Notice

Competition guidance: analysis for innovators

Updated 1 February 2017

This notice was withdrawn on 21 September 2017

This competition is no longer open. Search current funding opportunities.

1. Dates and deadlines

Competition stage 1 opens	9 January 2017
Competition briefing webinar	12 January 2017
Stage 1 date submission deadline	Midday 1 February 2017
Submission of full application stage 2 including finances forms and appendices	Midday 15 March 2017
Decision to applicants	31 March 2017

Please read the full competition scope before you make your application.

2. Funding

There is up to £6.5 million of funding available from Innovate UK. This is for research and development projects that tackle the technical challenges described in the brief for this competition.

Stream 1: Projects with eligible costs of up to £50,000 can be funded under De Minimis regulation which states:

De Minimis aid is used to describe small amounts of state aid that do not need European Commission approval.

The total De Minimis aid which can be given to a single recipient is €200,000 over a 3 year fiscal period. This includes all aid received under the ‘De Minimis’ regulation,. When you apply for stream 1 of this competition, you must make sure the total De Minimis aid you receive does not exceed €200,000 over 3 financial years.

Find out more about De Minimis regulations.

Stream 2: Projects with eligible costs over £50,000 and up to £250,000 must be match-funded.

Please read our funding rules guidance for more information on the different categories of funding and the rules around our state aid framework.

The type of R&D being funded by this competition will be Feasibility Study or Industrial Research.

In this competition, the amount of funding to be matched by the lead company will apply to their own costs as well as their partner’s costs.

The company’s contribution to the partner organisation may be paid after the company has received their grant instalment in arrears from Innovate UK. This is if cashflow issues require it.

3. Requirements and eligibility

• you may be eligible to receive different rates of funding depending upon the type and size of your organisation and the activity that you are doing in the project. In your application form, please select the primary type of research that you will be doing within the project and calculate the amount of grant you wish to claim. This should be in line with the Innovate UK funding rules
• only UK based companies are eligible to apply
• all projects must complete their work and incurred, paid and claimed their costs before the end of March 2018
• all projects must be business led
• if an application is unsuccessful, you can use the feedback received to re-apply for the same project. This can be into another competition
• where a company has had a previous grant(s) as the lead or sole company, no new awards will be made to that company if:
  • no substantial efforts have been made to exploit previous grant(s) as described in the exploitation section of the previous grant(s) application)
  • this will be decided by the sector team concerned using evidence from the monitoring officer reports and other sources which will be documented
  • this decision will be made by at least 3 sector team members collectively
  • the decision will be communicated in writing to the company by the lead technologist dealing with the new grant application
  • the decision will not be contestable and Innovate UK will not enter into subsequent correspondence

4. Competition process

For this competition, Innovate UK will adopt a portfolio approach. This is to make sure that the strategic criteria described in the competition brief is met for all projects considered to be above the quality threshold as a result of independent expert assessment.

This is a 2 stage competition and the process described below differs from that for most other Innovate UK competitions so it is very important that you read and understand this specific process:

• initial applications to stage 1 will be by short video and a digital form.
• the video must be in one of the following formats; AAC, AVI, 3GP, FLV, MOV, MP3, MP4, MPEG, OGG, WAV, WEBM, WMA, WMV
• it must be a maximum of 3 minutes in length and the file size must not exceed 5Mb
• the application via _connect must be submitted by the stage 1 deadline (midday on 1 February)
• the video must describe and show the measurement/analysis problem that you are applying to the competition with. You should include a description of any methods already attempted in solving the problem. You should not include any other ideas to resolve the problem nor should you identify any partner to work with to address the problem. These aspects will be discussed later in the application process
• the video should be anonymous. Please do not identify yourself or your company on the uploaded video
• on the digital form, you must identify your company and the lead contact for the application. You must also estimate the value to your business of solving the problem submitted in the video
• the value statement can be expressed in a number of ways. Some examples include:
  • cost savings related to fewer repeated failures and reject materials
  • extra revenue from being able to sell a higher spec product/service into a wider marketplace
  • potential for a new product or service opportunity resulting from the discovery of new information about existing product components, internal structure, composition, etc.

It is your responsibility to make a realistic estimate of the value of solving the problem and explain how you arrive at this estimate. The solution value will be used in the stage 1 assessment. A large inflated value does not mean a successful application. Values will be assessed for realistic estimates commensurate with the company’s size and financial basis.

• submitted applications to stage 1 will be reviewed to make sure that they are in scope for the competition
• only applications that meet the scope of the competition will be sent for assessment
• videos of the problems will be reviewed by a panel of experts. This is to determine if the leading edge facilities available within the competition can address the problem and if so how

Successful applicants to stage 1 will be notified by 17 February 2017. They will be invited to take part in one or more discussions with potential partners to identify a project proposal to work on the problem’s solution. These discussions will be confidential and will take place between 21 and 23 February 2017. You must be available to take part in these discussion sessions in order to progress to stage 2.

