Guidance

Defence Innovation Loans: Top Tips for Applicants

Updated 28 October 2024

1. Top Tips for Defence Innovation Loans Applicants

When preparing to submit your DASA application for the Defence Innovation Loan please consider the following points. Please note that this guidance focuses on the DASA application form, additional guidance on completing the Innovate UK application form can be found at the start of the form.

• Read the competition document. This contains all the information about what is in and out of scope for a competition plus any guidelines you need to follow.

• Refer to the checklist – have you met the criteria listed?

• Ensure you are content with the Terms and Conditions (see the Summary of general Terms and Conditions for more information) as these are not negotiable.

• Please use the text boxes provided for each section of the application, don’t attach a PDF with your answers.

• You may find it helpful to have both the Innovate and DASA forms open at the same time as there will be an element of duplication.

• To allow us to cross-reference your DASA and Innovate UK applications, you will need to add your DASA Submission Number to your Innovate UK loan request form:

1. Start a draft DASA application

2. Obtain Your Submission Number (starting ACC, found in the Summary Section)

3. Complete your Innovate UK application, providing Your Submission Number in the relevant field.

Once you have submitted your Innovate UK application, you will be sent an email confirmation, containing your Innovate UK Innovation Loan Request Response_ID, which is your unique identifier for the Innovate UK application.

• Sometimes the formatting of the form can look different when you review it. Don’t worry we don’t have rules on font type, size, line spacing etc.

• Check your title and abstract. These need to be clear and concise, so they attract assessors from the most appropriate research areas. Make sure no confidential information is included in these (or the value proposition statement) as they will be used by DASA, and other government departments, to describe the innovation and its intended outcomes and benefits.

• Select your Area of Specialism(s) with care as these help us select the right assessors for your application – you only have to select one, but consider selecting one for the technology and one targeted at End Users.

• Address all three assessment criteria: Desirability, Feasibility and Viability. Take care to address all of the points in the question guidance, you may want to consider using sub-headings for additional clarity.

• Check whether your application may be subject to any relevant legislation or regulations (e.g. MODREC, RIPA or animal testing regulations).

• Identify the current Technology Readiness Level (TRL) of your technology and tell us what it is. Remember that to be eligible for a loan your technology must be TRL 6 or above so you should be in a position to select ‘Minimum viable product (approximate technology readiness level 5 – 7)’ on the Innovate UK application form.

• To assist you to complete the ‘Desirability’ section of the application form, you may wish to consider some of the following resources: MOD’s Science and Technology Strategy, Gov.uk website, Royal Navy official website,  Army official website and Royal Air Force official website, Defence Equipment and Support magazine and Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl) Magazine and current Dstl programmes. You may also find it helpful to look at innovations which have been funded previously through various DASA competitions.

• Provide enough technical detail to enable assessors to establish the feasibility of your innovation. You should assume that assessors will have at least degree level education in relevant subjects.

• You can add figures if you feel they assist; please name them Figure 1, 2 etc in the text and as the attached files (PNG, JPG, PDF only). Use figures sparingly as they detract from assessors reading the application. The same applies to journal papers which also often have copyright restrictions.

• Tell us about your team and capabilities. Name team members and explain what they are going to do and their expertise in a couple of sentences – don’t just give a job title (e.g. ‘technician’). In the finance section, name each individual and remind the assessors of their role (e.g. Joe Bloggs (Technician)). If you need to hire someone that’s fine, you should list their job title (e.g. Unknown (Technician)). In the risk section show how you will mitigate the risk of not hiring people. Also explain what equipment and facilities you have for the project.

• Provide a clear technical project plan that identifies any links or dependencies between work packages or milestones. You may wish to include a Gantt chart as an attachment to illustrate this, showing the stages of the work planned and the duration of each stage.

• Identify technical risks to completion at each stage and outline mitigation steps.

• You may wish to outline plans to commercialise the project at the end of the availability period and how you might intend to support this. You might wish to include an outline of the expected market price, customer base, number of units to be sold etc.

• Explain how the work will be progressed at the end of your project, remember we are interested in moving projects up the TRL scale to commercialisation. Include details of any end users you have already engaged with.

• Aim for an hour. Assessors have an hour and a half to read, think about, understand, mark and provide feedback. Read your proposal and think about it; if it takes you ten minutes to read through, it doesn’t contain enough information.

• Don’t leave it to the last minute. Please don’t wait until the last minute to try and submit your proposal, technical issues do occur and unfortunately we are unable to accept late submissions.

• Once you have submitted you cannot make any changes.

1.1 Financial Information

• Carefully consider proposed major equipment purchases, ensure Value for Money (VFM) and justify this resource. Could you use a test house, or rent equipment instead?

• If you have a subcontractor make sure you justify their costs. For example, “Mouse Ltd (overheads subcontractor) = £100,000” or similar, is not sufficient.

• No conference attendance permitted. Please see Innovate UK’s site for eligible costs.

1.2 Innovate UK Business Financials

On the business financials questions, consider the following:

• The financial information on the Innovate UK forms is key, a lot of it pre-populates once you have input some basic information so please follow the instructions.

• Take a look at the questions and prepare the information well in advance of the closing date.

• Seek financial and legal advice where appropriate.

• Submit ALL parts of the application.

• Cover the full loan period

• Balance the balance sheet

• Match cash in the balance sheet and cashflow

• Describe the assumptions in the financials

• Revenues – top down and bottom up, be realistic

• Costs – including all costs needed to deliver your ambitious growth plan

• Think about sensitivities and stress cases - delays do happen

• Revenues are rarely as high as forecast

• Costs are typically higher than expected

• Is the loan affordable?

• Do you have adequate capital?

• Will you have sufficient cash throughout?

If you have any questions about either the DASA or the Innovate UK application, please contact the DASA Help Centre:

Phone: 01980 950000, option 3 (open 09:00 – 12:00 midday, Monday – Friday)

Email: accelerator@dstl.gov.uk