UK-South Korea CR&D 2024

Key Features

UK registered businesses can apply for a share of up to £6 million for the purpose of developing innovative proposals with South Korea. You must collaborate with at least one South Korean business applying under the equivalent KIAT or KETEP programme.

Programme:     Innovate UK

Award:     Share of up to £6 million

Opens: 26th Feb 2024

Closes: 22nd May 2024

! This scheme is closing soon

Overview

Innovate UK, part of UK Research and Innovation, will work with the Korea Institute for Advancement of Technology (KIAT) and Korean Energy Technology Evaluation and Planning (KETEP) to invest up to £6 million in innovation projects.

Scope

The aim of this competition is to fund business led, collaborative research and development (CR&D) projects focused on industrial research. This is for innovative proposals developed between the UK and South Korea.

Your project must demonstrate:

  • a clear game changing or disruptive innovative idea leading to new products, processes or services
  • a strong and deliverable business plan that addresses and documents market potential and needs
  • sound, practical financial plans and timelines
  • good value for money, which will always be a consideration in Innovate UK funding decisions
  • a clear, evidence-based plan to deliver significant economic impact, return on investment (ROI) and growth through commercialisation, as soon as possible after project completion
  • clear, considerable potential to significantly benefit the UK economy or national productivity
  • the benefits of participants from the UK and South Korea working together and how this adds value to your project
  • a clear definition of where intellectual property (IP) can be used and shared between the participants and countries
  • a clear route to market within 2 to 3 years of project completion

Specific Themes

Your project must focus on one or more of the following:

KIAT

  • advanced manufacturing and materials
  • artificial intelligence
  • future mobility (including batteries)
  • semiconductors

KETEP

  • energy storage system
  • hydrogen

Eligibility

Your project must:

  • have a grant funding request of no more than £900,000
  • start by 1 October 2024
  • end by 30 September 2027
  • last between 24 and 36 months

The majority of the project work must be undertaken in the UK and South Korea. UK project partners must carry out the majority of their project work in the UK and intend to exploit the results from or in the UK.

The consortium must include at least one business registered in South Korea 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.

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.

You must only include eligible project costs in your application.

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

Roles and terminology

There must be a ‘project lead’ and this can be either an eligible UK or South Korean business. 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 registered business.

UK lead applicant

To start an application on the Innovation Funding Service (IFS), your organisation must be a UK registered business of any size.

You must:

  • be a UK registered business of any size
  • collaborate with at least one South Korean registered business applying to the KIAT or KETEP programme, which must be a separate legal entity, not linked to the UK partners

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:

  • business of any size
  • academic institution
  • research and technology organisation (RTO)

Only UK registered partners must be listed in the Project Partner section of your application on the Innovation Funding Service (IFS). Your South Korean partner will not receive any of this UK competition funding. South Korean partners will be funded by the KIAT or KETEP programme following a parallel application.

Each organisation in your consortium will receive funding from its respective national funding body.

Each UK 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.

Non-funded partners

Your project can include partners that do not receive any of this competition’s funding. Their costs will count towards the total project costs.

South Korean partners

South Korean partners must not be invited into Innovate UK’s application on the Innovation Funding Service.

South Korean partners will be funded by KIAT or KETEP following a parallel application.

Subcontractors

Subcontractors are allowed in this competition, but they are limited to no more than 20% of the total eligible costs of the UK participation.

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.

Number of applications

A UK registered business can only lead on one application but can be included as a collaborator in a further 2 applications.

If a UK registered business is not leading any application, it can collaborate in any number of applications.

A UK registered academic institution or research and technology organisation (RTO) cannot lead an application but can collaborate on any number of applications.

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.

Applicants must ensure that all of the proposed work within projects, both that in the UK and internationally, will comply with the UKRI guidance on the use of animals in research and innovation.

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:

  • deliver any military applications
  • are not in scope
  • do not meet Innovate UK’s eligibility criteria
  • do not submit all mandatory documentation
  • have a grant request of more than £900,000 from Innovate UK
  • do not have an eligible South Korean partner

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 £6 million has been allocated to fund UK participants in 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 South Korea. 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 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

Research participation for UK Organisations

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

Interested in applying for this competition?

Book an appointment to speak to one of our advisors to discuss your eligibility to apply for this Grant Funding opportunity.