The twelve DCMS Create Growth Programme appointed regions are:

• Greater Manchester
• Norfolk, Suffolk & Cambridgeshire
• North East of England
• West of England and Cornwall
• South East Coast
• Leicestershire, Derbyshire and Greater Lincolnshire
• Nottingham and Nottinghamshire
• Hull & East Yorkshire
• West Midlands
• West Yorkshire
• Devon
• Hertfordshire

You can check your local council with your post code.

More information on the different types of organisation can be found in our Funding rules.

Subcontractors

Subcontractors are allowed in this competition.

You cannot allocate more than 75% of your total project costs to subcontractors.

Subcontractors can be from anywhere in the UK and you must select them through your usual procurement process.

All subcontractor costs must be justified and appropriate to the total eligible project costs.

Number of applications

You can only apply for this Create Growth programme Competition 4 once. If more than one application is submitted, only the first application will be progressed and any subsequent applications will be deemed ineligible. Previously funded Create Growth Programme business are eligible to apply for this round.

Sanctions

This competition will not fund you, or provide any financial benefit to any individual or entities directly or indirectly involved with you, which would expose Innovate UK or any direct or indirect beneficiary of funding from Innovate UK to UK Sanctions. For example, through any procurement, commercial, business development or supply chain activity with any entity as lead, partner or subcontractor related to these countries, administrations and terrorist groups.

Use of animals in research and innovation

Innovate UK expects and supports the provision and safeguarding of welfare standards for animals used in research and innovation, according to best practice and up to date guidance.

Any projects selected for funding which involve animals will be asked to provide additional information on welfare and ethical considerations, as well as compliance with any relevant legislation as part of the project start-up process. This information will be reviewed before an award is made.

You can use a previously submitted application to apply for this competition.

Exclusions

Innovate UK are not funding projects that:

• support business as usual (BAU) activities
• are without evidence that the proposed innovation will lead to business growth
• do not address how potentially negative outcomes will be considered, for example on the environment
• are without innovation, for example the creation of information only websites
• sit outside of the creative industries
• are registered or operational outside of the 12 appointed DCMS regions
• have registered accountants in the region but are not operational in one of the 12 appointed DCMS regions

Innovate UK cannot fund projects that 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
• 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

Innovate UK are unable to progress applications who haven’t submitted their application form correctly, this includes applications who:

• enter £0 in the funding sought section of the project costs
• have not provided appropriate project start or end dates
• have entered project costs outside of specified range
• have entered funding sought costs outside of specified range
• have entered project durations outside of the specified range

Funding Costs

Innovate UK have allocated up to £8 million to fund growth focused innovation projects in the Create Growth Programme Competition 4.

Total eligible project costs must be between £50,000 and £200,000. Applications with total eligible project costs outside of this range will be deemed ineligible.

This competition strand is for large projects and requires an element of match funding. The level of grant available is determined by the size of your business.

The balance between your total eligible project costs and the amount of grant awarded must be match funded by the organisation receiving the grant. Match funding can come from various sources including profit generated by the business, savings, loans as an example, but cannot be other public funds.

If your organisation’s work on the project is commercial or economic, your grant funding request must not exceed the limits below. These limits apply even if your organisation normally acts non-economically but for the purpose of this project will be undertaking commercial or economic activity.

For industrial research you can get grant 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 this competition we expect micro and small business to claim a maximum grant of up to £140,000 and maximum grant of up to £120,00 for medium businesses. The remainder of your total project costs must be match funded. Grant requests outside of the permitted levels will be deemed ineligible.

You must only include eligible project costs in your application. See our overview of eligible project costs. For specific guidance, see the eligibility section in this competition.

You can make reference to any additional voluntary contribution in your application answers. It must not be detailed in the finance section.

For more information on company sizes, please refer to the company accounts guidance.

If you are applying for an award funded under State aid Regulations, the definitions are set out in the European Commission Recommendation of 6 May 2003.

Innovate UK may revoke our decision to provide funding without notice if government commitment for this initiative is withdrawn.