UK registered organisations can apply for a share of up to £25 million for game-changing and commercially viable R&D innovations that can significantly impact the UK economy. This funding is from Innovate UK, part of UK Research and Innovation.
Innovate UK, part of UK Research and Innovation, is investing up to £25 million in the best game changing and world leading ideas, designed for swift, successful commercialisation.
The Innovate UK Smart grant has focused scope and eligibility criteria to support micro, small or medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and their partners in developing genuinely new innovations with significant potential for rapid economic return to the UK. The application process reflects the importance of obtaining economic benefits from public funding, and the potential for successful commercialisation, growth, and exports.
Proposals must be business focused, and show deliverable, realistic, adequately resourced plans to achieve return on investment, growth and market share following project completion.
Applications can come from any area of technology and be applied to any part of the economy.
In applying to this competition, you are entering into a competitive process.
This competition has a funding limit, so we may not be able to fund all the proposed projects. It may be the case that your project scores highly but we are still unable to fund it.
The total budget will be divided between the two competition streams (see project size).
This competition closes at 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.
Grant
Projects of 6 to 18 months must have total eligible project costs between £100,000 and £500,000 and can be single or collaborative. Projects of 19 to 24 months must have total eligible project costs between £100,000 and £1 million and be collaborative.
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
Your project must:
Projects must always start on the first of the month. You must not start your project until your Grant Offer Letter has been approved by Innovate UK. Any delays within Project Setup may mean we need to delay your project start date.
The end by date is the date by which all funding for this round of the competition must end. Your contracted end date will not be extended.
If your project’s duration is 6 to 18 months, it must:
If your project’s duration is 19 to 24 months, it must:
You must only include eligible project costs in your application.
If your project does not meet the eligibility criteria for this competition it will not be sent for assessment.
Lead organisation
To lead a project or work alone your organisation must:
More information on the different types of organisation can be found in our Funding rules.
If the lead organisation is an RTO it must collaborate with at least two businesses (one SME, and one business of any size) and there must be a credible route to market for the output of the project. Since the purpose of RTOs is to speed up the process of those using their services this is expected to be through the other project partners, rather than the RTO itself.
Academic institutions cannot lead or work alone.
Project team
To collaborate with the lead, your organisation must be one of the following UK registered:
Each 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 the IFS. 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.
Including collaboration partners within your question responses is not sufficient for an application to be considered collaborative. You must follow the above instructions to meet the eligibility requirement for collaborative proposals.
Non-funded partners
Your project can include UK partners that do not receive any of this competition’s funding. Their costs will count towards the total eligible project costs.
Subcontractors
Subcontractors are allowed in this competition.
Subcontractors must be based in the UK for the duration of the project and their portion of the project work must be carried out in the UK. 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 eligible project costs.
For the purposes of this competition the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man are crown dependencies and not classed as part of the UK. Subcontractors located there would be ineligible.
Subcontractors are not considered collaboration partners.
Number of applications
A business or research and technology organisation (RTO) can only lead on one application but can be included as a collaborator in two further applications.
This limit extends to current owners, directors and persons of significant interest, prohibiting them from leading multiple submissions through different entities. Any subsequent applications submitted with the same lead will be ineligible and will not be forwarded for assessment.
All project partners 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 reapply 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 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 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.
Up to £25 million is available 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.
The balance between your total eligible project costs and the amount of grant awarded must be funded by the organisation receiving the grant.
For feasibility studies and industrial research projects, you can get funding for your eligible project costs of:
For experimental development projects which are nearer to market, you can get funding for your eligible project costs of:
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 can get funding for your eligible project costs of up to:
The Innovate UK Smart grant supports micro, small or medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and their partners develop the best game changing and world leading innovative R&D projects. It offers funding where other opportunities are not available or appropriate, and where timing is key to ensure swift and successful commercialisation post project completion.
To be in scope your proposal must demonstrate:
Your project must focus on:
We will fund feasibility projects, industrial research projects and experimental development projects, as defined in the guidance on categories of research.
We are not funding projects:
We will not fund commercialisation activities such as marketing and sales.
We cannot fund projects that are:
25 July 2024 Competition opens
26 July 2024 Online briefing event: watch the recording
23 October 2024 11:00am Competition closes
3 January 2025 Applicants notified
Text update 20 August 2024: We have added word counts for all relevant questions, with increased word counts for questions 4 and 7.
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.
You must make sure that you read the full eligibility, scope and terms and conditions applicable to this competition. Your application must be submitted taking all of this guidance into consideration. You can also watch the recording of the applicant briefing which can be found in the dates tab.
