This is a Small Business Research Initiative (SBRI) competition funded by the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) and Innovate UK.
The need to grow UK-based ecosystems and commercial offering for Future Telecommunications (including 6G) has been identified as a critical technology area in the recent science and technology framework.
The competition aims to drive advancements in telecommunication technologies that can be integrated into functional prototypes and comprehensive system solutions.
Your project must facilitate the assessment of technological maturity for potential users, integrators, standards makers, and regulators.
Future Telecommunications Challenge
Projects must:
- start by 1 March 2024
- end by 31 March 2025
- have a duration of between 6 to 13 months
Applicant
To lead a project, you can:
- be an organisation of any size
- work alone or with others from business, research organisations, research and technology organisations or the third sector as subcontractors
This competition will not fund any procurement, commercial, business development or supply chain activity with any Russian or Belarusian entity as lead or subcontractor. This includes any goods or services originating from a Russian or Belarusian source.
You are responsible for entering your project costs and completing your Project impact questions in the application.
Contracts will be awarded to a single legal entity only. However, if you can justify subcontracting components of the work, you can engage specialists or advisers. The project and delivery against the project milestones will still be the responsibility of the main contractor.
All research, development and testing must take place within the UK.
A total of up to £28 million, inclusive of VAT, is allocated to this competition.
This competition involves up to 20 contracts being awarded to organisations. Up to £7 million inclusive of VAT will be allocated for each contract.
The total funding available for the competition can change. The funders have the right to:
- adjust the provisional funding allocations
- apply a ‘portfolio’ approach
The contract is completed at the completion of all milestones set out in the project plan, and the successful organisation is expected to pursue commercialisation of their solution.
Value Added Tax (VAT)
You must select whether you are VAT registered before entering your project costs.
VAT is the responsibility of the invoicing business. We will not provide any further advice and suggest you seek independent advice from HMRC.
VAT registered
If you select you are VAT registered, you must enter your project costs exclusive of VAT. As part of the application process VAT will be automatically calculated and added to your project cost total. Your total project costs inclusive of VAT must not exceed £7 million.
Not VAT registered
If you select you are not VAT registered, you must enter your project costs exclusive of VAT and no VAT will be added. You will not be able to increase total project costs to cover VAT later should you become VAT registered. Your total project costs must not exceed £7 million.
Research and development (R&D)
Your application must have at least 50% of the contract value attributed directly and exclusively to R&D services, including solution exploration and design. R&D can also include prototyping and field-testing the product or service. This lets you incorporate the results of your exploration and design and demonstrate that you can produce in quantity to acceptable quality standards. R&D activity for completion of the project should take place in the UK where reasonably possible.
R&D does not include:
- commercial development activities such as quantity production
- supply to establish commercial viability or to recover R&D costs
- integration, customisation or incremental adaptations and improvements to existing products or processes
The competition aims to drive advancements in telecommunication technologies that can be integrated into functional prototypes and comprehensive system solutions.
Your proposal must demonstrate the development of innovative telecommunication technologies, fostering collaboration and innovation within the industry.
You must focus on close to market solutions, prioritising:
- performance
- coverage
- security
- resilience
- spectrum efficiency
- cost-effective deployment
- energy efficiency
You must show how your solutions will:
- drive advancements in telecommunication technologies
- lay the groundwork for the networks of the future
- generate protectable UK based intellectual property
You must demonstrate how your advancements in telecommunication technologies can be integrated into functional prototypes and comprehensive system solutions. This includes, enabling the evaluation of technological maturity for potential users, integrators, standards makers and regulators.
Openness is a key aspect of this competition, promoting the use of open standards to enhance interoperability and flexibility within telecommunication networks. Where relevant you must demonstrate how your solutions align with emerging telecoms standards.
You must demonstrate a credible and practical route to market, so your application must show how you will engage with potential end users and include a plan to commercialise your results.
Our goal for projects, is that through development and commercialisation of cutting-edge novel solutions, along with collaboration and innovation, the UK will:
- benefit as an early adopter of next generation networks
- strengthen UK capability
- boost the UK's share of the global telecoms sector
Portfolio approach
We want to fund a variety of projects across different technologies, technological maturities, themes and locations. We call this a portfolio approach.
Your project must focus on one or more of the following challenges:
Network of Networks
Solutions for this challenge can include virtualised and software-based solutions:
- with innovation and technological advancements in networking, developing a system that integrates terrestrial and non-terrestrial networks.
