Funding competition Eureka: healthy ageing

UK registered businesses can apply for a share of up to £2 million to develop digital health technologies in partnership with organisations from EUREKA countries.

This competition is now closed.

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Competition sections

Description

Innovate UK, part of UK Research and Innovation, is investing up to £2 million to fund collaborative research and development (CR&D) projects focused on industrial research.

We will fund digital health and smart device projects that promote healthy ageing. They must meet one or more of these themes:

  • robotics
  • augmented or artificial intelligence
  • software as a medical device
  • wearables
  • medical devices
  • diagnostics
  • imaging
  • data analytics
  • sensors
  • apps

Projects must include at least one partner from one of the participating countries of the EUREKA Network. These countries are:

  1. France
  2. Spain
  3. Belgium
  4. Luxembourg
  5. Canada
  6. Malta
  7. Turkey
  8. Austria

The competition closes at 11 am UK time on the deadline stated.

The EUREKA project application must be completed by 12 noon central European summer time (11 am UK time) on the deadline stated.

(Text edit 6 August 2020: we have changed the closing date and time from 4 pm (UK) 5 August, to 11 am (UK) 7 August)

Funding type

Grant

Project size

UK applicants can apply for total grant of up to £500,000 for each project.

Who can apply

State aid

Any UK registered business claiming grant funding must be eligible to receive state aid at the time we confirm you will be awarded funding. It is not possible to award grant funding to organisations meeting the condition known as undertakings in difficulty. If you are unsure please take legal advice. For further information see our general guidance.

Your project

UK applicants can apply for total grant of up to £500,000 for each project.

Your project can last up to 2 years and is expected to start between 1 November 2020 and 31 March 2021. The start date is dependent on the national funding procedures of the countries involved in the selected projects.

If your project’s total grant or duration 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. Whilst there is no limit on the total eligible project costs you must ensure that your projects total grant does not exceed £500,000 as your application will be made ineligible. You are able to check your total grant costs within your application in the finance summary table at the bottom of the funding sought column.

UK lead organisation

To lead an application as a UK registered organisation you must:

  • be a UK micro, small or medium sized enterprise (SME)
  • collaborate with at least one eligible partner from one of the EUREKA countries participating in this competition, listed in the summary
  • enter your costs during the application

UK partner organisations

All UK partners must enter their costs during the application.

To collaborate with the lead organisation as a UK organisation you must be a UK registered business of any size research organisation, public sector organisation or charity.

Overall project team

The organisations from the EUREKA Network must meet the funding and eligibility conditions of their respective countries. These funding and eligibility conditions will be provided in the call for proposals document on the EUREKA web page which will be published when this competition opens. The partners from other participating EUREKA countries must apply for funding from their respective national funding bodies. All eligible project costs must be listed on the EUREKA application.

Projects should have a balanced contribution of the total eligible project costs among the partners from the participating countries. No more than 70% can be claimed by 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, for example the UK for Innovate UK funding.

We do not expect any employee to have roles in 2 or more organisations in the consortium.

Subcontractors

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

Partners not claiming funding

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

Your collaboration can include organisations from countries that are not part of the EUREKA Network, including other EUREKA members, provided:

  • they have secured full funding elsewhere or are self-funding
  • you describe in your application why and how they will be involved and where they have secured financing 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, charity or public sector organisation can collaborate 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've 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 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

We have allocated up to £2 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 organisation
  • up to 60% if you are a medium-sized organisation
  • up to 50% if you are a large organisation

For experimental development projects which are nearer to market, you could get funding for your eligible project costs of:

  • up to 45% if you are a micro or small organisation
  • up to 35% if you are a medium-sized organisation
  • up to 25% 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 digital health and smart device projects related to healthy ageing.

Innovate UK reserves the right to apply a ‘portfolio’ approach for the selection of projects in this competition. This will be based on theme and aligned with the priorities of participating EUREKA countries.

