NATEP: helping SMEs innovate in aerospace, spring 2020
UK micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) can apply for a share of up to £2.5 million for industry led civil aerospace research projects.
- Competition opens: Monday 4 May 2020
- Competition closes: Wednesday 17 June 2020 12:00pm
This competition is now closed.
Competition sections
Description
Innovate UK, part of UK Research and Innovation, is working with the Aerospace Technology Institute and the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS). Up to £10 million will be invested in NATEP (National Aerospace Technology Exploitation Programme) for aerospace innovation projects as part of the ATI programme. In this competition we are investing up to £2.5 million.
The aim of this competition is to provide help for micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to develop innovative aerospace technologies. These will enhance your capabilities and increase your ability to win new business.
This competition is the second of 4 rounds. We plan to open the others every 6 months. The last round is scheduled for spring 2021.
Your proposal must align with the priorities stated in the UK Aerospace technology strategy, Accelerating Ambition. The competition closes at midday 12pm UK time on the deadline stated.Funding type
Grant
Project size
Your project’s total eligible costs must be between £100,000 and £300,000. The total project grant must be less than £150,000.
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 project’s total eligible costs must be between £100,000 and £300,000. Your project’s total grant must be less than £150,000. If your organisation is a UK registered business, or a research and technology organisation (RTO) participating as a business, you must show that in your answer you can provide match funding from entirely private sector sources, across all projects you are involved in.
Your project must:
- be collaborative
- be led by a UK registered SME
Projects must start by 1 November 2020 and end by 30 April 2022. They can last between 12 and 18 months.
Lead organisation
To lead a project your organisation must:
- be a UK registered SME
- collaborate with other UK registered businesses, research organisations, public sector organisations or charities
- plan to carry out its project work in the UK
- intend to exploit the results from or in the UK
We primarily expect to fund businesses that are new to research and development (R&D) or are restarting R&D activity.
Academic institutions, charities, public sector organisations, and RTOs cannot lead.
Project team
All project partners must sign up to the Aerospace Technology Institute framework agreement to allow data sharing with the Aerospace Technology Institute.
To collaborate with the lead organisation your organisation must:
- be a UK registered business, academic institution, charity, public sector organisation or RTO
- plan to 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
The lead and at least one other organisation must claim funding and enter their costs into the Innovation funding Service as part of the application.
Your project can include partners that do not receive any of this competition’s funding, for example non-UK businesses or an end user. However, their costs will not count towards the total eligible project costs.
If you are an UK registered RTO participating as a business (undertaking economic activities), you must show that the match funding you are providing comes from entirely private sector sources, across all projects you are involved in. You must also show how you will exploit the results of the project to grow the wider sector.
Multiple applications
Any one UK registered business can lead on one application and collaborate in a further 2 applications. All other organisations can collaborate on any number of applications.Previous applications
Resubmissions
You can use a resubmission to apply for this competition. A resubmission is a proposal Innovate UK judges as not significantly 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 NATEP competition that allows resubmissions.
Failure to exploit
If you applied to a previous 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, we will award no more funding to you, in this or any other competition. You will not be able to contest our decision. We 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 must 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 project, we 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 £2.5 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.
Funding for each organisation is limited to:
- 50% of your project’s total eligible costs for UK registered businesses (regardless of size) or research organisations undertaking economic activities for the purpose of this project
- 80% full economic costing (FEC) for academics under the terms of Je-S
- 100% of your project’s total eligible costs for non-profit research and technology organisations, public sector organisations and charities acting non-economically for the purpose of this project
No one project partner can claim more than 70% of the total project grant funding.
The UK registered research organisations in your consortium undertaking non-economic activities can share up to 30% of the total grant funding. If your consortium contains more than one research organisation, this maximum will be shared between them. Academics need to enter 80% of their full economic costs (FEC) into their application to match the costs on their Je-S form.
UK registered research organisations undertaking economic activities will be treated as businesses.
UK registered large businesses in your consortium can share up to 30% of the total grant funding.
This competition provides state aid funding under article 25, ‘Aid for research, development and innovation’, 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 aim of this competition is to help SMEs to develop their own innovative technologies. These should enhance their capabilities and increase their ability to win new business in the civil aerospace sector.
