UK registered organisations can apply for a share of up to £2 million to develop Innovative proposals in partnership with Japan and other participating Eureka countries.
This competition is for UK businesses that want to apply to the Eureka Globalstars Japan Round 3 call.
Innovate UK, part of UK Research and Innovation, is investing up to £2 million to fund collaborative research and development (CR&D) projects focused on industrial research.
The aim of this competition is to fund business led, collaborative research and development (CR&D) projects focused on industrial research. This competition will be for innovative proposals developed between the UK, Japan and the other Eureka participating countries. Innovate UK will be funding the UK partners only.
Your project must have high market potential and develop at least one of the following:
Projects must include at least one SME from Japan and can include other partners from one of the other Eureka countries participating in the competition. The other Eureka participating countries are:
If you are not a UK applicant, you must visit the Eureka call for proposals web page.
In applying to this competition, you are entering into a competitive process. This competition has a funding budget of up to £2 million, so we may not be able to fund all the proposed projects.
It may be the case that your project scores highly and receives positive comments from the assessors, but we are still unable to fund it due to the portfolio approach and the consensus we take with other countries.
Projects must be co-ordinated by a lead partner from the UK and a lead partner from Japan as a minimum requirement. Any additional partners from each member country should also nominate a lead from that country.
The lead UK applicant must submit your Innovate UK application by 11am UK time on the deadline stated in this Innovate UK competition brief. We cannot guarantee other government or third-party sites will always show the correct competition information.
In addition, your project team must submit the Eureka project application form to the Eureka website by 11:59am central European time (10:59am UK time) on 4 December 2024.
Grant
UK applicants can apply for total grant funding of up to £600,000 for each project.
We welcome and encourage applications from people of all backgrounds and are committed to making our application process accessible to everyone. This includes making reasonable adjustments, for people who have a disability or a long-term condition and face barriers applying to us.
You can contact us at any time to ask for guidance.
We recommend you contact us at least 15 working days before this competition’s closing date to allow us to put the most suitable support in place. The support we can provide may be limited if you contact us close to the competition deadline.
You can contact Innovate UK by email or call 0300 321 4357. Our phone lines are open from 9am to 12pm and 2pm to 5pm UK time, Monday to Friday (excluding bank holidays).
Your project
UK applicants can apply for total grant of up to £600,000 for each project.
Your project can last between 12 and 36 months and is expected to start by 1 June 2025 and end by 31 May 2028. The start date depends on the national funding procedures of the Eureka members involved in the selected projects.
Projects must be collaborative. No more than 70% of the total eligible project costs can be claimed by a single partner or by all partners from a single participating Eureka country collectively.
Eureka terminology and roles
The terminology differs between Eureka and Innovate UK. In the Innovate UK application the ‘project lead’ is responsible for the entire project but Eureka uses the term ‘main participant’. For partners in the collaboration Eureka uses ‘other participants’.
Even if the project lead is from a participating Eureka member other than the UK, the UK registered partners can still claim funding from Innovate UK. These collaborations must include at least one UK registered business of any size.
UK lead applicant
The UK registered partners in your Eureka project must nominate one business, of any size, to start an Innovate UK application. We refer to them as the ‘UK lead organisation’ and the person they nominate to have overall responsibility as the ‘UK lead applicant’.
The UK lead applicant has an overall view of the Innovate UK application and must:
The UK lead applicant must collaborate with at least one SME from Japan. It must be a separate legal entity, not linked to the UK partners.
You can also collaborate with other participating Eureka countries in addition to Japan.
Overall Eureka project team
The overall Eureka project must nominate one organisation to start a Eureka application.
The organisations from Japan and other participating Eureka countries must meet the funding and eligibility conditions of their respective national funding bodies. These will be published on the Eureka call for proposals web page when this competition opens. In addition to the Eureka application, these organisations must apply through their own funding bodies and not through the Innovation Funding Service.
Each partner must carry out the majority of their funded work within the Eureka country from which they receive funding, for example, the UK for Innovate UK funding.
There must be a genuine collaboration. No more than 70% of the total eligible project costs can be claimed by a single partner or by all partners from a single participating Eureka country collectively.
UK project team
The UK lead applicant can also collaborate with:
UK research organisations cannot lead or work alone. They must be able to show how they will exploit the results of the project to grow the wider sector in the UK.
Each UK 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.
Only UK registered partners must be listed in the project partner section of your application in IFS.