• all projects selected for stage 2 will be sent an application form in Word format
• all projects selected for stage 2 will be sent instructions on how to access a secure ftp site to upload their proposal
• out of the partner consortium discussions, and in conjunction with an agreed project partner, applicants must produce a project proposal acceptable to both parties. This proposal for stage 2 must be submitted by midday on 15 March 2017
• applications for stage 2 will be assessed by up to 5 external assessors who are experts in the area of innovation identified in your application
• assessors will score applications consistently and in line with scoring matrices. They will provide written feedback for each marked question
• applications will be ranked in descending order. Applications are scored over a quality threshold which is reviewed against Innovate UK’s strategy, to build a portfolio of projects that:
  • are high quality
  • address opportunities across a range of industrial sectors, technologies, themes and priorities
  • demonstrate sufficient innovation, potential return on investment and degree of technical risk
  • demonstrate value for money, include the potential impact of the project relative to its cost, and the cost of other projects under consideration
• the applicant will be notified of the funding decision
• all applications to stage 2 will receive assessor feedback. In addition, those projects scoring over a quality threshold will receive additional feedback from the Innovate UK portfolio review. The additional feedback will cover why or why not the application was funded

5. How to apply

Before you apply into an Innovate UK competition, it is important to understand the whole application process. The information below is specific to this competition. In addition, please read our general guidance for applicants which will give information on:

• funding rules
• project costs
• state aid
• how to submit your application
• categories of research and development
• participation in a project

Application: To apply for this competition you must first click the register button and either sign into or create a new _connect account

You may upload your video at any time before the application deadline but please note that late submissions will not be accepted.

For those invited to progress to stage 2, once you have received your unique username and password, you can sign into the secure website to access the finance forms for this competition.

For stage 2, the lead partner mentioned here means the company who applied to stage 1. Information for the proposal for stage 2 can be provided by the project partner. It is the lead company’s responsibility to create and upload the proposal before the deadline.

Please note: Only finance forms named ’Project Finance Form Jan 2017.xls’ will be accepted into stage 2 of this competition. Previous versions of the project finance form will be ineligible. When you register for the competition you will have access to our secure site. You will be able to download the finance form from the public area of this site.

IMPORTANT: appendices must follow the guidance for this specific competition. Appendices which do not follow the guidance will result in ineligible applications that will not be sent for assessment.

Submit your documents: The lead partner should submit:

• your application form supplied with your unique application number for this competition
• project appendices as PDF documents, labelled with your application number
• partner finance forms for both partners in your project

Scope check: Only applications that meet the eligibility criteria and scope of the competition will be sent for assessment. You will be notified if your application is out of scope with full reasons as to why. Innovate UK reserves the right to declare applications as out of scope.

Assessment: Once the competition submission deadline is reached, your application is sent for assessment. Notification: We will notify the lead partner of the outcome of your application on the date stated in the timeline.

Feedback: We will give feedback to successful and unsuccessful applicants approximately 4 weeks after you have been notified of the decision. The lead applicant can access the feedback by logging on to the secure website where you uploaded your application documents. It is the responsibility of the lead partner to communicate the feedback with the rest of the consortium. No additional feedback can be provided and there will be no further discussion on the application.

6. The application form

This section explains the structure of the application form that you will need to submit if you are invited to stage 2 of the competition. It also offers guidance on what to answer in each question.

The structure is as follows:

• application details
• summary of proposed project
• public description of the project
• gateway question: scope
• question 1: need or challenge
• question 2: approach and innovation
• question 3: team and resources
• question 4: market awareness
• question 5: outcomes and route to market
• question 6: wider impacts
• question 7: project management
• question 8: risks
• question 9: additionality
• question 10: costs and value for money
• other funding from public sector bodies
• finance summary table

Please make sure that you upload the final version of your application by the deadline. It is your responsibility to ensure that you do not upload a blank or incomplete application form.

• you can only use the application form provided. It contains specific information including a unique reference number for your project
• the application form contains specific fields. It is important that you complete each field and submit a fully completed form. Incomplete forms will be rejected
• the application form must not be altered, converted or saved as a different version of Microsoft Word
• the space provided in each field of the form is fixed. You must restrict the content of your responses in each of the fields to the space provided. The typeface, font size and colour are predetermined and cannot be changed. Illustrations and graphics cannot be included in the application form. Please check your completed application form in print layout, any text that can’t be seen in this view or when the form is printed will not be assessed
• the light grey shaded fields are completed automatically from other information entered on the form, eg the total columns of a table. These cannot be overwritten

Field	Guidance
Competition name	This field will show the full name of the Innovate UK competition to which the form applies. You do not need to enter anything here.
Document ID	This field is completed automatically.
Applicant number	This field is completed automatically and is the reference that you should use on all correspondence (this is the 5 or 6 digit number after the dash)
Application details
Project title	Enter the full title of the project.
Research category	Please select from the dropdown list.
Project timescales	Enter the estimated start date and its planned duration. These are estimated at this stage and are not guaranteed. You must complete the work and incur, pay and claim for all costs before the end of March 2018.
(Lead) organisation name	Enter the full registered name of the (lead) organisation for the project. If you are not in a consortium application, these will be your organisation details. Please note that the lead organisation will be the main point of contact between Innovate UK and the project team.
(Lead) organisation contact details	Enter the full name, postcode, email address and telephone number of the main point of contact between Innovate UK and the project.

