
Your total eligible project costs must be between £100,000 and £1 million. This includes costs from all partners, from the UK and all other participating members. The total grant available to the UK applicants on the project is up to £350,000.
Your project can last up to 3 years and must start by 1 February 2021.
The start date may move to fit the national funding procedures of the regions involved in the selected projects.
Your project 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 eligible partner from one of the participating regions of the EUREKA call for proposals for joint R&D projects on advanced materials listed below, which must be a separate non-linked legal entity to the UK partners
- follow the full process correctly
We strongly welcome partnerships with companies from South Korea.
You can also collaborate with other UK registered businesses of any size and UK registered research organisations.
Research organisations cannot lead or work alone. They must be able to show how they will exploit the results of the project to grow the wider sector in the UK.
Eligible partner regions
Your project must include at least one organisation from one of the participating regions of the EUREKA call on advanced materials. These regions are:
- Austria
- Belgium: Flanders
- Belgium: Wallonia
- Canada
- Czech Republic
- Denmark
- Germany
- Hungary
- Luxembourg
- Malta
- South Korea
- Spain
- Turkey
The organisations from these regions must meet the funding and eligibility conditions of their respective funding bodies. These will be provided in the call for proposals document on the EUREKA web page which will be published when this competition opens.
UK partners
Each partner must carry out the majority of its funded work within the country from which it receives funding, for example the UK for Innovate UK funding.
Projects must have a balanced contribution of the total eligible project costs among the partners from the participating regions. No more than 70% can be claimed by a single partner or by all partners from a single participating region collectively.
UK registered organisations can also collaborate on applications led by organisations from one of the participating non-UK EUREKA member countries. UK registered partners can still claim funding from Innovate UK and must apply for this competition themselves. However, these collaborations must include at least one UK registered business of any size.
Subcontractors
Your project can include subcontractors but they must not account for more than 20% of the total eligible costs within the UK participation .
Partners not claiming funding
A non-grant claiming UK partner cannot lead on a project.
Your collaboration can include organisations from regions that are not part of the EUREKA call for proposals for joint R&D projects on advanced materials, including other EUREKA members, provided:
- they have secured full funding elsewhere
- you describe in your application why and how they will be involved and where they have secured funding from
Multiple applications
Any one UK registered business can lead on one application and collaborate in a further 2 applications.
If a UK registered business is not leading an application, they can collaborate in up to 3 applications.
A UK registered research organisation can be a collaborator in any number of applications.
Terminology
The terminology differs between EUREKA and Innovate UK. The lead applicant is responsible for the entire project but EUREKA uses the term ‘main participant’. For partners in the collaboration it uses ‘other participants’.
Previous applications
Resubmissions
You cannot 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.
Failure to exploit
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
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
We have allocated up to £1 million to fund innovation projects in this competition.
Organisations that are primarily engaged in commercial or economic activity (known as selective advantage) as part of the project must ensure their request for funding does not exceed the limits defined below. This includes organisations that typically act non-economically but for the purpose of this project will be undertaking commercial or economic activity.
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 UK registered research organisations in your consortium can share up to 30% of the UK total eligible project costs. If your consortium contains more than one UK registered research organisation, this maximum will be shared between them.
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.Your proposal
This EUREKA competition specifically addresses advanced materials in order to improve both products and processes.
The product, process or service must:
- be innovative
- involve a technological risk
- have a civilian purpose
The project should:
- benefit all involved partners in a well-balanced consortium
- have an obvious advantage and added value resulting from the technological co-operation between the participants (such as increased knowledge base, commercial leads or access to research and development infrastructure)
Specific themes
Your collaborative R&D proposal must focus on one of these 4 themes:
- Semiconductors and display.
- Secondary batteries and sensor technology, including energy storage.
- Carbon industry and chemistry, including:
- lightweight materials, composites and recycling of plastics
- nano materials and plastic materials
4. Machinery, robots, and metal industry.
Research categories
- 5 March 2020
- Competition opens
- 11 March 2020
- Online briefing event: view the recording
- 24 June 2020 12:00pm
- Registration closes
- 30 June 2020 5:00pm
- Competition closes
- 10 December 2020
- Applicants notified
Before you start
Before you apply you must read the guidance for applicants for this competition, which contains the full details about how to apply. The information below is only a summary.
Applications led by UK registered organisations
UK lead applicants must:
- Download and complete the EUREKA project application form on behalf of their project.
- Email the completed EUREKA application form and annexes to MaterialsKoreaCall2020@eurekanetwork.org with the subject line ‘Materials multilateral call 2020’ by 6pm central European summer time (5pm British summer time).
- Click the ‘Register and apply online’ button above to create an account on the secure FTP site.
- Upload the completed Innovate UK application form and supporting documents to the secure FTP site alongside the EUREKA documentation.
After the competition deadline Innovate UK will check your application is eligible and in scope.
If you do not submit all the documentation, your application will be ineligible.
Applications led by organisations from other partner countries
UK grant claiming partners in consortiums led by organisations from other partner countries must nominate one UK point of contact. This person must click the ‘Register and apply online’ button above to create an account and submit on the secure FTP site:
- a copy of the EUREKA project application form that the lead applicant has completed
- the completed Innovate UK application form and supporting documentation
More information about the application process for partner countries is on the EUREKA calls for projects website once the competition opens.
Background and further information
This competition is the result of a long-term co-operation in the area of advanced manufacturing between Innovate UK and other funding agencies in the EUREKA network.
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 4 associated states:
- Argentina
- Canada
- Chile
- South Africa
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
Extra help
If you want help to find a project partner, contact the Knowledge Transfer 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.
Help from Enterprise Europe Network
Upon award you will be contacted by your local Enterprise Europe Network (EEN) Innovation Adviser, acting on behalf of Innovate UK, who will discuss the growth opportunities for your business and offer bespoke business support services to help you maximise your project and business potential.
This service forms part of your Innovate UK offer under our commitment to help UK SMEs to grow and scale. It is only available to SMEs. Please engage positively with your EEN contact so that, working together, you can determine the most appropriate form of growth support for your business.
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