Key Features
UK registered organisations can apply for a share of up to £5 million as part of a collaboration with a Singapore partner for industrial research projects that develop sustainable technologies helping reduce emissions and achieve a net-zero future.
Programme: Innovate UK
Award: Share of up to £5 million
Opens: 14th Aug 2023
Closes: 6th Dec 2023
Innovate UK part of UK Research and Innovation, will partner with Enterprise Singapore (“EnterpriseSG”) to invest up to £5 million in innovation projects.
The aim of this competition is to fund business led, collaborative research and development (CR&D) net zero and sustainability projects focused on industrial research, for innovative proposals developed between the UK and Singapore.
Your project must demonstrate:
Your project must directly address Sustainability and Net Zero challenges. This can include but is not limited to the following key technological areas:
We want to fund a variety of projects across different technologies and UK geographical locations. We call this a portfolio approach.
Your project must directly address Sustainability and Net Zero challenges. This can include but is not limited to the following key technological areas:
Agrifood
Clean Energy and Renewables
Green Buildings
Sustainable Manufacturing
Urban Mobility
Water and Environment
Waste Management
Carbon
Your project must:
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 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.
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 Enterprise Singapore (EnterpriseSG) following a parallel application.
Each organisation in your consortium will receive funding from its respective national funding body.
Your project must have a balanced contribution of the total eligible project costs among the partners from the participating partner countries. No more than 70% of the total project costs can be claimed by any single partner or by all partners from a single participating country.
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 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.
To lead a project your organisation must:
More information on the different types of UK organisations can be found in our Funding rules.
Academic institutions and research and technology organisations (RTO) cannot lead.
UK partners
As a UK partner, to collaborate with the lead your organisation must be a UK registered:
Each UK partner organisation must be invited into the Innovation Funding Service 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 Innovation Funding Service.
In collaborative projects, the lead and at least one other UK registered organisation must apply for funding when entering their costs into the application.
Singapore partners
Singapore partners must not be invited into Innovate UK’s application on the Innovation Funding Service.
Singapore partners will be funded by EnterpriseSG 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.
You can use subcontractors from the UK, Singapore and other countries but you must make the case in your application as to why, if you could not use suppliers from the UK. All subcontractors must be selected through your usual procurement process.
You must provide a detailed rationale and evidence of the potential UK or other contractors you approached, with the reasons why they were unable to work with you. We will not accept a cheaper cost as a sufficient reason to use a subcontractor from a third country. All subcontractor costs must be justified and appropriate for the project.
Number of applications
A UK registered business can lead on one application but can be included as a collaborator in a further 2 applications.
If a UK registered business is not leading any application, it can collaborate in up to 3 applications.
A UK registered academic institution or RTO can collaborate on any number of applications.
You can use a previously submitted application to apply for this competition.
Innovate UK are not funding projects that:
Innovate UK cannot fund projects that are:
Up to £5 million has been allocated to fund innovation projects in this competition. Funding will be in the form of a grant.
If the majority of 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.
For industrial research projects, you could get funding for your eligible project costs of:
Singapore partners must request any funding support from Enterprise Singapore.
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:
Book an appointment to speak to one of our advisors to discuss your eligibility to apply for this Grant Funding opportunity.