Biomedical Catalyst 2022 Round 1: Industry-led R&D

Overview

Innovate UK, part of UK Research and Innovation will invest up to £15 million in projects to support UK registered businesses to develop innovative health or healthcare-focussed products, technologies and processes.

Your project can focus on:

disease prevention and proactive management of health and chronic conditions
earlier and better detection and diagnosis of disease, leading to better patient outcomes
tailored treatments that either change the underlying disease or offer potential cures
the development of digital health technologies

This list is not intended to be exhaustive.

Scope

The aim of this industry-led R&D competition is to support the development of innovative solutions to health and healthcare challenges.

Innovate UK will only support innovation projects conducted to the highest standards of animal welfare.

Visit the UKRI Good Research Hub and NC3R’s animal welfare guidance for further information.

Your 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
a demonstration of clinical utility and effectiveness
a demonstration of safety and efficacy (including phase 1 and 2 clinical trials)
regulatory planning

Innovate UK want to fund a variety of projects across different technologies, markets, technological maturities and research categories.

Specific Themes

Your project can focus on any health or healthcare sector or discipline.

The Biomedical Catalyst now incorporates the Digital Health Technology Catalyst and will support digital health projects.

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

biosciences
advanced therapies (gene and cell therapies)
diagnostic, medical technology and devices
digital health
independent living and wellbeing
precision medicine
preclinical technologies and drug target discovery
therapeutic and medicine development

Exclusions

Innovate UK are not funding projects that:

are fundamental research or feasibility projects
are not related to human life sciences
focus on a product that is already on the market
focus on laboratory accreditation
are conducted to anything less than the highest standards of animal welfare
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

Eligibility

Your project must:

have total project costs between £150,000 and £4 million
not exceed a grant request of £2 million
have at least 50% of the total project costs shared by the SMEs, if collaborative
start by 1 December 2022
end by 30 November 2025
last between 6 months and 36 months
carry out all of its project work in the UK
intend to exploit the results from or in the UK

You must only include eligible project costs in your application. If you have requested an overall grant of over £500,000, and your online application is successful at Stage 1, you may be invited to attend an interview.

To lead a project or work alone your organisation must be a UK registered micro, small or medium-sized enterprise (SME).

Project team

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)

Subcontractors are allowed in this competition.

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

Funding Costs

Up to £15 million has been allocated to fund innovation projects in this competition. Funding will be in the form of a grant. You must not claim more than £2 million in grant against your total project costs. A minimum of 50% of your total eligible project costs must be incurred by SME(s).

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 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

Research participation

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.

Of that 50% you could get funding for your eligible project costs of up to:

80% of full economic costs (FEC) if you are a Je-S registered institution such as an academic
100% of your project costs if you are an RTO, charity, not-for-profit organisation, public sector organisation or research organisation

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