Specific themes

Your project must focus on one or more of the following:

  • robotics
  • augmented or artificial intelligence
  • software as a medical device
  • wearables
  • medical devices
  • diagnostics
  • imaging
  • data analytics
  • sensors
  • apps

Research Categories

Your project must focus on industrial research but can include experimental development activities if we consider it appropriate. 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:

  • work on non-civilian applications
  • are not in scope
  • do not meet the eligibility criteria
  • do not submit all mandatory documentation

4 May 2020
Competition opens
14 May 2020
Applicant Briefing Recording
7 August 2020 11:00am
Competition closes
8 January 2021
Applicants notified

Before you start

Applications led by UK organisations

As well as submitting an application on the Innovation Funding Service, UK lead applicants must complete the EUREKA project application on behalf of their project using the new application platform available through the healthy ageing call page on the EUREKA website.

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

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

Applications led 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 submit an application through the Innovation Funding Service and upload the EUREKA form completed by the lead applicant.

If you do not submit the EUREKA project application form your application will be ineligible.

More information about the application process for partner countries 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

Explain your project. This section is not scored, but we will use it to decide whether the project fits with the scope of the competition. If it does not, it will be immediately rejected.

Application team

Invite colleagues to contribute to your application and other organisations to collaborate on your project.

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, 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 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 to these questions. You will receive feedback from them for each question.

Your answer to each question can be up to 600 words long. Do not include any website addresses (URLs) in your answers unless we have explicitly requested a link to a video.

Question 1: Eureka application (not scored)

Type ‘Eureka application attached’ as your answer

You must submit a copy of your completed Eureka application as an appendix. It must be in a PDF format. The font must be legible at 100% zoom.

Question 2: Healthcare need

What is the healthcare need that this project addresses and what impacts will your solution have?

Describe or explain the healthcare challenge or issue that your project addresses. Tell us:

  • what evidence you have that the healthcare need is real
  • how your project will address the need.
  • how market that will generate demand for your proposed solution is defined
  • how the project outputs and/or the innovation will lead to a commercial opportunity for your business
  • how the outputs of the project meet the healthcare need
  • any input you have from healthcare professionals, patients or representatives of the onward supply chain
  • how you will measure the potential positive impact on socio-economic factors and healthcare at a patient and community level
  • the number of anticipated users and the benefits your solution will provide, with estimated timescales

Question 3: Scientific evidence

What is the underpinning scientific evidence to support your solution? 

Describe or explain:

  • all relevant prior experimental or technical evidence which can explain how the previous results link to the proposed study
  • any preclinical or clinical work conducted to date and the outcomes

You can submit one appendix explaining all relevant prior experimental or technical evidence or preclinical work to support your answer. It must be a PDF and can be up to 4 A4 pages long. The font must be legible at 100% zoom.

Question 4: Innovation

What is innovative about your idea?

Describe or explain:

  • the extent to which the project is innovative, from a commercial, scientific and/or technical perspective
  • existing products and practices that are currently in use and those known to be under development both in the UK and internationally
  • the benefits and shortcomings of these products and practices (both technical and commercial) compared with your solution, for example the results of competitor analyses or literature surveys

Highlight the timeliness and novelty of your research and/or proposed innovation and explain it in an industrial and/or academic context.

Question 5: Technical approach

What technical approach will your project take and how will the project be managed? 

Please provide an overview of the technical approach, including the main objectives of the work.

Describe or explain:

  • where you are now and where you want to be at the end of the project in terms of the deliverables
  • the stages of the project (the work packages) and how they are linked to their resource and management requirements
  • the milestones and go or no go points 

If relevant:

  • compare and contrast alternative research and development (R&D) strategies and describe why your proposed approach will offer the best outcome
  • provide justification for the use of animal or human subjects and the numbers of animals, samples and so on tested

You can submit a project plan or Gantt chart as an appendix to support your answer. It must be a PDF and can be up to 4 A4 pages long. The font must be legible at 100% zoom.

Question 6: Freedom to operate

Do you have freedom to operate? 

Describe or explain:

  • any existing intellectual property (IP) which may affect, or which is relevant to, project delivery and exploitation
  • the ownership of IP and, where necessary, how rights have been assigned
  • what evidence you have of your freedom to operate without infringing other patents by summarising the results of patent searches and so on
  • the IP that you expect to be generated as a result of your project
  • your strategy for protecting the knowledge resulting from the project
  • how you will assign IP rights to project partners

Question 7: Exploitation

How do you intend to exploit the opportunity commercially? 

