Funding competition EUREKA collaborative R&D: UK Sweden aerospace 2020

UK registered businesses can apply for a share of up to £2.25 million to develop aerospace technology in partnership with businesses from Sweden and organisations from other EUREKA nations.

This competition is now closed.

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Competition sections

Description

The ATI Programme is investing up to £2.25 million to fund UK participants in collaborative research and development (CR&D) projects focused on industrial research. The programme will fund projects which have strong market potential for the UK and Sweden.

Your project proposal must demonstrate alignment to the aerospace R&D strategies in your nation.

The ATI Programme welcomes project ideas covering any aspect or aspects of civil aerospace or aeronautics.

Innovate UK and Sweden’s funding agency, Vinnova, will fund their respective participants in the projects. You can find more information on Vinnova and Sweden’s strategic innovation programme in the ‘Supporting information’ section.

UK participants must complete the application on the Innovation Funding Service, and provide all documents required, by 1pm British summer time on the deadline stated.

Swedish participants must complete the EUREKA project application form, integrated project delivery plan and milestone register and submit them on the Vinnova website to the national call: “Samarbetsprojekt Sverige-Storbritannien om forskning och utveckling inom flygteknik”. This must be done by 2pm central European summer time (1pm British summer time) on the deadline stated.

Funding type

Grant

Project size

The ATI Programme expects your project’s total eligible costs to be between £250,000 and £1.5 million. This includes costs from all partners, from the UK and Sweden. UK partners must enter their costs into the Innovation Funding Service.

Who can apply

State aid

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

Your project

The ATI Programme expects your project’s total eligible costs to be between £250,000 and £1.5 million. This includes costs from all partners, from the UK and Sweden.

Your project can last between 12 and 36 months and is expected to start between July 2020 and September 2020. The start date is dependent on the national funding procedures of the nations involved in the selected projects.

All organisations in your project must agree to start on the same date.

Projects must be collaborative.

UK registered organisations must sign up to the Aerospace Technology Institute Framework Agreement to allow for data sharing with the Aerospace Technology Institute.

If your project’s total costs, duration or start date 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. Innovate UK and Vinnova will decide whether to approve your request.

UK lead organisation

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

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

The organisations from EUREKA member nations must meet the funding and eligibility conditions of their respective nations. These will be published on the EUREKA calls for projects web page when this competition opens.

You can also collaborate with other businesses of any size, research organisations, public sector organisations or charities as long as they are registered in the UK or another EUREKA member nation.

Research organisations cannot lead or work alone. UK research organisations must be able to show how they will exploit the results of the project to grow the wider sector in the UK.

UK partners

Each partner must carry out the majority of its funded work within the nation from which it receives funding, for example the UK for Innovate UK funding.

No more than 70% of total eligible project costs can be claimed by a single nation or by all partners from a single participating nation collectively.

Subcontractors

Your project can include subcontractors.

Subcontractors must not account for more than 20% of each UK partner’s total eligible costs.

Partners not claiming funding

Your project can include partners that do not receive any of this competition’s funding. For UK participants not receiving funding, their costs will count towards the total eligible project costs and must be provided.

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

Your collaboration can include organisations from nations that are not the UK or Sweden provided:

  • they are from a EUREKA member nation
  • they have secured full funding elsewhere or can fund themselves
  • you describe in your application why and how they will be involved and where they have secured financing from

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 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

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, Innovate UK will not award funding to you in this or any other competition until we have received the documents

Funding

The ATI Programme has allocated up to £2.25 million to fund innovation projects in this competition.

Businesses of any size can get grant funding for your eligible project costs of up to 50%.

The UK registered research organisations in your consortium can share up to 30% of the UK total project grant. 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

The ATI Programme welcomes ideas covering all aspects of civil aerospace or aeronautics.

Your project must align with the national aerospace strategies of the UK and Sweden.

Your proposal must say how intellectual property (IP) can be used and shared between the participants and nations.

Your proposal must explain:

  • why this research is being conducted internationally
  • the benefit of participants from the 2 nations working together
  • how working internationally adds value
  • how your project contributes to sustainability in aerospace

Innovate UK reserves the right to apply a ‘portfolio’ approach for the selection of projects in this competition and is actively looking to fund across a variety of technologies.

