ISCF Transforming Foundation Industry – Small scale R&D – Strand 1

Eligibility

Your project must:

• have total eligible costs between £25,000 and £75,000
• start on 1 February 2022
• end by 31 January 2023
• last between 3 and 12 months
• carry out all of its project work in the UK
• intend to exploit the results from or in the UK

If your project’s duration falls outside of our eligibility criteria, you must provide justification by email to support@innovateuk.ukri.org at least 10 working days before the competition closes. We will decide whether to approve your request. If you have not requested approval or your application has not been approved by us you will be made ineligible and your application will not be sent for assessment.

To lead a project or work alone your organisation must be a UK registered SME business.

Academic institutions cannot lead or work alone.

To collaborate with the lead, your organisation must be one of the following UK registered:

• business of any size
• academic institution
• charity
• not-for-profit
• public sector organisation
• research and technology organisation (RTO)

Each partner organisation must be invited into the Innovation Funding Service by the lead to collaborate on a project. Once accepted, partners will be asked to login or to create an account and enter their own project costs into the Innovation Funding Service.

Funding Costs

Up to £1.5 million has been allocated to fund innovation projects in this competition.

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

For feasibility studies and 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

For more information on company sizes, please refer to the company accounts guidance. This is a change from the EU definition unless you are applying under State aid.

Exclusions

Innovate UK are not funding projects that:

• focus on fuel switching or greenhouse gas capture technology
• do not focus on foundation industries and their immediate supply chains
• respond only to the skills needs of foundation industries
• are capital or infrastructure projects
• have total eligible project costs of below £25,000 or above £75,000
• are dependent on export performance, for example giving a subsidy to a baker on the condition that it exports a certain quantity of bread to another country
• are dependent on domestic inputs usage, for example giving a subsidy to a baker on the condition that it uses 50% UK flour in their product