More information regarding the Smart programme can be found in the Smart: innovation funding guidance. This includes information on our exceptions process which may be applied during the assessment period.
Failure to meet the requirements stated within this brief will make your application ineligible.
What we ask you
The application is split into four sections:
For more information please read the General guidance: What happens after you have submitted your application
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 your application and is not scored.
Application team
If you are a single applicant decide which people from your organisation will help work with you on the project and invite them to help complete the application.
If your proposal is collaborative, decide which organisations will work with you on your project and invite people from those organisations to help complete the application.
Application details
Give your project’s title, start date and duration.
Research category
Select the type of research you will undertake.
Project summary
Describe your project briefly and be clear about what makes it innovative. We use this section to assign the right 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 can happen before you start your project.
Your answer can be up to 300 words long.
Scope
Describe how your project fits the scope of the competition. If your project is not in scope, it will not be eligible for funding.
Your answer can be up to 400 words long.
The assessors will score all your answers apart from question 1, 2 and 3. You will receive feedback for each scored question. Find out more about how our assessors assess and how we select applications for funding.
You must answer all questions. 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 organisation and any partners or subcontractors working on your project.
We are collecting this information to understand the geographical location of all applicants.
Your answer can be up to 400 words long.
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. 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 4. Your idea and innovation
What is your idea and innovation, and why is it game changing?
Explain in your answer:
Your answer can be up to 600 words long.
You must submit an appendix to support your answer. It can include diagrams or charts to showcase the technical merit of your innovation and should evidence how it is world leading. 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.
Assessors will be looking for proposals involving a game changing, world class innovation where the innovation need is clearly defined. Nearest state of the art is understood and evidenced, and the proposal demonstrates an idea that is different to, and ahead of alternative, already available solutions.
A fully developed proposal needs to go beyond presenting a brand new, commercially viable idea, and should demonstrate a structured and evidenced understanding of the sector and the opportunity identified.
Question 5. Justification for funding
Why is your innovation and proposal suitable for Smart funding, and why do you need public funding to help you succeed?
Smart grants are a highly competitive competition, where only the very best game changing and disruptive ideas, which score highly, will be successful in securing funding.
Explain in your answer:
Your answer can be up to 400 words long.
Assessors will be looking for applicants who have researched the match between their needs and grant readiness against the scope of the competition before applying for Smart funding.
They will also assess the impact that Smart funding will have in terms of what would happen to the project if it did not secure grant support. For example, would it still be able to go ahead albeit with adjustments or would it not be able to go ahead at all.
For projects where benefits will accrue to others outside the project, they will look at the unique advantages Smart public funding will bring in de-risking the costs for the applicants.
Question 6. The potential market
What is your target market and what is your strategy for securing the market opportunity you have identified, including your route to market and commercialisation of project outputs?
Explain in your answer:
Your answer can be up to 400 words long.
Assessors will be looking for proposals where the target market and customer base have clearly been researched and defined, and a strong understanding of the potential markets, including how the proposed innovation will disrupt these in an ambitious way, has been presented and evidenced.
Route to market and commercialisation plans must demonstrate business skills and planning, the potential for early revenue generation, de-risking the path to significant ROI, and how commercial viability will be achieved.
All plans must be realistic, appropriate, and practical for the identified market, including any barriers that exist and provide achievable solutions to show how these will be overcome.
Question 7. Impact and benefits
What will be the impact of receiving the grant, both for your business and outside your organisation?
Explain in your answer:
Your answer can be up to 600 words long.
Assessors will be looking for proposals that deliver and evidence considerable positive impact for the organisations involved and for the wider economy.
Impact should be considered at every level, from job security or creation and safer working environments or practices, to developing skills, capacity, increasing market share.
Societal, environmental and regional benefits should also be demonstrated and measured, for example benefits to quality of life, public empowerment and waste avoidance.
Question 8. Delivering your project
Who is in the project team, why do you have the right skills and experience to succeed, and how will you successfully deliver your project?
Explain in your answer:
Your answer can be up to 400 words long.
You must submit a project plan to support your answer. This needs to be in sufficient detail to identify any links, dependencies or potential duplication between work packages or milestones.
Your appendix 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.
You must also submit a risk register, indicating the main risks for your project, including, but not limited to, technical, commercial, managerial and environmental.
You must include any identified interdependencies between these risks, the likely impact and your mitigation strategy. You should pay particular attention to how you will mitigate project delivery risks with your immediate and extended teams, for example your supply chain or end users.
Your appendix 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.