Research categories

Your project must focus on industrial research. Please see the general guidance to help you decide which category your project fits in.

Projects the ATI programme will not fund

The ATI Programme will not fund projects that:

  • work exclusively on non-civilian applications
  • are not in scope
  • do not meet Innovate UK’s eligibility criteria
  • do not submit all mandatory documentation

do not include at least one UK registered business and one Sweden registered business
22 April 2020
Information day
27 April 2020
Competition opens
7 May 2020
Online briefing event: watch the recording
1 July 2020 1:00pm
Competition closes
2 September 2020 2:45pm
Applicants notified

How to apply

Before you start

Applications led by UK organisations

Stage 1

We recommend you notify the Aerospace Technology Institute of your intent to submit an application so they can confirm it aligns to the UK strategy.

UK lead applicants must follow these steps:

  1. Start an application on the Innovation Funding Service and invite all UK participants to the application.
  2. Download and complete the EUREKA project application form. Only give the costs and duration for the implementation phase. As this is not a 2-phase application for funding you can leave the definition phase empty.
  3. Submit the completed EUREKA project application form as part of the application on the Innovation Funding Service by clicking the green ‘Start new application’ button.
  4. Upload the integrated project delivery plan and milestone register as part of the application to the Innovation Funding Service.
  5. Answer all questions on the Innovation Funding Service.
  6. Complete the finance section.
  7. Ensure all UK participants complete their finance information in the Innovation Funding Service.
  8. If you do not submit all required documentation your application will be ineligible and Innovate UK will not send it for assessment.

Stage 2

Independent assessment takes place in both the UK and Sweden. Panels include a set of independent experts from the UK and Sweden. Both the UK and Sweden are using the EUREKA Project Assessment Methodology (PAM) to evaluate your submission.

At the same time projects are reviewed by panels led by the Aerospace Technology Institute in the UK and Innovair in Sweden for eligibility against their respective national strategies.

UK applications are also assessed for value for money by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS).

National decisions are made at this stage.

Stage 3

A joint Vinnova and Innovate UK consensus panel agrees which projects to fund using a portfolio approach. The EUREKA Network decides which of the successful projects will be put forward for a EUREKA label.

Stage 4

For UK applicants, the offer of funding is conditional and subject to:

  • the satisfactory completion of a finance review by Innovate UK
  • project document approval by your Innovate UK-assigned monitoring officer (MO)

Upon satisfactory completion of pre-start checks, Innovate UK issues your grant offer letter (GOL). Each partner must sign the GOL. You must upload it promptly so Innovate UK can approve it. You must not start your project before Innovate UK notifies you the grant offer letter is approved.

In addition, all project participants must have entered into a consortium agreement no later than 3 months after the project start date.

Innovate UK will not make any payment to UK participants until these documents are completed.

Applications led by other partner nations

UK grant claiming partners in consortiums led by other partner nations must nominate one UK point of contact and apply through the Innovation Funding Service following the guidance above.

If you do not submit all required documentation your application will be ineligible.

More information about the application process for partner nations is on the EUREKA calls for projects website once the competition opens.

What we will ask you

The application is split into 3 sections:

  1. Project details.
  2. Application questions.
  3. Finances.

1. Project details

This section sets the scene for the assessors and is not scored.

Application team

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

Application details

The lead applicant must complete this section. Give your project’s title, start date and duration. Is the application a resubmission?

Research category

Select the type of research you will undertake.

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 the ATI Programme awards your project funding, Innovate UK 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

The assessors will score your answers on the EUREKA project form uploaded at question 1 by using the criteria in questions 6 to 23 on the Innovation Funding Service. These are based on the EUREKA Project Assessment Methodology (PAM).

Question 2 will not be scored but will help the assessors evaluate your project using questions 6 to 23.

The assessors will score your answers to questions 3 and 4 within the Innovation Funding Service and you will receive feedback for each one within the Innovation Funding Service.

Question 5 is for information only and will not be scored. You will not receive feedback for this question.

Do not include any website links in your answers.

