Biomedical Catalyst 2023 Round 2: Industry-led R&D

Overview

Innovate UK, part of UK Research and Innovation, will invest up to £20 million in projects to support UK registered businesses to develop innovative solutions to address significant health or healthcare challenges.

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
transforming the delivery of healthcare
the development of digital health technologies
consumer focused self-care

This list is not intended to be exhaustive.

The Industry led research and development (R&D) stream of the Biomedical Catalyst programme supports pre-market R&D projects. Applicants must be able to demonstrate existing evidence of commercial and technical feasibility.

Applications must show how they will improve the competitiveness and productivity of at least one UK SME involved in the project.

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.

Further information for proposals involving animal testing is available at the UKRI Good Research Hub and NC3R’s animal welfare guidance.

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

Specific Themes

Your project can focus on any health or healthcare sector or discipline including:

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
data driven health
consumer health
preventative health

This list is not intended to be exhaustive.

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 01 June 2024
end by 31 May 2027
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

Projects must always start on the first of the month and this must be stated within your application. Your project start date will be reflected in your grant offer letter if you are successful.

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.

Under current restrictions, this competition will not fund any procurement, commercial, business development or supply chain activity with any Russian and Belarusian entity as lead, partner or subcontractor. This includes any goods or services originating from a Russian and Belarusian source.

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

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

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 partners have accepted the invitation, they will be asked to login or to create an account in the Innovation Funding Service.

Partners must accept terms and conditions (T&Cs) and complete the subsidy question in order for the application to be submitted.

Your project can include partners that do not receive any of this competition’s funding, for example non-UK businesses. Their costs will count towards the total project costs.

Subcontractors are allowed in this competition.

An SME can only lead on one application but can be included as a collaborator in a further 2 applications.

If an SME is not leading on any application, it can collaborate in any number of applications.

A research and technology organisation (RTO), a large business, academic institution, charity, not for profit, or public sector organisation can collaborate on any number of applications.

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

Exclusions

Innovate UK will not fund 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

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

Funding Costs

Up to £20 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 SMEs, if collaborative.

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 but for the purpose of this project will be undertaking commercial or economic activity.

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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