UK registered small and micro businesses can apply for a share of up to £2 million to develop data driven digital applications solving challenges in delivering net zero. This funding is from Net Zero Living and Telecoms Technology Missions Fund programmes.
The aim of this competition is to provide a package of targeted support to enable ambitious UK registered micro and small businesses to develop and deliver net zero solutions through data driven digital applications.
Competition Details
Your project
Your project must:
- have total project costs and grant request of between £25,000 and £50,000
- start by 01 April 2024
- end by 30 September 2024
- last between 3 and 6 months in duration
- carry out its project work in the UK
- intend to exploit the results from or in the UK
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. If you exceed the total project costs of £50,000 you will be ineligible and your application will not be sent for assessment.
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.
You will be made ineligible if you exceed the Minimal Financial Assistance limit. You must submit a complete declaration as part of your application.
Lead organisation
To lead a project your organisation must be a UK registered micro or small business.
If your business has been funded directly by Innovate UK previously, you are not eligible to apply for this competition. If however you have received funding directly from Innovate UK EDGE or a Catapult scheme, you are still eligible to apply for this competition.
Businesses with directors who have previously received a grant or Innovation Loan from Innovate UK as part of a different company, are eligible to apply but will be considered on a case by case basis.
A business with a previous award to a parent or subsidiary would also be eligible to apply, but the parent company must be classified as a micro or small business. Applications will be considered on a case by case basis.
If you are unsure, contact our customer support team by email at least 10 working days before the submission deadline.
Subcontractors
Subcontractors are allowed in this competition.
Subcontractors can be from anywhere in the UK and you must select them through your usual procurement process.
You can use subcontractors from overseas but must make the case in your application as to why you could not use suppliers from the UK.
You must also provide a detailed rationale, evidence of the potential UK contractors you approached and the reasons why they were unable to work with you.
We expect all subcontractor costs to be justified and appropriate to the total eligible project costs. We will not accept a cheaper cost as a sufficient reason to use an overseas subcontractor.
Number of applications
An eligible UK business can submit one application only. We will only award grant funding to one project per business.
We have allocated up to £2 million to fund innovation projects in this competition. We will allocate £1.5 million to businesses that focus on developing and delivering net zero solutions through data driven digital applications. An additional £500,000 of this funding will be allocated to businesses that focus on innovation within the telecommunications domain specifically.
Each eligible business can apply for a grant of between £25,000 and £50,000.
Your total project costs will be 100% funded. Total project costs detailed within your application must not exceed the maximum project size. If your total project costs are below the minimum of £25,000 or exceed the maximum of £50,000 then your application will be made ineligible.
You can make reference to any additional voluntary contribution in your application answers. However, it must not be detailed in the finance section.
We will aim to pay:
- 70% of your grant request within a month of your agreed project start date
- a further 20% in arrears, after approval of your 70% claim and the evidence of spend made, submitted with your claim
- the remaining 10% of the grant 10 to 14 days after Innovate UK approve your final claim
For more information on company sizes, please refer to the Company accounts guidance.
If you are applying for an award funded under European Commission Regulations, the definitions are set out in the European Commission Recommendation of 6 May 2003.
The aim of this competition is to provide a package of targeted support to enable ambitious UK registered micro and small businesses to develop and deliver net zero solutions through data driven digital applications.
Innovate UK is offering UK registered small and micro businesses a share of up to £2 million in grants. In addition to the grant support, you will be offered tailored business support delivered by Innovate UK EDGE.
For the Net Zero living Digital projects, £1.5 million has been allocated for innovative approaches using multiple databases, generating synthetic data to create a product or a service that supports the net zero agenda. We want the businesses to acknowledge and support Innovate UK net zero living data guidance principles. You must focus on data driven digital innovation supporting the net zero agenda
Your proposal must be a software or data lead solution in one or more of the net zero challenges:
- power
- heat
- mobility
- product manufacture and usage
Your digital product must be for domestic, commercial, industrial, or public authority users. Links to other sectors are also welcome where relevant to the delivery of net zero.