Question 1. EUREKA project form

Download and complete the EUREKA project application form on behalf of your project. You must submit the form as an appendix to this question. The font must be legible at 100% zoom. In the question reply field write ‘Form attached’. The EUREKA project form is divided into 4 parts:
  1. General information: acronym, title, technology areas, market areas, budget, duration (no definition phase) and EUREKA member nation contribution (the term ‘main member’ refers to the nation that the overall project lead comes from).
  2. Project outline: description, technology envisaged and markets. See more detail below.
  3. Main participant: organisation name, address, contact information, Nace code for classification and involvement in the project. See more detail below.
  4. Other participant: all the other participants (additional participants added from the first page of the form).

EUREKA application form section 2

2.1 Description (approximately one A4 page)

Aim of the project

Give a short description of the scope of the project with reference to the specific aims and objectives.

Partner co-operation

Why do you want to make the project an international collaborative project? How does the proposed collaboration bring added value to all nations involved? Add an additionality line.

Strategic relevance of the project

Describe the strategic relevance of the project and for partners involved.

2.2. Technological development envisaged State-of-art of R&D and the technology

Describe the current status of research and development in the subject at national and international level. Describe the technology.

Technology readiness and technical challenges

Describe the technology maturity of your project activities and how they align with the industrial research category for this competition. Highlight the anticipated technical challenges. Technology readiness levels can be used as an indicator to describe your project development.

Risk management strategy

What are the technological risks and how do you manage and reduce these risks? If the proposed experimental design, method or technical approach does not work, what is the alternative strategy?

Legal, ethical and regulatory demands

Are there any legal, ethical or regulatory demands specifically linked to the project activities? If so, explain them.

2.3 Market application and exploitation

Value creation and growth and employment

Describe the expected value creation, including return on investment (ROI), from the project, and how it will be created over time.

Implementation
Explain how project results will be implemented, for example, how will they be brought to market or implemented into a product? Describe the barriers to market.

Project outcome beneficiaries or recipients

Who will benefit from the project outcomes, directly or indirectly? Include references to wider environmental and social benefits.

EUREKA application form sections 3 and 4

The main participant completes section 3. Other participants complete sections 4. This guidance is relevant for all participants.

3.6 and 4.6 Contribution to the project

How does the project align with the national strategy?

Technological contribution

Provide details of the specific technical contribution your organisation will make to the project. Include details of personnel, systems and facilities. If you need to use subcontractors explain why.

3.7 and 4.7 Expertise

Your expertise and core business

Demonstrate the necessary skills for management and co-ordination across an international collaboration. At least one partner must demonstrate their capability.

Governance and leadership

Explain how project governance, management and communication is organised. Describe roles and responsibilities of those involved.

Question 2. Integrated project delivery plan and milestone register (400 words)

You must download and complete the integrated project plan and milestone register for the whole project detailed in the EUREKA application, and for all participants. This must reflect the collaboration between the consortium members and their input and contribution to the project.

Describe the work packages to be undertaken in delivering the scope of the project and the intended outcomes.

Supply a Gantt chart clearly identifying the tasks, deliverables and milestones highlighted in the work package breakdown

Supply a work breakdown structure (WBS) diagram showing the delivery structure and major work packages and sub work packages with their respective delivery ownership.

Provide evidence of foreground and background intellectual property (IP) to be accessed and used by the consortium during the project. This demonstrates the capability that each partner brings to the collaboration and the existing knowledge this project builds on.

Identify the significant risks in undertaking the project. This should include the risk, the likelihood and impact of the risk before any mitigation, and details of any risk mitigation.

You must submit the required documentation in a single appendix to support your answer. It must be a PDF and can be up to 10 MB. The font must be legible at 100% zoom.

Question 3. Benefits

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

Your answer can be up to 400 words long.

Describe all the benefits expected, both inside and outside of the consortium. In particular highlight the benefits expected in the UK.

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?

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 these jobs.

Where relevant you can also describe any expected training or jobs safeguarded or created as an indirect result of this project.

Other impacts

Describe any other impacts that would not happen without your project. For example, effects on: greenhouse gas, noise, air quality and so on.

Question 4. Added value to the UK

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

Your answer can be up to 400 words long.