- enabling the delivery of high-speed connectivity to hard-to-reach areas, including densely populated urban areas, remote rural regions and maritime zones
- leveraging a combination of network segments, including some combination of segments such as terrestrial and non-terrestrial, indoor and outdoor, Wi-Fi and cellular, or public and private
- addressing the connectivity gaps and provide reliable, high-data-speed network access to underserved areas
- delivering additional resilience and service consistency to already-served areas
Advanced Optical Networks
Solutions for this challenge must drive innovation and technological advancements in the field of optical networking. They must focus on achieving step-changes in data rates, latency, and energy efficiency in both local and long-haul networks.
To support the demand for faster and more reliable communication networks, project outcomes must push the boundaries of optical networking technologies, including beyond fibre, for future generations of networks.
Next Generation Wireless
Solutions for this challenge must drive innovation and technological advancements in wireless communications, especially transformational access techniques. These include technologies such as:
- sub-terahertz
- wireless optical
- massive Multiple Input Multiple Output (MIMO)
- optical and sensing domains
This can include virtualised and software-based solutions.
Next generation wireless solutions will enable new applications in areas such as agriculture, manufacturing, logistics, crisis management. Application software and platform innovators must demonstrate the standardisation and benchmarking of the applications for the target industry as well as the market potentials to apply to other industries.
6 October 2023: Competition opens
11 October 2023: Future Telecoms Challenges briefing event: Join at 1pm
23 November 2023 11:00am: Competition closes
9 January 2024: Applicants notified
8 March 2024: Contracts awarded
By submitting an application, you agree to the terms of the draft contract which is available once you start your application. The terms of the contract are non-negotiable and are included in the draft contract. We reserve the right to change the terms and conditions if necessary.
The final contract will include any milestones you have agreed with the funding authority and will be sent to you if your application is successful. The contract is binding once it is returned by you and signed by both parties.
When you start an application, you will be prompted to create an account as the lead applicant or sign in as a representative of your organisation. Using your account, you will be able to track your applications progress.
As the applicant you are responsible for:
- collecting the information for your application
- representing your organisation in leading the project if your application is successful
You will be able to invite colleagues from your organisation to contribute to the application.
About Small Business Research Initiative competitions
SBRI provides innovative solutions to challenges faced by the public sector. This can lead to better public services and improved efficiency and effectiveness.
The SBRI programme:
- supports economic growth and enables the development of innovative products and services through the public procurement of R&D
- generates new business opportunities for companies
- provides a route to market for their ideas
- bridges the seed funding gap experienced by many early-stage companies
SBRI competitions are open to all eligible organisations that can demonstrate a route to market for their solution. Under current regulations, SBRI contracts are open to applications from organisations registered in the UK, European Union (EU) and the European Economic Area (EEA). The SBRI scheme is particularly suited to small and medium-sized businesses, as the contracts are of relatively small value and operate on short timescales. Developments are 100% funded and focused on specific identified needs, increasing the chance of exploitation.
SBRI is a procurement of R&D services. If successful, you will receive a contract to deliver the proposed activity. Costs quoted must reflect actual costs at a ‘fair market value’ and not include profit.
You must submit an invoice for the work undertaken. All payments are made in arrears on submission of an invoice. Invoices must be submitted within 30 days of the end of each monitoring period for all completed milestones.
If you are VAT registered, your total costs are expected to include VAT that you would charge as a service provider. VAT is the responsibility of the invoicing business, and applications are expected to list total costs inclusive of VAT.
Suppliers for each project will be selected by an open competition process and retain the intellectual property generated from the project, with certain rights of use retained by the contracting authority. This is an excellent opportunity to establish an early customer for a new technology and to fund its development.
Broader Information
In March 2023 the UK Government published the Science and Technology Framework which identified Future Telecommunications as a priority technology, critical for UK growth, security and resilience. That document sets out an ambition to increase R&D funding and accelerate translation, commercialisation and knowledge exchange in the priority technology areas.
This challenge will help companies to commercialise niche capabilities that focus on technology areas and cross-cutting themes that align with existing UK strengths and support wider HMG strategic priorities.
Challenge areas have been selected based on extensive research and engagement with academia and industry, shaped by sector experts and in alignment with the themes and focuses of theEPSRC Future Communication Platforms.