UK registered organisations can apply for a share of up to £32 million for innovation projects that can improve productivity in key sectors through the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI). This funding is from the Technologies Mission Fund.
The aim of this competition is to support the development and adoption of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) solutions in the priority sectors of transport, construction, agriculture and creative industries.
Overview
Your proposal must:
- identify an end user for your solution within one of the priority sectors
- clearly indicate how your solution will improve business productivity or efficiency in one of the priority sectors
- demonstrate how key partners will facilitate the commercialisation of research
This competition is split into 2 strands:
- collaborative R&D projects (this strand)
It is your responsibility to ensure you submit your application to the correct strand for your project. You will not be able to transfer your application and it will not be sent for assessment if it is out of scope.
In applying to this competition, you are entering into a competitive process.
This competition closes at 11am UK time on the deadline stated.
Your project must:
- have a grant funding request between £700,000 and £1.2 million
- last between 10 and 12 months
- carry out all of its project work in the UK
- intend to exploit the results from or in the UK
- start on 1 April 2024
- end by 31 March 2025
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.
Lead organisation
To lead a project your organisation must be a UK registered business of any size.
More information on the different types of organisation can be found in our Funding rules.
You must involve at least one micro, small or medium-sized enterprise (SME), one large enterprise and one academic institution or RTO.
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 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.
To be an eligible collaboration, the lead and at least one other organisation must apply for funding when entering their costs into the application.
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 but they are limited to no more than 20% of each project partner’s total grant request.
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 a further 2 applications.
A business that is not leading on an application can collaborate in a total of 2 applications.
An RTO, Academic Institution or Public Sector Organisation can collaborate in any number of applications.
Up to £32 million 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.
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
For experimental development projects which are nearer to market, you could get funding for your eligible project costs of:
- up to 45% if you are a micro or small organisation
- up to 35% if you are a medium sized organisation
- up to 25% if you are a large organisation
For more information on company sizes, please refer to the company accounts guidance.
If you are applying for an award funded under State aid Regulations, the definitions are set out in the European Commission Recommendation of 6 May 2003.
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
The aim of this competition is to support the development and adoption of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) solutions in the priority sectors of transport, construction, agriculture and creative industries.
Your project must:
- identify an end user for your solution within one of the priority sectors
- demonstrate an improvement in business productivity or efficiency in one of the priority sectors.
- demonstrate how key partners will facilitate the commercialisation of research
Portfolio approach
We want to fund a variety of projects across different technologies, markets, technological maturities, locations, strands and themes, and research categories. We call this a portfolio approach.
Specific themes
Your project can focus on one or more of the following:
- data driven decision making
- automation of administrative tasks
- project management optimisation
- supply chain optimisation and forecast models
- waste management
- intellectual property (IP) management
- design
This list is not intended to be exhaustive.
Research categories
We will fund industrial research projects and experimental development projects, as defined in the guidance on categories of research.
Projects we will not fund
We are not funding projects that are:
- in advertising and marketing
- involved in direct primary production in fishery and aquaculture
- involved in direct primary production in agriculture i.e. the project must be undertaking research and development, the solution must be for exploitation by the wider business community and the funding cannot be used for capital asset acquisition
- related to the purchase of road freight transport
We 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
27 September 2023: Competition opens
29 September 2023: Online briefing event: register to attend
8 November 2023, 11:00am: Competition closes
13 December 2023: Applicants notified
You must read the guidance on applying for a competition on the Innovation Funding Service before you start.
Before submitting, it is the lead applicant’s responsibility to make sure:
You can reopen your application once submitted, up until the competition deadline. You must resubmit the application before the competition deadline.
What we ask you
The application is split into 4 sections:
1.Project details.
2.Application questions.
3.Finances.
4.Project Impact.
For the application questions, see here.
This competition is operated by Innovate UK.
Innovate UK is directly accountable to you for its holding and processing of your information, including any personal data and confidential information. Data is held in accordance with our own policies. Accordingly, Innovate UK will be data controllers for personal data submitted during the application. Innovate UK’s Privacy Policy is accessible here.
Innovate UK complies with the requirements of GDPR, and is committed to upholding the data protection principles, and protecting your information. The Information Commissioner’s Office also has a useful guide for organisations, which outlines the data protection principles.
Find a project partner
If you want help to find a project partner, contact Innovate UK KTN.
Support for SMEs from Innovate UK EDGE
If you receive an award, you will be contacted about working with an innovation and growth specialist at Innovate UK EDGE. This service forms part of our funded offer to you.
These specialists focus on growing innovative businesses and ensuring that projects contribute to their growth. Working one-to-one, they can help you to identify your best strategy and harness world-class resources to grow and achieve scale.
We encourage you to engage with Innovate UK EDGE, delivered by a knowledgeable and objective specialist near you.