UK registered organisations can apply for a share of up to £2 million to enhance UK and German collaborations in emerging fields of technology. You must collaborate with at least one German SME applying under the equivalent German ZIM programme.
Innovate UK, part of UK Research and Innovation, will work with The Bundesministerium für Wirtschaft und Klimaschutz (BMWK), (The Federal Ministry For Economic Affairs And Climate Action), to invest up to £2 million in innovation projects.
The aim of this competition is to enhance UK and German collaborations and capabilities in the emerging fields of technology in our society. This is to develop and deliver new innovations and applications of the technologies across a broad range of sectors.
We want to fund a variety of projects across a range of sectors and technology areas. We particularly encourage applications from the following emerging technology areas:
This list is not exhaustive.
UK registered businesses must collaborate with at least one German-registered, non-linked SME applying under the equivalent German ZIM funding programme.
UK registered organisations must apply through the Innovation Funding Service (IFS) portal to Innovate UK.
Your German partner will not receive any funding from Innovate UK
German partners must apply to and will be funded by AiF, acting as an agent for BMWK, for the German component of the project set out in this application.
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.
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.
The project must be independently selected by both Innovate UK and AiF to be awarded funding.
Grant
The UK partners grant funding request can be up to £500,000 per 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
Text update 10 October 2024: We have made changes to the 'number of applications' text to provide clearer guidance for applicants.
Your project
Your project must:
The majority of the project work must be undertaken in the UK and Germany. 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 SME registered in Germany that is a separate legal entity and not linked to the UK partners. This is to ensure genuine international collaboration, not internal company research. Linked companies are considered a single entity under the parent company.
Your project must demonstrate a balanced technological contribution by the participants from both countries and must be equally significant to all participants.
No one country or project partner can represent more than 70% of the total project costs on the UK application.
Please note that the German ZIM application requires a breakdown of contribution in person months rather than costs.
Your proposal must demonstrate a clear intention to commercially exploit the results of the project domestically or globally.
You must only include eligible project costs in your application.
If your project’s grant funding request or duration falls outside of our eligibility criteria, you must provide justification by email to support@iuk.ukri.org at least 10 working days before the competition closes. We will decide whether to approve your request.
If you have not requested approval or your application has not been approved by us, you will be made ineligible. Your application will then not be sent for assessment.
Roles and terminology
There must be a ‘project lead’ and this can be either an eligible UK or German organisation. The project lead is responsible for managing the entire project.
The ‘lead applicant’ is the organisation that starts the application on the Innovation Funding Service. This must be a UK organisation.
UK lead applicant
To start an application on the Innovation Funding Service (IFS), your organisation must be a UK registered business of any size.
You must:
More information on the different types of UK organisations can be found in our Funding rules.
UK Project team
To collaborate with the lead, your organisation must be one of the following UK registered:
Only UK registered partners must be listed in the Project Partner section of your application on the Innovation Funding Service (IFS). Your German partner will not receive any of this UK competition funding. German partners will be funded by the German ZIM programme following a parallel application.
Each organisation in your consortium will receive funding from its respective national funding body.
Non-funded partners
Your project can include partners that do not receive any of this competition’s funding. Their eligible costs will count towards the total eligible project costs.
German partners
German partners do not need to be invited into Innovate UK’s application on the Innovation Funding Service.
German partners will be funded by AiF in Germany, on behalf of BMWK, following a successful 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.
Subcontractors can be from anywhere in the UK and you must select them through your usual procurement process.
You can use subcontractors from other countries but must make the case in your application as to why you could not use suppliers from the countries providing grant funding for the project.
You must provide a detailed rationale, evidence of the potential UK or German 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 a subcontractor from a third country.
All subcontractor costs must be justified and appropriate to the total eligible project costs.
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 an application, it can collaborate in any number of applications.
Academic institutions, research and technology organisations (RTO), charities, not for profits or public sector organisations 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 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 £2 million from Innovate UK, and up to 2 million euros from The Bundesministerium für Wirtschaft und Klimaschutz (BMWK), (The Federal Ministry For Economic Affairs And Climate Action), has been allocated to fund innovation projects in this competition. Funding will be in the form of a grant.
Each country will fund its eligible participants according to their national procedure and funding rules. Funding conditions and eligibility criteria may vary between UK and Germany. The bilateral joint cooperation between the partners and its added value is an important aspect to be considered within the evaluation.
UK Partners
If your UK registered 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 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 for UK Organisations
The UK 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 aim of this competition is to enhance UK and German collaborations and capabilities in the emerging fields of technology in our society. This is to develop and deliver new innovations and applications of the technologies across a broad range of sectors.
Your project must demonstrate:
Portfolio approach
We want to fund a variety of projects across different technologies, markets, technological maturities and research categories. We call this a portfolio approach.
We particularly encourage applications from the following emerging technology areas:
This list is not exhaustive.
We will fund industrial research projects, as defined in the guidance on categories of research.
We are not funding projects that:
We cannot fund projects that are:
30 September 2024 Competition opens
3 October 2024 Online briefing event: watch the recording
6 December 2024 11:00am Competition closes
6 May 2025 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:
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
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, which should be the same as the 'short project title' on the corresponding ZIM application, 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 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 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. 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 organisation and any partners or subcontractors working on your project, including the German partners in your consortium.