Subcontractors
Subcontractors are allowed in this competition but they must not account for more than 20% of the UK partners’ total eligible costs. Subcontractors can be from anywhere in the UK. Where subcontractors are non-UK based, please justify why you are unable to use a UK alternative.
All subcontractor costs must be justified and appropriate to the total eligible project costs.
Partners not claiming funding
A non-grant claiming UK partner cannot lead on a project.
Your collaboration can include organisations from Eureka countries that are not participating in this funding competition provided:
Number of applications
A UK registered business can only lead on one application but can be included as a collaborator in two further 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.
Sanctions
This competition will not fund you, or provide any financial benefit to any individual or entities directly or indirectly involved with you, which would expose Innovate UK or any direct or indirect beneficiary of funding from Innovate UK to UK Sanctions. For example, through any procurement, commercial, business development or supply chain activity with any entity as lead, partner or subcontractor related to these countries, administrations and terrorist groups.
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.
Applicants must ensure that all of the proposed work within projects, both that in the UK and internationally, will comply with the UKRI guidance on the use of animals in research and innovation.
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.
If you have previously submitted an application that reached our assessment stage, you can re-apply once more with the same proposal.
If there are minor differences to the proposal, but it is judged by us to be ‘not materially different’, the same rule applies.
We will not award you funding if you have:
This competition provides funding for UK applicants in line with the Subsidy Control Act 2022. Further information about the Subsidy requirements can be found within the Subsidy Control Act 2022 (legislation.gov.uk).
Innovate UK is unable to award UK organisations that are considered to be in financial difficulty. We will conduct financial viability and eligibility tests to confirm this is not the case following the application stage.
EU State aid rules now only apply in limited circumstances. Please see the Windsor Framework to check if these rules apply to your organisation.
Further Information
If you are unsure about your obligations under the Subsidy Control Act 2022 or the State aid rules, you should take independent legal advice. We are unable to advise on individual eligibility or legal obligations.
You must always make sure that the funding awarded to you is compliant with all current Subsidy Control legislation applicable in the United Kingdom.
This aims to regulate any advantage granted by a public sector body which threatens to, or actually distorts competition in the United Kingdom or any other country or countries.
This award is classified as a Subsidy which does not form part of your Minimal Financial Assistance or De Minimis allowance.
We have allocated up to £2 million to fund UK applicants undertaking innovation projects in this competition.
For industrial research projects, you could get funding for your eligible project costs of:
up to 50% if you are a UK registered large business
For more information on company sizes, please refer to the company accounts guidance.
The UK registered research organisations undertaking non-economic activity as part of the project can share up to 30% of the total UK eligible project costs. If your consortium contains more than one UK research organisation, this maximum is shared between them. Of that 30% you could get funding for your eligible project costs of up to:
If your consortium contains more than one UK research organisation, this maximum will be shared between them.
Organisations from Japan and other Eureka countries will receive funding from its respective national funding body.
The aim of this competition is to fund business led, collaborative research and development (CR&D) projects focused on industrial research. This competition will be for innovative proposals developed between the UK, Japan and the other Eureka participating countries. Innovate UK will be funding the UK partners only.
The EUREKA member countries confirmed as participating in this competition are:
This competition will support industrial research with Innovate UK funding the UK partners only.
Your collaborative R&D proposal must demonstrate:
Your project must demonstrate an effective collaboration between the UK partners and Japan as a minimum.
Portfolio approach
We are looking to fund a portfolio of projects, across a variety of technologies and UK geographical locations. We call this a portfolio approach.
Your project must focus on industrial research as defined in the general guidance.
We will not fund projects that:
We cannot fund projects that are:
9 September 2024 Competition opens
19 September 2024 Online briefing event at 1.00pm: register to attend
Briefing slides will be available to download from supporting information after the event.
4 December 2024 Eureka deadline 10:59am UK time
4 December 2024 11:00am Competition closes
6 March 2025 Applicants notified
You must read the guidance on applying for a competition on the Innovation Funding Service before you start.
Your Innovate UK application will be ineligible if you do not upload the appendices when requested, including the completed Eureka project application.
Before submitting, it is the UK 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.
As well as submitting an application on the Innovation Funding Service (IFS), the overall project lead partner must complete the EUREKA project application on behalf of their project using the new application platform. This is available through the Eureka Globalstars Japan call page on the EUREKA website.
The UK lead partner must submit an application through IFS and upload the EUREKA application, completed by the overall project lead partner, as an appendix.
