Launchpad: immersive & creative, Coventry & Warwickshire Rd2 CR&D

Overview

Innovate UK, part of UK Research and Innovation, will work with Coventry City Council, Warwickshire County Council, and the West Midlands Combined Authority to to invest up to £4.35 million in innovation projects.

This funding is from Innovate UK’s Launchpad programme which supports the UK government’s goals for local economic growth. This Launchpad is also supporting CWX as the local cluster management organisation.

This will support projects across two Launchpad competition strands that target the immersive and creative industries innovation cluster centred on Coventry and Warwickshire.

Scope

The aim of this competition is to support outstanding innovation projects led by businesses. Your business must be growing your innovation activities in the immersive and creative industries cluster centred on Coventry and Warwickshire in the West Midlands.

Your project must build market-orientated opportunities in immersive and creative industries.

Your project must contribute to growing your innovation activities in the cluster, both during and after your project. This could be demonstrated by:

your local innovation activities
the value that your innovation activities create in the cluster
your engagement with other innovation active organisations in the cluster, such as with CWX, this Launchpad’s cluster management organisation

Your application may be considered ineligible if you do not describe clearly how your main project activities and work packages meet the scope of this competition. This includes the main project activities of any subcontractors. If you do not describe how your activities in the cluster will continue after your project, then you are unlikely to be offered funding in this competition.

The geographical requirement is to align this competition to the UK Government’s goals for local economic growth.

Portfolio approach

Following the independent assessment, all applications scoring over 70% will be reviewed by a panel including Innovate UK and our local partners on this Launchpad. The panel will review the applications in line with the portfolio criteria, which will inform Innovate UK’s decision on the funding awards offered.

Innovate UK want to fund a variety of projects across different categories. Innovate UK call this a portfolio approach.

Innovate UK reserve the right to prioritise projects that:

are from applicants who have not led successful applications to the CR&D Round 1 competition for this Launchpad for Coventry and Warwickshire
are shorter in duration
demonstrate more innovation activity or value creation in the cluster or outside the Greater South East of England, during and after the project
demonstrate more engagement in the innovation cluster, during and after the project
demonstrate closer alignment to this competition’s scope and specific themes

Specific Themes

Your project can focus on developing and applying technologies including one or more of the following:

digital media
mixed media
augmented reality
virtual reality
virtual production
game engine and 3D environments
simulations and data visualisations
performance and motion capture
gesture and facial recognition

Your project can be aimed at application in one or more of the following market sectors and industries:

creative industries
video game development
screen sector
healthcare
education
future mobility
manufacturing
retail
tourism, leisure and sport

These lists are not exhaustive. Where you can show your proposal fits within the scope of this competition you can focus on other technologies, sectors and industries.

Eligibility

Your project must:

have a grant funding request of between £150,000 and £1 million
last between 6 and 18 months
carry out all of its project work in the UK
intend to exploit the results from or in the UK
not start before 1 May 2025
end by 31 December 2026

Projects must always start on the first of the month, even if this is a non-working day. You must not start your project until your Grant Offer Letter has been approved by Innovate UK. Any delays within Project Setup may mean we need to delay your project start date.

You must only include eligible project costs in your application. See our overview of eligible project costs. For specific guidance, see the eligibility section in this competition.

If your project’s total costs, grant funding request or duration falls outside of our eligibility criteria, you must provide justification by email to support@iuk.ukri.org at least 10 working days before the competition closes. We will decide whether to approve your request.

If you have not requested approval or your application has not been approved by us, you will be made ineligible. Your application will then not be sent for assessment.

Lead organisation

To lead a project your business must:

be a UK registered business of any size
be or involve at least one grant claiming micro, small or medium-sized enterprise (SME)
collaborate with other UK registered organisations
be growing your innovation activities in the immersive and creative industries cluster centred on Coventry and Warwickshire
have a demonstrable ambition for business growth

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

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)

Each partner organisation must be invited into the Innovation Funding Service (IFS) 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 IFS. They are responsible for entering their own project costs and completing their Project Impact questions in the application.

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

Non-funded partners

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 eligible project costs.

Subcontractors

Subcontractors are allowed in this competition.

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 business can lead on only one CR&D strand application and can be included as a collaborator in any number of applications. Any subsequent applications submitted with the same project lead will be ineligible and will not be forwarded for assessment.

If you are not leading any application, you can collaborate in any number of applications.

If you apply to the Minimal Financial Assistance strand of this competition, as well as this CR&D strand, each project must be clearly distinctive and separate. We will monitor closely for this separation if you are awarded funding in both strands.

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.

Exclusions

Innovate UK are not funding projects that are:

do not meet the competition eligibility or scope requirements
request grant funding of less than £150,000 or more than £1 million

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

Innovate UK have allocated up to £4.35 million to fund innovation projects across the two strands of this Launchpad competition for Coventry and Warwickshire.

Funding will be in the form of a grant.

The total funding available for this Launchpad competition can change. The funders have the right to:

adjust the funding allocations between all Launchpad competitions and strands
apply a ‘portfolio’ approach

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.

The balance between your total eligible project costs and the amount of grant awarded must be funded by the organisation receiving the grant.

For feasibility studies and industrial research projects, you can 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 can 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 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 can 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 eligible project costs if you are an RTO, charity, not for profit organisation, public sector organisation or research organisation

Back

R&D Tax Credits

Grant Funding

Other Services

Insights

Events