UK-Taiwan CRD 2024

Key Features

UK registered businesses can apply for a share of up to £5 million for the purpose of developing innovative proposals with Taiwan. You must collaborate with at least one Taiwan business applying under the equivalent DoIT programme.

Programme:     Innovate UK

Award:     Share of up to £5 million

Opens: 8th Apr 2024

Closes: 17th Jul 2024

! This scheme is now closed

Overview

Innovate UK, part of UK Research and Innovation, will work with the Department of Industrial Technology (DoIT) to invest up to £5 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, for innovative proposals developed between the UK and Taiwan.

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 Taiwan working together and how this adds value
  • a clear definition of where intellectual property (IP) can be used and shared between the participants
  • a clear route to market within two to three years of project completion

Innovate UK would particularly welcome applications from the following sectors:

  • smart technology, for example next generation communication, semiconductor technology and space technology
  • green energy technologies, for example electric vehicles, hydrogen transportation, renewable energy, future grids and carbon capture storage and utilisation
  • smart manufacturing
  • biotechnology, for example medical materials and devices
  • service innovation, for example the Internet of Things, Big Data, Artificial Intelligence, 5G and 6G

Eligibility

Your project must:

  • have a grant funding request of no more than £900,000
  • start by 1 January 2025
  • end by 31 December 2027
  • last between 24 and 36 months

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 Taiwan.

All businesses in a consortium must be separate legal and non-linked entities. 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

Projects should have a balanced contribution of the total eligible project costs among the partners from the UK and Taiwan. No more than 70% of the total project costs can be claimed by a single partner or by all partners from either the UK or Taiwan.

Each organisation will receive funding from its respective public funding body.

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 and Belarusian entity as lead, partner or subcontractor. This includes any goods or services originating from a Russian and Belarusian source.

Roles and terminology

There must be a ‘project lead’ and this can be either an eligible UK or Taiwan organisation. 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 business.

UK lead applicant

To lead a project your organisation must:

  • be a UK registered business of any size
  • partner with a Taiwan registered business, which must be a separate non-linked entity to the UK project partners

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
  • research and technology organisation (RTO)

Each UK partner organisation must be invited into the Innovation Funding Service by the lead to collaborate on a project. Once accepted, UK partners will be asked to login or to create an account and enter their own project costs into the Innovation Funding Service.

Overseas partners

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

Taiwan partners will be funded by the Department of Industrial Technology (DoIT) 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 lead on one application but can be included as a collaborator in a further two applications.

If a UK registered business is not leading any application, it can collaborate in up to three applications.

A UK registered academic institution or RTO 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.

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.

You can make a maximum of two 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.

Exclusions

Innovate UK are not funding projects that:

  • work on military applications
  • do not meet Innovate UK’s eligibility criteria
  • do not submit all mandatory documentation
  • request a grant of more than £900,000 from Innovate UK
  • do not have an eligible Taiwan 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

Innovate UK have allocated up to £5 million to fund UK participants in innovation projects for this competition. Funding will be in the form of a grant.

Each respective public funding agency will fund its eligible participants according to their own procedure and funding rules. Funding conditions and eligibility criteria may vary between UK and Taiwan. 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