Assessors will be looking for strong and capable project teams, who have clearly shown and evidenced their capacity to deliver the project and outcomes. This must include skills in managing complex R&D projects, financial and risk management as well as technical skills relating to the nature of the innovation itself.
Project plans should be realistic and should show how progress will be tracked and managed. A comprehensive risk register should give confidence that the project team have the necessary tools and mitigation strategies in place to successfully overcome challenges that may be encountered.
If applicable, relationships between consortium members, and how this will lead to the successful delivery of work packages, should be defined. Post project strategies for commercialisation should be adequately resourced and should take into account existing business commitments and plans.
Question 9. Value for money
How will you spend your grant funding and how does this represent good value for money for the taxpayer?
Explain in your answer:
Your answer can be up to 400 words long.
Assessors will be looking for proposals where costs are commensurate with works being carried out, with evidence of how best value for money has been calculated.
Availability of match funding should be agreed by all consortium partners, where applicable, to ensure that the project is able to proceed if successful in this competition. Assessors will also be looking beyond the project to confirm solid financial planning, which will lead to swift commercialisation.
The project must demonstrate it is fully resourced, financed and has plans in place to maximise chances of success, for example, is funding available, is expertise in commercialisation and growth in house or externally provided.
Each 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 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 Smart: innovation funding guidance
Assessors will come from different backgrounds across business and academia and may focus on and highlight different aspects of your responses in their feedback, and award differing scores, based on their individual opinion of your proposal. Assessor comments will be reviewed for quality and consistency with Innovate UK guidance, but this will not impact on the outcome of the funding decision.
Your submitted application will be assessed against these criteria:
Smart assessor guidance for applicants- July 2024.pdf (opens in a new window)
The Smart programme is designed to support brand new and high impact innovations from micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), and their collaboration partners where appropriate, with the aim of accelerating their innovation journey and creating unique opportunities.
Through this support, Smart grants help unleash the potential of a broad spectrum of innovators, empowering them to turn visionary ideas into market leading solutions. With an emphasis on inclusive growth, these grants also support diversity in innovation, enabling a wider range of businesses to contribute to the UK's competitive advantage on the global stage.
Briefing slides are available here.
APPLICANT BRIEFING Smart July 2024 V5.pdf (opens in a new window)
If you want help to find a project partner, contact Innovate UK Business Connect.
If you receive an award, you will be contacted about working with an innovation and growth specialist at Innovate UK Business Growth. 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 Business Growth, delivered by a knowledgeable and objective specialist near you.
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).
If you are successful in this competition, at least one member of your project team must attend a one hour briefing webinar within 10 days of receiving your successful notification.
At the webinar we will provide you with detailed information relating to setting up and starting your project. We will tell you about the briefing in your notification letter. You will then be asked to set up your project.
You will be notified by email on the date published for this competition. Notifications may be sent any time up to 5pm.
You must follow the unique link embedded in your email notification. This takes you to your Innovation Funding Service (IFS) Set Up portal, the tool that Innovate UK uses to gather necessary information before we can allow your project to begin.
You will need to provide:
Your project must start by 01 April 2025. We cannot extend the start date and you must be able to meet this deadline.
In order for us to process your claims, you must make sure you have a valid UK business bank account. It can take several weeks for a new account to be created if required. We recommend starting this process as early as possible to avoid any delays to your project start date.
The bank account which grant is to be paid into must:
Online accounts are eligible as long as they meet the above criteria.
Innovate UK will accept most banking societies apart from:
If you have any doubts that your bank account will not meet Innovate UK's funding criteria, you can use the sort code checker. If you input the sort code and find a tick next to the ‘BACS Direct Credit payments can be sent to this sort code’, this will give you an indication that the bank account you hold is acceptable.
Finance checks
We will carry out checks to make sure you are an established company with access to the funds necessary to complete the project.
You must check your IFS portal regularly and respond to any requests we have sent for additional information to avoid any delays.
Failure to complete project setup may result in your grant offer being withdrawn.
Your Grant offer letter (GOL)
Once you have successfully completed project setup, we will issue your GOL.
The GOL will be made available on your IFS portal. You will need to sign and upload this for us to approve. Once approved we will send you an email with permission to start your project on your confirmed start date.
You must not start your project before the date stated on your email and GOL. Any costs incurred before your agreed start date cannot be claimed as part of your grant.
If you are unsuccessful with your application this time, you can view feedback from the assessors. This will be available to you on your IFS portal following notification.
Sometimes your application will have scored well, and you will receive positive comments from the assessors, but you are unsuccessful as your average score was not above the funding threshold.
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 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.
If you need more information about how to apply or you want to submit your application in Welsh, email support@iuk.ukri.org 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).
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.