Your project must have a credible route to market and preferably have identified your end users. Your project should:
- demonstrate improvement in business productivity and competitiveness
- show clear benefit technically
- be able to pull through new technology or processes for use in a current or future product or manufacturing process
- show clear benefit in creating or safeguarding jobs
- be able to enhance capabilities within the broader aerospace industry, as well as other sectors such as advanced manufacturing
Specific themes
Your project must focus on one or more of the following value streams from the UK aerospace technology strategy, Accelerating Ambition (2019)
Research categories
Projects we will not fund
We are not funding:
- projects primarily for defence, space or another industrial sector, but we will recognise dual-use technologies if the main use is in civil aerospace
- projects that cover fundamental research
- projects with scope outside of the UK aerospace technology strategy
- 4 May 2020
- Competition opens
- 12 May 2020
- Online briefing event: view the recording
- 17 June 2020 12:00pm
- Competition closes
- 4 August 2020 11:37am
- Applicants notified
Before you start
You must read the general guidance for applicants before you start.
We recommend you contact the NATEP office before you submit your application as a NATEP Technology Manager may be able to give advice about your application.What we will ask you
The application is split into 3 sections:
- Project details.
- Application questions.
- 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.
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, 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. If we do not award your project funding, we may still share this description and your contact details with relevant third parties, for example the Aerospace Technology Institute and the NATEP office.
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 be immediately rejected and will not be sent for assessment. We will give you feedback on why.
Your answer can be up to 400 words long.2. Application questions
The assessors will score your answers. You will receive feedback from them for each one.
Your answer to each question can be up to 400 words long. Do not include any website links in your answers.
Question 1. 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.
You can submit charts in a single PDF appendix no larger than 10MB and up to 5 A4 pages long to support your answer. It must be legible at 100% zoom.
Question 2. 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
Question 3. Results
How will you exploit and disseminate your project results? What is your route to market?
Address and describe your:
- expected project outputs, including products, services, processes and capabilities
- consortium exploitation plan, including the route to market, intellectual property, changes to business models or processes, research and development (R&D), and manufacturing services
- plans for 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
Question 4. Benefits
What economic, social and environmental benefits do you expect your project to deliver, and when?
Describe all the benefits you expect your project to generate, both inside and outside of the consortium.
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 5. 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
You must submit a work breakdown structure (including the cost of each work package) as a single PDF appendix no larger than 10MB and up to 5 A4 pages long to support your answer. It must be legible at 100% zoom.
Question 6. 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 new in an industrial and/or academic context
Give evidence in support of any statements or claims.
You can detail the level of innovation though patent search results, competitor analyses or literature surveys. If relevant, you should also outline your own intellectual property rights.
You can submit a table in a single PDF appendix no larger than 10MB and up to 5 A4 pages long to support your answer. It must be legible at 100% zoom.
Question 7. Risks
What are the risks (technical, commercial and environmental) 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 the 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
You can upload a risk register as an appendix in PDF format no larger than 10MB and up to 5 A4 pages long. The font must be legible at 100% zoom.
Question 8. 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
- has a track record in managing research and development projects
- has clear objectives and roles or responsibilities
Describe the benefits of your collaboration. What advantages does being part of a consortium offer the project?
You can submit a single appendix describing the skills and experience of the main people working on the project 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 9. Costs
What will your project cost?
Give, along 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 budget breakdown, including a funding profile and timeline
- a description, justification and costing of individual work packages
Question 10. Added value to the UK
How does financial support from NATEP add value to the UK?
Address both of the following:
- Why do you need this much funding? Explain what other sources of funding have been considered, including private investment, and why it is not available. Your 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.
- What will happen to the project if the application for funding is not successful? In particular say 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
3. Finances
Background and further information
NATEP is funded by the ATI Programme. It supports companies in the aerospace supply chain to develop innovative technologies, working in collaboration with others and supported by higher tier companies. It equips them to win new business with existing customers and to diversify their customer base.
As well as grant funding, NATEP projects can get free access to a high calibre Technical Manager. They will help companies accelerate their technology development towards market readiness. NATEP projects are exempt from paying the industrial contribution to The Aerospace Technology Institute.
Extra help
If you want help with NATEP, for example finding a partner or getting the Technical Manager’s support, contact the NATEP National Office. Call 020 7091 4543, email info@natep.org.uk or visit their website.
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.
If you need help with your application, email support@innovateuk.ukri.org or call the competition helpline on 0300 321 4357 between 9am and 5:30pm, Monday to Friday.Need help with this service? Contact us