Innovate UK Smart grants: June 2023

Overview

Innovate UK, part of UK Research and Innovation, is investing up to £25 million in the best game-changing and world-leading ideas, designed for swift, successful commercialisation. Ideas need to be genuinely new and not just disruptive within their sector.

Scope

The Innovate UK Smart grant supports SMEs and their partners develop the best game changing and word-leading innovative R&D projects. It offers funding where other opportunities are not available or appropriate, and where timing is key to ensure swift and successful commercialisation post-project completion.

To be in scope your proposal must demonstrate:

a game-changing, innovative, and disruptive idea that will lead to new products, proceses or services
an idea that is significantly ahead of others in the field, set for rapid commercialisation
clear potential to positively impact the UK’s position, productivity and competitiveness within the global economy
a clear, evidence-based business plan to deliver significant economic impact, return on investment (ROI) and growth through commercialisation, as soon as possible after project completion
why Smart funding is the right potential funding for your project, and the journey you have already been on to reach the point of application
a team with the necessary skills and expertise to deliver the project successfully and on time, and to achieve rapid commercialisation
awareness of all the main risks the project will face with realistic management, mitigation and impact minimisation plans for each risk
sound, practical financial plans and timelines that represent good value for money, including the funding of post-project activities

Specific Themes

Your project must focus on:

taking customer and user needs into account to deliver more desirable and useful solutions
identifying who is ready to buy your innovation
being developed, planned and resourced beyond the end of the Innovate UK funded project, taking into account the focus of any project partners and their existing commitments
fitting in with and complementing your ongoing business planning and development, product offerings and organisational structure to maximise chances of success

Eligibility

If your application does not meet the eligibility criteria for this competition it will not be sent for assessment.

Your project

Your project must:

start by 1 April 2024
end by 31 March 2027
include at least one micro, small or medium enterprise (SME) as the lead or a collaborative grant claiming partner
follow specific rules depending on its duration
carry out all of its project work in the UK
intend to exploit the results from or in the UK

The end by date is the date by which all funding for this round of the competition must end. Your contracted project end date will not be extended.

If your project’s duration is 6 to 18 months, it must:

have total eligible project costs between £100,000 and £500,000
be single or collaborative

If your project’s duration is 19 to 36 months, it must:

have total eligible project costs between £100,000 and £2 million
be collaborative

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.

Lead organisation

To lead a project or work alone your organisation must:

be a UK registered SME if you want to work alone
be a UK registered business of any size, or a research and technology organisation (RTO) if your proposal is collaborative
include at least one grant claiming SME if you are a large business or RTO and wish to collaborate with other UK registered businesses, research organisations, academic organisations, public sector organisations or charities
claim grant funding

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

If the lead organisation is an RTO it must collaborate with 2 businesses (one SME, and one business of any size) and there must be a credible route to market for the output of the project. Since the purpose of RTOs is to speed up the progress of those using their services this is expected to be through the other project partners, rather than through the RTO itself.

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.

To be an eligible collaboration, the lead and at least one other organisation must apply for funding when entering their costs into the application.

Subcontractors are allowed in this competition.

Subcontractors must be based in the UK for the duration of the project and their portion of the project work must be carried out in the UK. 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 project costs. For the purposes of this competition the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man are crown dependencies and not classed as part of the UK. Subcontractors located there would be ineligible.

A business, research and technology organisation (RTO) or charity can only lead on one application but can be included as a collaborator in a further 2 applications. Any subsequent applications submitted with the same lead will be ineligible and will not be forwarded for assessment.

All project partners can collaborate on any number of applications.

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

You can make a maximum of 2 submissions to Innovate UK with any given proposal. If Innovate UK judges that your proposal is not materially different from your previous proposal, it will be counted towards this maximum.

If your application goes through to assessment and is unsuccessful, you can reapply with the same proposal once more.

Innovate UK will not award you funding if you have:

failed to exploit a previously funded project
an overdue independent accountant’s report
failed to comply with grant terms and conditions

Exclusions

Innovate UK are not funding projects:

that do not meet the competition eligibility or scope
where the technology is available or used in another sector
that do not address the size, potential and access to market for their innovation
that do not evidence the potential for their idea to lead to significant return on investment (ROI), positive economic impact, growth and scale-up of the business
that do not provide clear and realistic plans to commercialise their innovation as soon as possible post-project completion
where other Innovate UK funding support is available and more appropriate

Innovate UK will not fund commercialisation activities such as marketing and sales.

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 £25 million has been allocated to fund innovation projects in this competition. Funding will be in the form of a grant.

If 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 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.

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.

Research participation

The research organisations undertaking non-economic activity as part of the project can share up to 30% 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 30% 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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