It must make use of a number of open and shared data sets or synthetic data across a range of net zero relevant topics, including but not limited to:
- energy vectors and assets
- citizens and communities
- buildings
- geography
- transport
- carbon emissions
- industry
- economy
Your digital products or services must help to accelerate the net zero agenda, be replicable and scalable. You can focus on decision making tools, cost evaluation, reporting tools, prioritisation, or citizen engagement.
For the Telecoms Technology Missions Fund projects, £500,000 has been allocated for innovation in the telecommunications domain specifically. Projects funded will develop and deliver solutions using data to drive Net Zero in networks including public and private fixed and wireless.
In your application, you must demonstrate that you:
- have a great idea
- need public funding
- have the capability to deliver the project
- will deliver the project
We are particularly interested in how your proposal will help you:
- develop both your ambitious idea and your business
- create a new revenue stream, for example new products, services or IP
- evidence and enable your market, funding and commercialisation plans
- show what is feasible, in helping you decide whether to pursue your idea further
- catalyse further innovation on your path to commercial success
- respond to changing market conditions
Portfolio approach
We want to fund a variety of projects across:
- specific challenge themes and technologies
- project durations
- project costs, including demonstrating value for money
- UK regions
We call this a portfolio approach.
22 November 2023
Online briefing event: watch the recording
2 January 2024
Competition opens
9 January 2024
Q&A Sessions: register to attend
24 January 2024 11:00am
Competition closes
20 February 2024
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:
- 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
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:
1.Project details.
2.Application questions.
3.Finances.
4.Project Impact.
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 providing support, in the form of reasonable adjustments, for people who have a disability or a long-term condition and face barriers applying to us. Watch the video on how we are making our application process more accessible and inclusive for everyone.
You must contact us as early as possible in the application process. We recommend contacting us at least 15 working days before the competition closing date to ensure we can provide you with the most suitable support possible.
You can contact us by emailing support@iuk.ukri.org or calling 0300 321 4357. Our phone lines are open from 9am to 12pm and 2pm to 5pm, Monday to Friday (excluding bank holidays).
Project details
This section provides background for your application and is not scored.
Application team
Decide which people from your organisation will work with you on the project and invite those people to help complete the application.
Application details
Give your project’s title, start date and duration.
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 eligible for funding.
Your answer can be up to 400 words long.
Find more information on the application process here.
Net Zero Living
The Net Zero Living programme’s objective is to help places to open markets by removing the non-technical barriers to demand. It also aims to drive widespread business growth and innovation across the economy and unlock significant additional private investment to enable true levelling-up, both between and within places.
The programme has 2 challenge areas:
- Thriving Places: providing support to local authorities, their partners and communities to overcome non-technical systemic barriers to the scaling and adoption of net zero solutions
- User-Focussed Products: supporting business to better understand and respond to the needs, opportunities and barriers that are preventing the large-scale roll out of net zero solutions
This competition forms a part of the ‘User-Focussed Products’ Challenge area.
The wider Net Zero Living programme will include a community of over 50 Local Authorities and organisations such as businesses, public sector and the third sector, who are tackling Net Zero challenges based on place, across the UK.
Successful projects through this competition will have opportunities to present their project outcomes and networking opportunities with the Net Zero Living community of organisations.
Net Zero Living Data Guidance
Innovate UK has developed a Net Zero Living Data Guidance which is a set of 12 principles to improve data governance, management, sharing and publication of open data from projects and businesses funded through Net Zero programmes.
The objective of the guidance is to enable organisations across the UK to benefit from data in the Net Zero domain and capitalise on the relevant data driven economic opportunities by unlocking the economic and societal benefits of data while protecting societal values.
Projects and organisations funded through the Net Zero Living Programme will be required to apply the Net Zero Living Data Guidance principles to data created and used throughout their projects.
Support in understanding and applying the Net Zero Living Data Guidance will be provided to projects funded in this competition. This will include at least a workshop to introduce the guidance and principles and dedicated technical support for each project from an Innovate UK delivery partner.
Telecoms Technology Missions Fund (TMF)
The Telecoms TMF funding for this competition is part of a 70m investment by the UKRI into Future Telecommunication technologies.
The investment is designed to fund application-focused challenges to accelerate market-ready solutions and foster collaboration in the UK’s telecoms sector. The net zero telecommunications challenge in this call is part of this investment and offers the opportunities for innovative companies to develop net zero solutions into the sector.