If you do not submit all required documentation your application will be ineligible.
After the competition deadline Innovate UK will check your application is eligible and in scope.
More information about the application process for participating partner members is on the EUREKA calls for projects website once the competition opens.
UK led consortium
If you are a UK lead applicant, you must:
Non-UK led consortium
A consortium can be led by an organisation from a non-UK participating Eureka country, as long as a UK grant claiming partner is the Innovate UK lead applicant. They will submit the Innovate UK application. Only include UK organisations in the application.
What we will ask you
The application is split into four sections:
Accessibility and Inclusion
We welcome and encourage applications from people of all backgrounds and are committed to making our application process accessible to everyone. This includes making reasonable adjustments, for people who have a disability or a long-term condition and face barriers applying to us.
You can contact us at any time to ask for guidance.
We recommend you contact us at least 15 working days before this competition’s closing date to allow us to put the most suitable support in place. The support we can provide may be limited if you contact us close to the competition deadline.
You can contact Innovate UK by email or call 0300 321 4357. Our phone lines are open from 9am to 12pm and 2pm to 5pm UK time, Monday to Friday (excluding bank holidays).
This section provides background for the assessors and is not scored.
Application details
The UK lead applicant must complete this section. Give your project’s title, start date and duration.
Application team
Decide which UK organisations will work with you on the project. Invite people from those organisations to help complete the application.
You must not invite your Japanese partner or any other Eureka partner organisations into this UK Innovation Funding Service application.
Project summary
Describe your project briefly and be clear about what makes it innovative. We use this section to assign experts to assess your application.
Your answer can be up to 400 words long.
Public description
Describe your project in detail, and in a way that you are happy to see published. Do not include any commercially sensitive information. If we award your project funding, we will publish this description. This could happen before you start your project.
Your answer can be up to 400 words long.
Scope
Describe how your project fits the scope of the competition. If your project is not in scope, it will not be sent for assessment. We will tell you the reason why.
Your answer can be up to 400 words long.
The assessors will score your answers to these questions except for questions 1,2, 3, 4 and 5. You will receive feedback from them for each question.
Your answer to each question can be up to 400 words long. Do not include any website addresses (URLs) in your answers.
Question 1. Applicant location (not scored)
You must state the name and full registered address of your UK organisation, along with the Japanese organisation involved in the collaboration and any other Eureka member project partners working on the project.
We are collecting this information to understand the geographical location of all participants of a project and to confirm the involvement of an eligible SME in Japan.
Question 2. Animal testing (not scored)
Will your project involve any trials with animals or animal testing?
You must select one option:
We will only support innovation projects conducted to the highest standards of animal welfare.
Further information for proposals involving animal testing is available at the UKRI Good Research Hub and NC3R’s animal welfare guidance.
Question 3: Eureka application (not scored)
You must upload a copy of your completed Eureka application as an appendix. It must be in a PDF format and must be in 11 point font size.
Type ‘Eureka application attached’ as your answer.
Question 4. Permits and licences (not scored)
Will you have the correct permits and licences in place to carry out your project?
We are unable to fund projects who do not have the correct permits or licences in place by your project start date.
You must select one option:
Question 5. Awareness of funding opportunity (not scored)
How did you become aware of this funding opportunity?
You must indicate the primary channel through which you heard about this competition:
Question 6. Need or challenge
What is the business need, technological challenge or market opportunity behind your innovation?
Explain:
Question 7. Approach and innovation
What approach will you take and where will the focus of the innovation be?
Explain:
You can submit one appendix to support your answer. It can include diagrams and charts. It must be a PDF no larger than 10MB. It can be up to two A4 pages but must be in 11 point font size.
Question 8. Team and resources
Who is in the project team and what are their roles?
Explain:
You can submit one appendix. This can include a short summary of the main people working on the project to support your answer. It must be a PDF no larger than 10MB. It can be up to two A4 pages but must be in 11 point font size.
Question 9. Market awareness
What does the market you are targeting look like?
Describe:
If your project is highly innovative, where the market may be unexplored, describe or explain:
Question 10. Outcomes and route to market
How are you going to grow your business and increase your productivity into the long term as a result of the project?
Explain:
If there is any research organisation activity in the project, describe:
Question 11. Wider impacts
What impact might this project have outside the project team?
Describe, and where possible, measure the economic benefits from the project such as productivity increases and import substitution, to:
Describe, and where possible, measure:
Describe any expected social impacts, either positive or negative on, for example:
Question 12. Project management
How will you manage your project effectively?
