SBRI funding competition: business productivity portal

The aim of this competition is to develop new solutions that provide companies with information on the range of business productivity improvements they could make in their place of work.

Businesses currently do not have free access to information on the range of improvements available to them. Also, the incentives to act on these opportunities are often not seen as being strong enough. This can prevent them from building the business case for adopting improvements.

By funding the research and development of new innovative solutions, the aim is to:

• catalyse an increase in the productivity of a large number of businesses leading to a significant positive impact on the economy
• ensure businesses have access to a free-to-use and safe environment in which to simulate the benefit of improvement opportunities
• help them get information they can trust on the size of the opportunity and the incentives to act

By improvement opportunities means the range of products, capital equipment, technology, digital and other services and management practices that could improve the productivity of the business.

By management practices means:

• leadership
• talent management
• planning for the future
• commercial excellence
• operational efficiency

These may be new to the market or new to the business.

Incentives to act might include the sharing of benchmark results in local or sector-based league tables. This could be a community of companies which are all trying to progress and share best practice. They could be regionally-based, sector-based or a group based around an end-to-end supply chain. Gamification may help to increase engagement, usage and competition.

The competition will have 2 phases. At this stage applications are open only for phase 1: contracts for feasibility studies.

Phase 2 will fund contracts to develop and evaluate prototypes or demonstrators. The decision to move forward with phase 2 will depend on the outcomes from phase 1.

Click here for more details.

Phase 1 feasibility studies are expected to include the following but other ideas are also welcome:

• the model and structure of the solution
• how the solution is technically viable, including case studies developed with stakeholders and users
• the sectors, firms and regions of the economy where their solutions would be relevant
• the quality data needed to build (and have trust in) a model that will provide information on business productivity improvements relevant to the specific user
• how the solution should affect business investment decisions
• how a free-to-use solution can be sustainable, taking ongoing support and maintenance costs into account. And how it can be fair to suppliers of productivity improvements
• data management to ensure user confidence and safety
• risks and assumptions

Eligibility

To lead a project, you must be an organisation of any size.

Funding and project details

Up to £500,000 (including VAT) is available in phase 1. The contract value of feasibility studies must not exceed £110,000 (including VAT).

A decision on whether to move forward with phase 2 will depend on the outcomes from phase 1.

Project details

Successful applicants will complete a research and development feasibility study of the technical solution. Proposals should include a commercialisation plan for the ongoing support of the solution. They should also include a plan for research on commercial models.

Projects will last up to 4 months and must finish by Friday 30 March 2018.

Projects can range in size up to a total of £110,000 (including VAT).

Projects will be 100% funded. You will be able to keep the intellectual property rights (IPR) generated from the project. Innovate UK and the Productivity Leadership Group will keep some rights of use for demonstrating success.