How will the outputs of this project take you nearer to your objectives, and what will the steps be in this journey?

Describe how these outputs will be exploited including, where applicable:

  • the route to market
  • reconfiguration of the value system
  • changes to business models and business processes
  • other methods of exploitation and protection

Provide evidence that:

  • the proposed solution would be commercially viable for the target market
  • you have considered manufacturing costs and pricing at launch and at scale

Describe the size of the market opportunities that this project would create, including details of:

  • the current nature of the specific markets at which the project is targeted (for example is it characterised by price competition among commoditised suppliers, is it dominated by a single leading firm and what are the channels to market?)
  • the dynamics of this market, including measuring its current size then actual and predicted growth rates
  • the projected market share for the project outcome, taking account of possible restrictions on market access and penetration, including any potential competitors
  • what the biggest obstacles will be to the exploitation and commercialisation of your innovation
  • what impact the project outputs will have on the business and non-academic partners’ forecasts for annual turnover, profit, exports and R&D spend (as a percentage of turnover if appropriate) and employment in full-time equivalents (FTEs) for 1, 3 and 5+ years after project completion

Question 8: Risk

What are the technical, commercial and environmental risks to project success? What is the project’s risk management strategy?

Describe or explain:

  • the main risks and uncertainties of the project, providing a detailed risk analysis for the project content and approach
  • the technical (including regulatory), commercial, managerial (such as managing stakeholders) and environmental risks, as well as other uncertainties, such as ethical issues associated with the project
  • the main risks in a risk register, ranked as high, medium or low (H/M/L)
  • the potential impact of these scenarios
  • how the project would mitigate all significant and relevant risks
  • the project management tools and mechanisms that will be used to minimise operational risk, including the arrangements for managing the consortium

You can submit a risk register as an appendix to support your answer. It must be a PDF and can be up to 2 A4 pages long. The font must be legible at 100% zoom.

Question 9: Project team

Does the team have the right skills and experience and access to facilities to deliver the project and exploit it? 

Detail the expertise and track record of the project participants, including collaborating organisations and subcontractors, to show your capability to deliver the project and exploit the output.

In evaluating this, the assessors will also consider whether:

  • the project builds the UK supply chain and addresses end-user needs
  • the consortium’s formation objectives are clear
  • extra benefit is gained from the collaboration, for example, increased knowledge transfer
  • the consortium is greater than the sum of its parts
  • the work is being conducted internally where possible and, if subcontractors are being used, there is good reason
  • the project has access to the appropriate facilities

If you are planning to use subcontractors outside the UK, then you must provide evidence that no UK alternative exists or strong justification for using a non-UK contractor.

Question 10: Resources

What are the resources required to deliver the project and how much will they cost? 

Describe or explain:

  • the anticipated eligible project costs, making clear the level of contribution from any project partners and the level of funding required, to complement the financial summary table in the application form
  • the resources required to carry out the project (materials, capital equipment, infrastructure and people), fully breaking down and justifying (for example with quotations to prove value for money) all internal and external costs

Costs must be consistent with the category of R&D being undertaken. Please refer to the general guidance on funding rules for more information.

The assessors will closely scrutinise the costs of any employees that have roles in 2 or more organisations in the consortium. 

Read detailed guidance on eligible and ineligible project costs in our project costs guidance.

Question 11: Added value

How does financial support from Innovate UK and its funding collaborators add value? 

Describe or explain:

  • whether this project could go ahead in any form without public funding
  • what difference public funding would make (such as a faster route to market, more partners or reduced risk)
  • the likely impact of the project on the businesses of the partners involved
  • why you are not able to wholly fund the project from your own resources or other forms of private-sector funding

how failure to secure public funding for this project would affect which R&D activities the collaborating partners would undertake (and the related spend profile)

3. Finances

Each UK organisation in your project must complete its own project costs, organisation details and funding details in the application. Academic institutions must complete and upload a Je-S form.

For full details on what costs you can claim, see our project costs guidance.

Background and further information

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

Extra help

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

If you want help to find a project partner, contact the Knowledge Transfer Network or register at the b2match virtual marketplace.

If you need more information, 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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