Bio-Medical Catalyst 2021: early and late stage awards

Overview

UK registered businesses can apply for a share of up to £18 million to develop innovative healthcare products, technologies and processes. This funding is from Innovate UK, part of UK Research and Innovation.

Scope

The aim of this early and late-stage competition is to enable businesses to create a data package that can support the further development of their products.

The project can include:

• experimental evaluation (at laboratory scale)
• use of in vitro and in vivo models to evaluate proof of concept or safety
• exploring potential production mechanisms
• prototyping
• product development planning
• intellectual property protection
• demonstrating of clinical utility and effectiveness
• demonstrating of safety and efficacy (including phase 1 and 2 clinical trials)
• regulatory planning

Your project must focus on the development of a product or process that is an innovative solution to a defined health or care challenge.

Early-stage

The aim of an early-stage award is to create a data package that is sufficient to support the testing of your product or process in a clinical setting or other relevant environment.

Late-stage

The late-stage award is designed to test a well-developed concept and show its effectiveness in a clinical setting or other relevant environment.

Your project must build on prior credible research on a product prototype or process. This is likely to have included a demonstration or validation in an appropriate model system.

Specific Themes

Your project can focus on any health and care sector or discipline. Innovate UK particularly welcome applications that support innovation in the following areas:

• child health technologies
• innovations that support clinical trials in the UK
• biomedical innovations that combat the threat of antimicrobial resistance

Your project can align with one or more of the following:

• medical technologies and devices
• stratified healthcare
• advanced therapies (gene and cell therapies)
• digital health
• drug discovery
• diagnostics

This list is not intended to be exhaustive.

Exclusions

Innovate UK will not fund projects as part of this competition that are:

• in scope for the Biomedical Catalyst feasibility or primer awards.
• not related to human life sciences
• already on the market
• laboratory accreditation
• distribution or marketing activity, post-marketing studies and post-marketing surveillance
• dependent on export performance – for example giving a subsidy to a baker on the condition that they export a certain quantity of bread to another country.
• dependent on domestic inputs usage- for example if they insisted that a baker use 50% UK flour in their product

Innovate UK will not support innovation projects conducted to anything less than the highest standards of animal welfare.

Eligibility

To lead a project or work alone your organisation must:

• be a UK registered micro, small or medium-sized enterprise (SME)
• carry out its project work in the UK
• intend to exploit the results from or in the UK

Academic institutions or research organisations cannot lead or work alone.

To collaborate with the lead, your organisation must:

• be a UK registered business of any size, academic institution, charity, not-for-profit, public sector organisation, or research technology organisation (RTO)
• carry out your project work in the UK
• intend to exploit the results from or in the UK
• be invited by the lead organisation

Large companies can be collaborators but will not be able to claim grant funding.

Each partner organisation must be invited into the Innovation Funding Service by the lead to collaborate on a project. Partners must enter their own project costs.

Funding Costs

Up to £18 million has been allocated to fund innovation projects in this competition.

If your organisation’s work on the project is mostly commercial or economic, your funding request must not exceed the limits below. These limits apply even if your organisation normally acts non-economically.

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

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

The research organisations undertaking non-economic activity as part of the project can share up to 50% of the total eligible project costs. If your consortium contains more than one research organisation undertaking non-economic activity, this maximum is shared between them.