Explain:
You must submit a project plan or Gantt chart as an appendix to support your answer. It must be a PDF no larger than 10MB. It can be up to two A4 pages but must be in 11 point font size.
Question 13. Risks
What are the main risks for this project?
Explain:
You must submit a risk register as an appendix to support your answer. It must be a PDF no larger than 10MB. It can be up to two A4 pages but must be in 11 point font size.
Question 14. Added value
How will this public funding help you to accelerate or enhance your approach to developing your project towards commercialisation? What impact would this award have on the organisations involved?
Explain:
Question 15. Costs and value for money
How much will the project cost and how does it represent value for money for the team and the UK taxpayer?
In terms of your project goals, explain:
Each UK organisation in your project must complete their own project costs, organisation details and funding details in the application. Academic institutions must complete and upload a Je-S form.
For full details on what costs you can claim see our project costs guidance. You can also view our application finances video.
This section is not scored but will provide background to your project.
Each UK partner must complete the Project Impact questions before being able to submit the application.
More information can be found in our Project Impact guidance and by viewing our Impact Management Framework video.
Innovate UK complies with the requirements of UK GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018, and is committed to upholding data protection legislation, and protecting your information in accordance with data protection principles.
Your application will be reviewed by three independent assessors based on the content of your application and their skills or expertise relevant to your project. All of the scores awarded will count towards the total score used to make the funding decision unless you are notified otherwise.
You can find out more about our assessment process in the General Guidance.
Your submitted application will be assessed against these criteria:
Eureka Globalstars Japan Round 3 - assessor guidance for applicants.pdf (opens in a new window)
Further information can be found on the Eureka website.
Briefing slides will be available to download here after the briefing event.
If you want help to find a project collaborator, register at EUREKA Globalstars Japan Virtual Marketplace 2023/2024 (Round 3) or contact Innovate UK Business Connect or the Enterprise Europe Network.
If you need help with the Eureka project application form, help can be found at Library - Eureka (eurekanetwork.org), or you can contact Eureka directly.
If you need more information on submitting to Innovate UK, email us at support@iuk.ukri.org or call the competition helpline on 0300 321 4357,
Our phone lines are open from 9am to 12pm and 2pm to 5pm UK time, Monday to Friday (excluding bank holidays).
Innovate UK or any of our partners will not tolerate abusive language in any written or verbal correspondence, applications, social media or any other form that might affect staff.
About Eureka
Eureka is an intergovernmental network launched in 1985. Its aim is to support market-oriented R&D and innovation projects by industry, research centres and universities across all technological sectors. It has over 45 member states, including the European Union, represented by the European Commission.
With its flexible and decentralised network, Eureka offers project partners:
A Secure Innovation campaign has been developed to help founders and leaders of innovative startups protect their technology, competitive advantage, and reputation.
This was developed by UK’s National Protective Security Authority (NPSA) and the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC).
This competition is jointly operated by Innovate UK, and the following organisations, each an ‘agency’.
Your submitted application and any other information you provide at the application stage can be submitted to each agency on an individual basis for its storage, processing and use. Any relevant information produced during the application process concerning your application can be shared by one agency with the other, for its individual storage, processing and use.
This means that any information given to or generated by Innovate UK in respect of your application may be passed on to each agency and vice versa.
Innovate UK is directly accountable to you for its holding and processing of your information, including any personal data and confidential information. It is held in accordance with its Information Management Policy.
Innovate UK and each agency are directly accountable to you for their holding and processing of your information, including any personal data and confidential information. Data is held in accordance with their own policies. Accordingly, Innovate UK, Innovate UK Business Connect and each agency will be data controllers for personal data submitted during the application.
Innovate UK Business Connect Privacy Policy
Eureka | Legal (eurekanetwork.org)
New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO), Japan Privacy Policy
The Austrian Research Promotion Agency (FFG), Austria Privacy Policy
National Research Council Canada (NRC), Canada Privacy Policy
Business Finland, Finland Privacy Policy
Banque publique d'investissement (bpifrance), France Privacy Policy
The Netherlands Enterprise Agency (RVO), Netherlands Privacy Policy
Enterprise Singapore, Singapore Privacy Policy
Innovate UK complies with the requirements of UK GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018, and is committed to upholding data protection legislation, and protecting your information in accordance with data protection principles.
The Information Commissioner’s Office also has a useful guide for organisations, which outlines the data protection principles.