We are collecting this information to understand the geographical location of all participants of your project and to confirm the involvement of an eligible German registered partner
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. (UK applicants only) 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. Need or challenge
What is the business need, technological challenge, or market opportunity behind your innovation?
Explain:
Question 5. 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 6. Team and resources
Who is in the project team and what are their roles?
Explain:
You can submit one appendix, with 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 7. Market awareness
What does the market or markets you are targeting look like?
Describe:
If your project is highly innovative, where the market may be unexplored, describe or explain:
Question 8. Outcomes and route to market
How are you going to grow your business and increase long term productivity as a result of the project?
Explain:
If there is any research organisation activity in the project, describe:
Question 9. 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 10. 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 11. 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 12. 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 13. Costs and value for money
How much will the project cost and how does it represent value for money for the team and the taxpayer?
In terms of your project goals, explain:
your total eligible project costs, including a breakdown of both UK and German partners
For the conversion of your German partners costs from Euros to pounds, you must use the exchange rate for September as listed in the HMRC exchange rates for 2024: monthly.
Each UK organisation in your project must complete their own project costs, organisation details and funding details in the application. UK 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 General Guidance.
Your submitted application will be assessed against these criteria:
UK – Germany Bilateral Collaborative R (opens in a new window)
The UK and Germany are collaborating to deliver bilateral funding through Innovate UK grant support and the Central Innovation Programme (ZIM) grant funding from The Federal Ministry For Economic Affairs And Climate Action (BMWK).
The ZIM programme in Germany is designed to enhance companies' capacity to innovate and to strengthen their long-term competitiveness. Under ZIM, German companies and the research institutes they work with can be awarded grants for ambitious R&D projects.
With ZIM, funding is not restricted to any particular field of technology, nor to specific fields of application. Whether or not an application for a grant is approved depends on how innovative the R&D project is and how marketable the results are likely to be.
Application Guidance for German Organisations
Each German project partner must submit a separate, individual ZIM application to BMWK.
Every German micro, small or medium sized enterprise (SME), in accordance with the relevant EU regulations, as well as medium-sized companies with less than 500 employees (or full-time equivalents), which carry out R&D for the development of innovative products, processes or technical services, are eligible to apply.
Other medium-sized companies with less than 1,000 employees are eligible to apply for funding if they cooperate with at least one SME (EU definition) whose project is being funded.
Research organisations are eligible to apply as cooperation partners of eligible companies. Detailed criteria for submitting applications and the ZIM application form are available on the ZIM website. You can also contact AiF Projekt GmbH directly using the contact information given below.
Applicants to the ZIM programme are able to define their contribution to the project in person months, for example through work packages, rather than in monetary costs.
The ZIM application must comply with the ZIM regulations and be written in German. If you do not have previous experience of ZIM applications, we recommend you contact AiF Projekt GmbH at least six weeks prior to the deadline for guidance.
By the Optional German Project Sketch deadline, all interested German applicants may submit a German Project Sketch to ZIM.
Your German Partners must submit a completed national ZIM project proposal form.
The ZIM application includes several documents, including:
For any queries regarding the German element of the application, please contact:
Paula Schnippering
AiF Projekt GmbH
Tschaikowskistrasse 49
13156 Berlin, Germany
Phone: +49 (0)30 48163-493
p.schnippering@aif-projekt-gmbh.de
zim-international@aif-projekt-gmbh.de
www.zim.de/international
Online briefing event: watch the recording
APPLICANT BRIEFING UK – Germany Bilateral Collaborative R (opens in a new window)
If you are successful with this application, you will 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, where we gather the information to set up your project.
Watch our video on what steps there are before a project starts.
During the project set up you will be assigned a delivery executive who will guide you through the whole project set up process.
Following your email notification, you will need to provide the following within 5 days (including weekends and bank holidays):
You will need to provide the following within 30 working days (including weekends and bank holidays):
You will have 90 days (including weekends and bank holidays) to complete all of your project set up. Within this time, you will also be required to submit:
Your funding offer may be withdrawn if project setup is not completed within this or an alternative timeframe as advised by Innovate UK.
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 your GOL is approved on or before the fifteenth of the month it will be dated from the first of that month. If your GOL is approved after the fifteenth, it will be dated the first of the next month.
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. You may be unsuccessful as your average score was not above the funding threshold or your project has not been selected under the portfolio approach if this is applied for this competition.
You may score highly on the UK application but still be unsuccessful as projects must be selected for funding from the German side of the application also.
If you want help to find a project partner, contact Innovate UK Business Connect.
Innovate UK Business Growth provides European Partner search through the Enterprise Europe Network.
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).
This competition is jointly operated by Innovate UK, and The Federal Ministry For Economic Affairs And Climate Action (BMWK) (each an ‘agency’), delivered by AiF Projekt GmbH (AiF), a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Cologne-based German Federation of Industrial Research Associations “Otto von Guericke” .
Any relevant information submitted and 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 BMWK and AiF, and vice versa. This would include, but is not restricted to:
Innovate UK, BMWK and AiF 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, BMWK and AiF will be data controllers for personal data submitted during the application.
Innovate UK Business Connect 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.
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.
For any queries regarding the German element of the application, please contact:
Paula Schnippering
AiF Projekt GmbH
Tschaikowskistrasse 49
13156 Berlin, Germany
Phone: +49 (0)30 48163-493
p.schnippering@aif-projekt-gmbh.de
zim-international@aif-projekt-gmbh.de
www.zim.de/international