Manufacturing and materials round 2

The aim of this competition is to stimulate and broaden innovation in manufacturing and materials. Innovate UK will fund a range of projects that address identified technical or commercial challenges. These aim to lead to increased productivity, competitiveness and growth for UK businesses.  A project may focus on technical feasibility, industrial research or experimental development. This will depend on the challenge identified.

For this competition, projects must cover at least one of these areas, please click here.

You must show how your proposal will enable a step change in competitiveness and productivity for at least one UK SME involved in the project.

Your project must focus on a manufacturing or materials innovation, rather than a product innovation. This means the main challenge and risk in the project will be in the manufacturing process or materials development.

To lead a project you must:

• be a UK-based business
• carry out your project in the UK
• be an SME if you wish to work alone on a project no longer than 12 months and with costs of less than £100,000
• work in collaboration with others (businesses, research base and third sector), if your project has costs over £100,000 or is longer than 12 months.

In addition, companies can only:

• lead 1 project per competition
• be involved in 2 projects per competition
• apply twice with the same project to any competition, that means 1 re-submission only