Address both of the following:

  1. 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 could include, but is not limited to: business cases, internal rate of return analysis, or other financial comparisons of the scenarios with funding and without funding.
  2. 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 the 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
  • the 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 the project

Question 5. Equality, diversity and inclusion (unscored) (400 words)


Does your organisation have a policy on equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI), and what role does EDI play in your organisation’s culture?

Describe or explain:

  • your approved policy on EDI, if you have one
  • how you encourage and develop diversity in your workforce, suppliers and customers
  • any recognition you have received as an inclusive workplace, including third party audits, recognition or awards
  • how you will consider EDI in the development of the innovation you are focusing on in your collaborative project to maximise market penetration and mitigate against any potential negative impacts on society or exclusion of certain communities
  • how you will measure the impact of EDI on how you manage your project and the impact of your project on equality and inclusion issues within your organisation and across the relevant market
  • any gaps in your current understanding and how you intend to address these

Do not provide personal information on individuals or identifiable statistics on diversity within your organisation.

EUREKA Project Assessment Methodology (PAM) questions

The following questions will be assessed based on your responses to questions 1 and 2 and in line with the EUREKA PAM.

For every question you must write the following in the question reply field: “I confirm I understand the assessors will assess our answers to questions 1 and 2 against this criterion.”

Question 6. C1.1. Financial capacity of all partners

Question 7. C2.1. Formal agreement between partners

Question 8. B1.1. Well-balanced partnership

Question 9. B1.2. Added value through co-operation

Question 10. B1.3. Technological capacity of all partners

Question 11. B1.4. Managerial capacity of all partners

Question 12. B2.1. Methodology and planning approach

Question 13. B2.2. Milestones and deliverables

Question 14. B2.3. Cost and financing structure

Question 15. B2.4. Financial commitment of each partner

Question 16. T1.1. Degree of technological maturity and risk

Question 17. T1.2. Technological achievements

Question 18. T2.1. Degree of innovation

Question 19. T2.2. Geographical/sectoral impact

Question 20. M1.1. Market size

Question 21. M1.2. Market access and risk

Question 22. M2.1. Strategic importance of the project

Question 23. M2.2. Enhanced capabilities and visibility

3. Finances

Each organisation in your project must complete their own project costs, organisational details and funding details. Academic institutions will need to complete and upload a Je-S form. For full details on what costs you can claim please see our project costs guidance.

Background and further information

The national funding agencies will fund their respective participants in the projects. Please contact your agency for further guidance.

UK contact details

Innovate UK Customer Support Services: support@innovateuk.ukri.org

Aerospace Technology Institute

London office: +44 (0) 203 696 8301; info@ati.org.uk

Sweden contact details

Sanna Edlund, Programme Manager: +4684733163; sanna.edlund@vinnova.se

Peter Lindberg, EUREKA National Project Co-ordinator: +4684733193; peter.lindberg@vinnova.se

Customer Support Service: +4684733299; helpdesk@vinnova.se

Innovair

Programme Office: info@innovair.org

Extra help

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.

About the ATI Programme

The UK funding for this competition is provided under the ATI Programme, a joint Government and industry investment to maintain and grow the UK’s competitive position in civil aerospace design and manufacture. The programme, delivered through a partnership between the Aerospace Technology Institute, Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) and Innovate UK, addresses technology, capability and supply chain challenges.

About Vinnova

Vinnova is Sweden’s innovation agency. Vinnova helps to build Sweden's innovation capacity, contributing to sustainable growth. Their vision is that Sweden is an innovative force in a sustainable world. They help to build Sweden’s innovation capacity, contributing to sustainable growth. Vinnova’s work is based on the global sustainability development goals of the 2030 Agenda adopted by the United Nations.

About Innovair

Innovair is Sweden’s national strategic innovation programme for aeronautics. The aim of the programme is to co-ordinate and support stakeholders from industry, universities, institutes, associations and government agencies active in the aeronautics sector. The main objective is to promote favourable conditions for a strong aeronautics industry in Sweden and to strengthen this sector through increased collaboration, research and information dissemination. Innovair is a strategic innovation programme funded by Vinnova and Swedish Defence authorities.

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 nation, 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

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.

Need help with this service? Contact us