UK registered businesses can apply for a share of up to £1 million for CR&D projects with South Korea in this competition. The UK funding is from Innovate UK, part of UK Research and Innovation, which will invest up to £4 million across the 2 Phases of this competition. Innovate UK will work with the Korea Agency for Infrastructure Technology Advancement (KAIA) who will match the UK funding to support the South Korean partners.
This is a two phase bi-lateral collaborative research and development (CR&D) competition.
Competition Details
For UK applicants, your phase 1 project must:
- have a grant funding request between £50,000 and £120,000
- last between 6 to 8 months
- collaborate with a South Korean partner which is successful in securing funding for this programme from Korea Agency for Infrastructure Technology Advancement (KAIA)
- start by 1 July 2024
- end by 28 February 2025
The project work must be undertaken in the UK and South Korea.
The consortium must include at least one business registered in South Korea that is a separate legal entity and not linked to the UK partners. This is to ensure that projects encourage 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 combined project cost across the UK and South Korea.
To be successful in securing funding in this Phase 1 competition both UK and South Korean partner applications must be awarded funding.
Applications identified as not eligible by either Innovate UK or South Korea will not be sent for assessment.
Your proposal must demonstrate a clear intention to commercially exploit the results of the project domestically or globally.
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 or Belarusian entity as lead, partner, or subcontractor. This includes any goods or services originating from a Russian or Belarusian source.
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.
UK lead organisation
To start and lead an application on the Innovation Funding Service (IFS), your organisation must be a UK registered business of any size.
The ‘lead applicant’, is the organisation that starts the application on the Innovation Funding Service. This must be a UK organisation.
More information on the different types of organisation can be found in our Funding rules.
UK Project team
As a UK partner, to collaborate with the lead, your organisation must be one of the following UK registered:
- business of any size
- academic institution
- research and technology organisation (RTO)
- charity
- not for profit
- local authority or other public sector organisations
We welcome applications which include participants from:
- social housing providers
- city authorities
- living lab facilities
Only UK registered partners must be listed in the Project Partner section of your application on the Innovation Funding Service (IFS). The funding provided to the UK partners will be made under the research and development innovation (RD&I) streamlined route.
Your South Korean partner will not receive any of this UK competition funding. South Korean partners will be funded by KAIA following a parallel application.
Each organisation in your consortium will receive funding from its respective national funding body.
Each UK 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.
South Korean partners
Each UK project must collaborate with a South Korean partner. South Korean partners must not be invited into Innovate UK’s application on the Innovation Funding Service.
South Korean partners will be funded by KAIA following a parallel application. South Korean collaborators must apply for funding separately through the Korea Agency for Infrastructure Technology Advancement (KAIA).
You must work very closely with your South Korean partners during application development. You must bear in mind that KAIA’s eligibility and timelines may be slightly different to the UK process.
Non-funded UK partners
Your project can include partners that do not receive any of this competition’s funding. Their costs will count towards the total project costs.
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 provide a detailed rationale, evidence of the potential UK 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 an overseas subcontractor.
All subcontractor costs must be justified and appropriate to the total project costs.
Number of applications
A business can only lead on one application but can be included as a collaborator in one further application.
If a business is not leading any application, it can collaborate in any number of applications.
Academic institutions, research and technology organisation (RTO), charities, not for profit, local authorities or other public sector organisations can collaborate on any number of applications.
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.
The aim of this competition is to fund business led, collaborative research and development (CR&D) projects which link activities in the UK and South Korea.
Your project must focus on exploring the potential of proposed data driven innovations in cities that will deliver positive impact around key urban issues such as:
- sustainability
- liveability
- resilience
- inclusiveness
- safety
This list is not exhaustive.
The scope for this competition is broad and is aligned to the priorities of KAIA which focus on:
- land
- infrastructure
- transportation research and development (R&D)
Your project must demonstrate an effective collaboration with a South Korean partner applying for funding through KAIA.
Portfolio approach
We want to fund a variety of projects across different themes, technologies, technological maturities, location and research categories. We call this a portfolio approach.
Specific themes
This competition has four themes and you must select the theme you are focused on. If your proposed solution falls outside of the first three themes, or significantly cuts across those three theme areas, you must select theme 4.
Themes:
- Mobility Innovation Solutions.
- Disaster Management Solutions.
- Net-Zero Energy Optimisation Solutions.
- Other Data-centric Innovative Solutions.
10 January 2024
Competition opens
11 January 2024
Online briefing event: watch the recording
21 February 2024 11:00am
Competition closes
3 April 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 UK 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
- that all UK 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:
- Project details.
- Application questions.
- Finances.
- 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 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).
Places all face the same basic set of underlying challenges, for example, transport, energy, heating, housing, jobs. By linking international innovators who are solving similar challenges slightly differently, it can help build more robust and resilient solutions that can manage a wider range of operating conditions. This improves their effectiveness and opens wider market opportunities elsewhere to sell into.
In this programme, Innovate UK is working with the Korean Agency for Infrastructure Technology Advancement (KAIA) to establish and enhance collaborations between UK and South Korean projects to the benefit of all participants.
KAIA is the Korean Government agency responsible for advancing and promoting infrastructure technology development.
Data sharing
This competition is jointly operated by Innovate UK, and the Korea Agency for Infrastructure Technology Advancement (KAIA) (each an “agency”).
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 KAIA and vice versa. This would include, but is not restricted to:
- the information stated on the application, including the personal details of all applicants
- scoring and feedback on the application
- information received during the management and administration of the grant, such as Monitoring Officer reports and Independent Accountant Reports
Innovate UK and the KAIA 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, and the KAIA 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.
Find a project partner
If you want help to find a project partner, contact Innovate UK KTN.
Innovate UK and KAIA will be establishing an online platform to assist UK and South Korean projects to collaborate on their applications.
Support for SMEs from Innovate UK EDGE
If you receive an award, you will be contacted about working with an innovation and growth specialist at Innovate UK EDGE. 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 EDGE, delivered by a knowledgeable and objective specialist near you.
Assessment
Your application will be reviewed by up to three UK 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. UK projects will only be awarded funding if their South Korea partner is also successful in receiving funding from KAIA.
You can find out more about our assessment process in the General Guidance.
Your submitted application will be assessed against these criteria.