Launchpad: marine and maritime in the Great South West – R2 CR&D

Key Features

UK registered organisations can apply for a share of up to £3 million for business led projects that grow their innovation activities in the marine and maritime cluster in the Great South West. This funding is from Innovate UK.

Programme:     Innovate UK

Award:     Share of up to £3 million

Opens: 2nd Sep 2024

Closes: 16th Oct 2024

! This scheme is now closed

Overview

Innovate UK, part of UK Research and Innovation, will work with the Great South West to invest up to £3 million in innovation projects for marine and maritime.

This funding is from Innovate UK’s Launchpad programme. The Launchpad programme supports the UK government’s goals in the Levelling Up White Paper.

The funding will support projects across two Launchpad competition strands that target the marine and maritime cluster in the Great South West.

The projects will contribute to the Great South West’s ambitions for net zero targets and support for key regional strategic marine and maritime markets.

The businesses will use the funding to grow their innovation activities in the cluster, both during and after the project.

For this competition, the Great South West consists of Cornwall and Isles of Scilly, Devon, Somerset and Dorset.

Your proposal must align to the scope criteria for this competition.

This competition is split into two strands:

  • Launchpad: marine and maritime, Great South West – Round 2 Collaborative Research and Development (CR&D) (this strand)
  • Launchpad: marine and maritime, Great South West – Round 2 Minimal Financial Assistance (MFA)

It is your responsibility to ensure you submit your application to the correct strand for your project. You will not be able to transfer your application and it will not be sent for assessment if it is out of scope.

In applying to this competition, you are entering into a competitive process. This competition has a funding limit, so we may not be able to fund all the proposed projects. It may be the case that your project scores highly but we are still unable to fund it.

Overview

The aim of this competition is to support outstanding innovation projects led by businesses. Your business must be growing innovation activities in the marine and maritime cluster in the Great South West.

For this competition, the Great South West consists of Cornwall and Isles of Scilly, Devon, Somerset and Dorset.

The geographical requirement is set to align this competition to the UK government’s goals in the Levelling Up White Paper.

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

  • marine autonomy
  • clean maritime
  • digital ocean technologies

Your project must contribute to growing your innovation activities in the cluster, both during and after the project.

Portfolio approach

Innovate UK want to fund a variety of projects across different durations, locations and themes. We call this a portfolio approach.

In support of the UK government’s Levelling Up goals, we reserve the right to prioritise projects that:

  • are shorter in duration
  • more significantly advance innovation in marine and maritime
  • have more innovation activity taking place in the innovation cluster or outside of the Greater South East
  • achieve a balance between the specific themes for this competition

Specific Themes

Your project can focus on one or more of the following theme areas:

Monitoring and Autonomy

Developing or using disruptive technologies to replace traditional ship-based alternatives for equipment inspection and other marine monitoring operations and enhance safety of the seas, such as in the offshore renewable energy industry.

Clean Maritime

Transitioning to alternative fuel powered vessels using energy from low or zero emission sources or highly efficient batteries, also integrating ports into a decarbonised energy network and supplying the fuels of the future.

Digital Ocean Technology

Advancing sensor and communication technology and their connectedness and interoperability, to enhance our understanding of the ocean and the impacts from offshore operations, including in aquaculture and the emerging ocean economy.

This list is not exhaustive. Where you can show your proposal fits within the scope of this competition you can focus on other themes.

Eligibility

Your project must:

  • have a grant funding request of between £150,000 and £750,000
  • 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 April 2025
  • end by 30 December 2026

Projects must always start on the first of the month. 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.

Lead organisation

To lead a project your organisation must:

  • be a UK registered business of any size
  • be or involve at least one micro, small or medium-sized enterprise (SME)
  • collaborate with other UK registered organisations
  • be growing your innovation activities in the marine and maritime cluster in the Great South West
  • have a demonstrable ambition for business growth

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

Academic institutions cannot lead or work alone.

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)

The contribution of project partners must add to the innovation led growth of the cluster.

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 only lead on one CR&D application but 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 an organisation is not leading any application, it can collaborate in any number of applications.

You are not eligible to apply to this Round 2 CR&D competition if you led a successful application to the Great South West Launchpad Round 1 CR&D competition.

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 competition 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.

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:

  • do not contribute to innovation activity in the marine and maritime cluster in the Great South West
  • require approval from the Marine and Coastguard Agency (MCA) for testing in an operational marine environment within the duration of the project
  • are led by a business that led a successful application to the Great South West Launchpad Round 1 CR&D competition
  • request grant funding of less than £150,000 or more than £750,000
  • do not meet the competition eligibility or scope requirements
  • request funding for primary production in fisheries, aquaculture or agriculture

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 £3 million to fund innovation projects across the two strands of this Launchpad competition for the Great South West.

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 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

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.