Key Features
UK registered organisations can apply for a share of up to £3 million for collaboration with Canadian SMEs on joint R&D projects.
Programme: Innovate UK
Award: Share of up to £3 million
Opens: 4th Nov 2024
Closes: 16th Apr 2025
Innovate UK, part of UK Research and Innovation, will work with the National Research Council of Canada Industrial Research Assistance Program (NRC IRAP) to invest up to £3 million in innovation projects.
In January 2024, the governments of Canada and the United Kingdom (UK) signed a new Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) concerning cooperation over Scientific Research and Innovation with the aim to further strengthen bilateral cooperation that delivers excellence, and impacts across all fields of research and innovation. This includes fostering and supporting collaborative industrial research and development (R&D) projects with a high potential for commercialisation.
The aim of this competition is to stimulate the development and implementation of innovative technologies across a range of sectors and technology areas.
This call for proposals is open to organisations from Canada and the UK who wish to form project consortia to perform collaborative projects focused on developing innovative products, processes or technology based services in the area of life sciences, digital and emerging, and sustainability and net zero technologies.
Innovate UK want to fund a variety of projects across a range of sectors and technology areas. This includes topics of previous collaborative R&D calls between Canada and the UK. Innovate UK would particularly welcome (but not restricted to) applications from the following areas which receive specific focus in the MoU:
Portfolio approach
Innovate UK want to fund a variety of projects across different technologies, markets, technological maturities and research categories. Innovate UK call this a portfolio approach.
Your project can focus on one or more of the following:
This is not an exhaustive list.
Canada specific rules
Canadian funding applicants are required to register and submit an expression of interest (EoI) before being eligible to apply for this competition.
The registration deadline for Canadian small or medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) is 8 January 2025.
The EoI deadline for Canadian, small or medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) is 15 January 2025.
Canadian funding applicants who do not complete an EoI and have not been invited to proceed will not be eligible for funding through this competition.
Please see the National Research Council of Canada Industrial Research Assistance Program (NRC IRAP) call page for more information in English and French on Canadian eligibility requirements and to register.
UK participants must be part of an application submitted to Innovate UK. Canadian partners must submit a parallel application to NRC.
UK applications will be assessed by Innovate UK. Your Canadian partners’ proposal is reviewed by NRC. Innovate UK and NRC are jointly responsible for the decision to fund your project.
In order to receive any grant funding, your project proposal must be successful on both sides of the consortium. If successful, UK participants will receive grant funding from Innovate UK and Canadian participants will receive grant funding from NRC.
Your project
Your project must:
The majority of the project work must be undertaken in the UK and Canada.
The consortium must include at least one business registered in Canada that is a separate legal entity and not linked to the UK partners. This is to ensure that projects encourage genuine international collaboration, not internal company research. Linked companies are considered a single entity under the parent company.
Your project must demonstrate a balanced technological contribution by the participants from both countries and must be equally significant to all participants.
Your project should have a balanced contribution of the total eligible project costs among the partners from the participating partner countries. No one country or project partner can represent more than 70% of the total project cost.
Your proposal must demonstrate a clear intention to commercially exploit the results of the project domestically or globally.
Roles and terminology
There must be a ‘project lead’ and this can be either an eligible UK or Canadian organisation. The project lead is responsible for managing the entire project.
The ‘lead applicant’, is the organisation that starts the application on the Innovation Funding Service. This must be a UK organisation.
Your collaboration must involve at least one grant claiming UK registered SME and one eligible Canadian incorporated, profit orientated SME.
UK lead organisation
To start an application on the Innovation Funding Service (IFS), your organisation must be a UK registered business of any size.
You must:
Canadian organisations can be a project lead but cannot start an application on IFS. Canadian partners must not be invited onto IFS. Their involvement in the project is listed as part of your answers to the questions. If you include a grant claiming Canadian partner in your IFS application you will be made ineligible and your application will not be sent for assessment.
More information on the different types of UK organisations can be found in our Funding rules.
UK Project team
To collaborate with the lead, your organisation must be one of the following UK registered:
Only UK registered partners must be listed in the Project Partner section of your application on the Innovation Funding Service (IFS). Canadian partners will be funded by the National Research Council of Canada Industrial Research Assistance Program (NRC IRAP) and will not receive any of the Innovate UK competition funding.
Each UK partner organisation must be invited into IFS 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 IFS.
Non-funded partners
Your project can include partners that do not receive any of this competition’s funding. Their eligible costs will count towards the total project costs.
International partners
Canadian partners do not need to be invited into Innovate UK’s application on the Innovation Funding Service.
Canadian partners will be funded by NRC IRAP following a parallel application.
Subcontractors
Subcontractors are allowed in this competition. For UK organisations, the cost of subcontractors is limited to no more than 20% of your organisation’s total eligible costs.
You can use subcontractors from the UK and Canada and you must select them through your usual procurement process.
You can use subcontractors from other countries but must make the case in your application as to why you could not use suppliers from the countries providing grant funding for the project.
You must provide a detailed rationale, evidence of the potential UK or Canadian contractors you approached and the reasons why they were unable to work with you. Innovate UK will not accept a cheaper cost as a sufficient reason to use a subcontractor from a third country.
All subcontractor costs must be justified and appropriate to the total eligible project costs.
Number of applications
A UK business can only lead on one application but can be included as a collaborator in one further application.
A UK business that is not leading an application can collaborate on a maximum of two applications.
A Canadian SME may only participate in one application either as a lead or collaborator.
Academic institutions or RTOs can collaborate in any number of applications.
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.
Innovate UK are not funding projects that are:
Innovate UK cannot fund projects that are:
Up to £3 million from Innovate UK has been allocated to fund innovation projects for this competition. Funding will be in the form of a grant.
Each country will fund its eligible participants according to their national procedure and funding rules. Funding conditions and eligibility criteria may vary between UK and Canada. The bilateral joint cooperation between the partners and its added value is an important aspect to be considered within the evaluation.
UK Partners
If your UK registered 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 feasibility studies and industrial research projects, you can get funding for your eligible project costs of:
For experimental development projects which are nearer to market, you can get funding for your eligible project costs of:
Research participation for UK Organisations
The research organisations undertaking non-economic activity as part of the project can share up to 30% of the UK partners’ 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 30% you can get funding for your eligible project costs of up to:
Canadian SMEs
Eligible Canadian SMEs may receive from NRC IRAP up to 50% reimbursement of eligible project costs up to a maximum total funding amount of CA$500,000.
Book an appointment to speak to one of our advisors to discuss your eligibility to apply for this Grant Funding opportunity.
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