Collaborative R&D Round 3

Overview

Innovate UK, part of UK Research and Innovation, will work with The Bundesministerium für Wirtschaft und Klimaschutz (BMWK), (The Federal Ministry For Economic Affairs And Climate Action), to invest up to £4 million in innovation projects in the Germany Bilateral: Collaborative R&D Round 3.

Scope

The aim of this competition is to enhance UK and German collaborations and capabilities in the emerging fields of technology in our society. This is to develop and deliver new innovations and applications of the technologies across a broad range of sectors.

Your project must demonstrate:

a clear game-changing or disruptive innovative idea leading to new products, processes or services
a strong and deliverable business proposal within your application that addresses and documents, market potential and needs
sound, practical financial plans and timelines
good value for money
how you intend to deliver significant economic impact, return on investment (ROI) and growth through commercialisation, within 2 to 3 years of project completion
clear potential to significantly benefit the UK economy or national productivity
the benefit of participants from the countries working together and how this adds value
a clear definition of where intellectual property (IP) can be used and shared between the participants and countries
a clear route to market within 2 to 3 years of project completion

Specific themes

Innovate UK want to fund a variety of projects across a range of sectors and technology areas. We particularly encourage applications from the following emerging technology areas:

Quantum
AI
Semiconductor Applications
Engineering Biology
Future Telecommunications
Green Technologies (including hydrogen and battery technologies)

This list is not exhaustive.

Eligibility

Your project must:

have a maximum grant funding request of £500,000
last between 18 and 36 months
carry out the majority of its project work in the UK
intend to exploit the results from or in the UK
start on 1 December 2024
end by 30 November 2027

Projects must always start on the first of the month and this must be stated within your application. Your project start date will be reflected in your grant offer letter if you are successful.

You must not invite your collaborating German partners onto the Innovate UK’s Innovation Funding Service application platform. Their involvement in the project is listed as part of your answers to the questions.

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

Lead organisation

To lead a project your organisation must:

be a UK registered business of any size
be or involve at least one UK micro, small or medium-sized enterprise (SME)
collaborate with at least one German registered SME applying to the German ZIM programme, which must be a separate legal entity, not linked to the UK 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
charity
not for profit
public sector organisation
research and technology organisation (RTO)

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.

Each German project partner must submit a separate, individual ZIM application to BMWK.

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 project costs.

Subcontractors

Subcontractors are allowed in this competition.

Subcontractors can be from anywhere in the UK or Germany 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 or Germany.

You must provide a detailed rationale, evidence of the potential UK or German 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 two further applications.

If an organisation is not leading any application, it can collaborate in up to three 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 are:

do not have a genuine collaboration with a German SME who has been successful in the corresponding German ZIM programme
do not meet Innovate UK’s eligibility criteria

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 from Innovate UK, and up to 4 million euros from the German BMWK, has been allocated to fund innovation projects in this competition. Funding will be in the form of a grant.

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 project costs and the amount of grant awarded must be funded by the organisation receiving the grant.

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

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, charity, not for profit organisation, public sector organisation or research organisation

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UK – Germany Bilateral: Collaborative R&D Round 3