UK-Singapore Collaborative R&D 2024

Overview

Innovate UK, part of UK Research and Innovation, will invest up to £5 million in innovation projects in partnership with Enterprise Singapore. This competition has an open scope.

UK registered organisations must collaborate with at least one Singapore non-linked registered business applying under the equivalent Enterprise Singapore programme.

UK registered organisations must apply through the Innovation Funding Service (IFS) portal to Innovate UK and will be funded by Innovate UK.

Your Singapore partner will not receive any funding from Innovate UK.

Singapore partners must apply to and will be funded by Enterprise Singapore.

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 Singapore.

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
considerable potential to significantly benefit the UK economy or national productivity
the benefits 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 two to three years of project completion

Innovation would particularly welcome applications from the following sectors:

Advanced manufacturing and materials
Agrifood tech
Mobility and transport
Cybersecurity
Health and life sciences

Eligibility

For UK organisations your project must:

have a maximum grant funding request of £750,000
last between 24 and 36 months
start by 1 April 2025
end by 31 March 2028

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 Singapore.

All businesses in a consortium must be separate 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.

No one country or project partner can represent more than 70% of the total project cost.

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

Your proposal must demonstrate a clear intention to commercially exploit the results of the project domestically or globally.

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.

UK lead applicant

To start an application on the Innovation Funding Service (IFS), your organisation must:

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

More information on the different types of UK organisations can be found in our Funding rules.

UK 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)

Only UK registered partners must be listed in the Project Partner section of your application on the Innovation Funding Service (IFS). Your Singapore partner will not receive any of this UK competition funding. Singapore partners will be funded by the Enterprise Singapore programme 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 IFS by the lead to collaborate on a project. Once accepted, partners will be asked to login or to create an account and enter their own project costs into the IFS.

International partners

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

Singapore partners will be funded by Enterprise Singapore 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 only 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.

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 grant of more than £750,000 from Innovate UK
do not have an eligible Singapore 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 innovation projects in this competition. Funding will be in the form of a grant.

Each country will fund its eligible participants according to their national procedure and funding rules. Funding conditions and eligibility criteria may vary between UK and Singapore. 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 can 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 can 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

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