Only UK registered partners must be listed in the Project Partner section of your application on the Innovation Funding Service (IFS). The funding provided to the UK partners will be made under the research and development innovation (RD&I) streamlined route.

Your South Korean partner will not receive any of this UK competition funding. South Korean partners will be funded by KAIA following a parallel application.

Each organisation in your consortium will receive funding from its respective national funding body.

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

South Korean partners

Each UK project must collaborate with a South Korean partner. South Korean partners must not be invited into Innovate UK’s application on the Innovation Funding Service.

South Korean partners will be funded by KAIA following a parallel application. South Korean collaborators must apply for funding separately through the Korea Agency for Infrastructure Technology Advancement (KAIA).

You must work very closely with your South Korean partners during application development. You must bear in mind that KAIA’s eligibility and timelines may be slightly different to the UK process.

Non-funded UK partners

Your project can include partners that do not receive any of this competition’s funding. Their costs will count towards the total 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.

You can use subcontractors from overseas but must make the case in your application as to why you could not use suppliers from the UK.

You must provide a detailed rationale, evidence of the potential UK contractors you approached and the reasons why they were unable to work with you. We will not accept a cheaper cost as a sufficient reason to use an overseas subcontractor.

All subcontractor costs must be justified and appropriate to the total project costs.

Number of applications

A business can only lead on one application but can be included as a collaborator in one further application.

If a business is not leading any application, it can collaborate in any number of applications.

Academic institutions, research and technology organisation (RTO), charities, not for profit, local authorities or other public sector organisations 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.

Exclusions

Innovate UK are not funding projects that:

• duplicate existing technology
• do not collaborate with a South Korea partner which secures funding from KAIA

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

Up to £4 million has been allocated to fund UK organisations for innovation projects over the two phases of this competition. Funding will be in the form of a grant. Phase 1 will fund up to £1 million for feasibility studies projects.

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.

For feasibility studies, 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

The UK research organisations undertaking non-economic activity as part of the project can share up to 40% 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 40% 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, charity, not for profit organisation, public sector organisation (including city authorities), or research organisations (including social housing providers and providers of Living Lab facilities)