SBRI: Identifying Regulatory Obligations on Businesses

Overview

The Better Regulation Executive (BRE) aims to develop a regulatory system that is simpler for businesses to navigate, while maintaining important protections for citizens and the environment.

BRE and the department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) are seeking technological solutions to help analyse the cumulative effect of different regulations on business. For example, they can examine the complexity of regulations, how often they change and the interactions between them. Successful solutions could help the government prioritise future regulatory reform.

Scope

They are seeking technological solutions which address 3 questions:

1. How can we analyse the stock of existing regulation and identify which requirements apply to different businesses and sectors?
2. How can we assess how challenging individual regulatory requirements are for different businesses and sectors to comply with?
3. How can we assess how challenging the cumulative stock of regulation is for different businesses and sectors to comply with?

A range of factors affect how challenging regulatory requirements are for businesses, other than the underlying policy goals. These include the:

• length, complexity and scope of the regulation
• frequency of changes to the regulation
• interactions between multiple pieces of regulation, such as overlaps
• overall volume of regulation and the number of different sources

Within your application you must:

• provide details of your proposed idea, solution or technologies to meet the challenge
• be prepared to adopt a valid technical approach
• be innovative and be prepared to develop or employ novel concepts, approaches, methodologies, tools or techniques
• outline a clear plan for establishing technical and commercial feasibility and the development of a working prototype
• outline the skills, capabilities and experience you have to deliver the project
• confirm that the budget is realistic and is justified in terms of the aims and methods proposed
• have a plan to deliver a marketable product and demonstrate how that product would have a competitive advantage over existing or alternative technologies
• demonstrate a willingness to work with the competition owner (BEIS) and partner organisations

Themes

For phase 1, you are expected to demonstrate the potential to answer at least one of the 3 questions in the scope for businesses operating within a specific sector. You should also plan to deliver a complete solution to all 3 questions in phase 2.

Eligibility

To lead a project, you can:

• be an organisation of any size
• work alone or with others from business, the research base or charities and public sector organisations as subcontractors

Applications that bring together a consortium of sector specialists are welcomed.

Funding Costs

A total of up to £250,000, including VAT, is allocated to phase 1.

Applications must have at least 50% of the contract value attributed directly and exclusively for research and development (R&D) services. R&D can cover solution exploration and design. It can also include prototyping and field-testing the product or service.

The first phase involves feasibility study research and development (R&D) contracts being awarded up to £50,000, including VAT. This is for each project to demonstrate technical feasibility of the proposed solution. Projects must start by 17 May and can last up to 3 months.

The second phase involves up to 2 R&D contracts being awarded to businesses chosen from the successful phase 1 applicants. Up to £500,000, including VAT, will be allocated for each contract, in order to develop a prototype and undertake testing for up to 12 months.

Exclusions

They will not fund projects which do not:

• meet the requirements outlined in the scope
• have a technology aspect
• comply with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)