Launchpad: immersive & creative, Coventry & Warwickshire - R1 CR&D

Innovate UK, part of UK Research and Innovation, is to invest up to £2 million in innovation projects.

The funding will support projects across the three Launchpad competition strands that target the innovation cluster centred on Coventry and Warwickshire.

The aim of this competition is to support outstanding innovation projects led by businesses. Your business must be active or growing work activities in the immersive and creative industries cluster centred on Coventry and Warwickshire in the West Midlands.

This Launchpad competition supports the Government’s goals in the Levelling Up White Paper.

The projects will contribute to the ambitions of the cluster to develop, fuse and transfer existing research excellence, industrial innovation capability and sectoral strengths. Building market-orientated opportunities in immersive and creative industries.

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Your proposal must align to the scope criteria for this competition.

This competition is split into three strands:

Launchpad: immersive and creative industries, Coventry and Warwickshire - Round 1 Collaborative Research and Development (CR&D)(this strand)
Launchpad: immersive and creative industries, Coventry and Warwickshire - Round 1 Minimal Financial Assistance (MFA)
Launchpad: Coventry and Warwickshire, Cluster Management

It is your responsibility to ensure you submit your application to the correct strand for your project. You will not be able to transfer your application and it will not be sent for assessment if it is out of scope.

In applying to this competition, you are entering into a competitive process.

This competition closes at 11am UK time on the deadline stated.

Your project’s total grant funding request must be between £150,000 and £1 million.

Competition Details

Eligibility

Your project must:

have a total grant funding request of between £150,000 and £1 million
last between 6 and 18 months
intend to exploit the results from or in the UK
start at the earliest on 1 April 2024
end by 30 March 2026

Projects must always start on the first of the month and this must be stated within your application. Your project start date will be reflected in your grant offer letter if you are successful.

You must only include eligible project costs in your application.

Under current restrictions, this competition will not fund any procurement, commercial, business development or supply chain activity with any Russian and Belarusian entity as lead, partner or subcontractor. This includes any goods or services originating from a Russian and Belarusian source.

Lead organisation

To lead a project your organisation must:

be a UK registered business of any size
be or involve at least one grant claiming micro, small or medium-sized enterprise (SME)
collaborate with other UK registered organisations
be active or growing your work activities in the immersive and creative industries cluster centred on Coventry and Warwickshire in the West Midlands
have a demonstrable ambition for business growth

More information on the different types of organisation can be found in our Funding rules.

Academic institutions cannot lead or work alone.

Project team

To collaborate with the lead, your organisation must be one of the following UK registered:

business of any size
academic institution
charity
not for profit
public sector organisation
research and technology organisation (RTO)

The contribution of project partners must add to the innovation led growth of the cluster.

Each partner organisation must be invited into the Innovation Funding Service by the lead to collaborate on a project. Once partners have accepted the invitation, they will be asked to login or to create an account in the Innovation Funding Service. They are responsible for entering their own project costs and completing their Project Impact questions in the application.

To be an eligible collaboration, the lead and at least one other organisation must apply for funding when entering their costs into the application.

Non-funded partners

Your project can include partners that do not receive any of this competition’s funding, for example non-UK businesses. Their costs will count towards the total project costs.

Subcontractors

Subcontractors are allowed in this competition. Their contribution must add to the innovation led growth of the cluster.

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 project costs.

Number of applications

A business can lead on only one CR&D strand application for this competition, but can be included as a collaborator in any number of applications.

If an organisation is not leading any application, it can collaborate in any number of applications.

If you apply to the MFA strand of this competition, as well as this CR&D strand, each project must be clearly distinctive and separate. We will monitor closely for this separation if you are awarded funding in both competition strands.

Scope

The geographical requirement is set to align this competition to the Government’s goals in the Levelling Up White Paper.

Your project must focus on immersive and creative industries.

Your project must lead to increased investment into research and innovation. It must contribute to growing business activities and economic impact in the cluster.

Your proposal must explain how your team and project will contribute to equality, diversity and inclusivity (EDI) in the cluster.

Portfolio approach
We want to fund a variety of projects across different durations, locations, and themes. We call this a portfolio approach.

In support of the Government's Levelling Up goals, we reserve the right to prioritise projects that:

are shorter in duration
significantly advance innovation in immersive and creative industries in priority markets
are led by businesses already based in the innovation cluster
have greater levels of activity outside the Greater South East

Specific themes

Your project can focus on developing and applying technologies including one or more of the following:

digital media
mixed media
augmented reality
virtual reality
virtual production
game engine and 3D environments
simulations and data visualisations
performance and motion capture
gesture and facial recognition

Your project can be aimed at application in one or more of the following market sectors and industries:

creative industries
video game development
screen sector
healthcare
education
future mobility
manufacturing
retail
tourism, leisure and sport

These lists are not exhaustive. Where you can show your proposal fits within the scope of this competition you can focus on other technologies, sectors and industries.

Dates

23 October 2023: Competition opens

1 November 2023: Online briefing event: watch the recording

6 December 2023 11:00am: Competition closes

1 February 2024: Applicants notified

How to apply

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:

that all the information provided in the application is correct
your proposal meets the eligibility and scope criteria
all sections of the application are marked as complete
all partners have completed all assigned sections and accepted the terms and conditions (T&Cs)

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 four sections:

1.Project details.

2.Application questions.

3.Finances.

4.Project Impact.