6.1 Summary of proposed project (not scored)

Guidance

Please provide a short summary of the content and objectives of the project including what is innovative about it.

This summary is not scored, but provides an introduction to your proposal for the benefit of Innovate UK staff and assessors only. It will not be used for any public dissemination. It should cover, in brief:

• need or challenge. The business need, technological challenge or market opportunity to be addressed (i.e. the problem you are addressing)
• approach and innovation. The approach to be taken and how this will improve on current state-of-the-art outcomes
• the difference the project will make to the competitiveness and productivity of the partners involved

6.2 Public description of the project (not scored)

Guidance

To comply with government practice on openness and transparency of public-funded activities, Innovate UK has to publish information relating to funded projects. Please provide a short description of your proposal in a way that will be comprehensible to the general public. Do not include any commercially confidential information, for example intellectual property or patent details.

Please describe your project. Funding will not be provided to successful projects without this.

6.3 Gateway Question: Scope

Guidance

How does this application align with the specific competition scope?

• all applications must align with the specific competition scope criteria as described in the relevant competition brief
• to demonstrate alignment, you need to show that a clear majority of the project’s objectives and activities are aligned with the specific competition

7. Competition questions

All questions apply to all project partners and are scored out of 10 marks.

7.1 Question 1: Need or challenge ‘The problem’ (from stage 1)

What is the business need, technological challenge or market opportunity driving your innovation?

• describe the main motivation for the project; the business need, technological challenge or market opportunity
• describe any work you have already done to address this need. For example is the project focused on improving an existing capability or moving from an existing capability to a new one?
• identify any wider economic, social, environmental, cultural and/or political challenges which are influential in creating the opportunity (for example, incoming regulations). Our Horizons tool can help
• your answer to this question should be no longer than half a page using font Arial 11

7.2 Question 2: Approach and innovation

What approach will you take and where will the focus of the innovation be?

• explain how you propose to address the need, challenge or opportunity identified in stage 1.
• explain how it will improve on what you have tried to address the problem before
• indicate where the focus of the innovation will be in the project (application of existing technologies in new areas, development of new technologies for existing areas or a totally disruptive approach) and the freedom you have to operate
• explain how this project improves your current product/service lines/offerings
• explain how it will make you more competitive or productive
• describe the nature of the outputs you expect from the project (for example, report, demonstrator, know-how, new process, product or service design) and how these will take you closer to addressing the need, challenge or opportunity identified
• your answer to this question should be no longer than half a page using font Arial 11

7.3 Question 3: Team and resources

Who is in the project team and what are their roles?

• describe the roles, skills and relevant experience of all members of the project team in relation to the approach to be taken
• describe the resources, equipment and facilities required for the project and how will you access them
• provide details of any key external parties, including sub-contractors, who you will need to work with to successfully carry out the project
• (if collaborative) describe the current relationships between the project partners and how these will change as a result of the project
• highlight any gaps in the team that will need to be filled
• your answer to this question should be no longer than half a page using font Arial 11

In a separate Appendix named ‘AppendixQ3(application number)’ you may submit in pdf format up to half an A4 page per partner describing the skills and experience of the main people who will be working on the project.

7.4 Question 4: Market awareness

What does the market you are targeting look like?

• specify any additional market(s) (domestic and/or international) you will be able to target as a result of a successful project that addresses the challenge/problem
• for additional target market(s), describe:
  • the size of the addressable market(s) for the project outcome(s), backed up by appropriate references where available
  • the structure and dynamics of the market (e.g. customer segmentation), together with predicted growth rates within clear timeframes
  • the main supply/value chains and business models in operation (and any barriers to entry)
  • specify any improvement in your productivity or competitiveness that will be possible as a result of a successful project which addresses the challenge/problem
• your answer to this question should be no longer than half a page using font Arial 11

7.5 Question 5: Outcomes and route to market

How do you propose to grow your business as a result of the project?

• describe your current position in the market(s) and supply/value chains outlined (will you be extending or establishing your market position?)
• describe your target customers and/or end users, and the value proposition to any additional customers (why would they use/buy it after the problem is solved?)
• describe your route to market for any new customers as a result of addressing the problem
• tell us how you are going to profit from addressing the problem ( increased revenues through new markets, improved product specification or cost reduction (reduced wastage through fewer failures etc.)
• explain how addressing the problem will impact your growth (in the short and long-term)
• describe how you will protect and exploit the outputs of the project, for example through know-how, patenting, designs, changes to business model
• outline your strategy for addressing the other markets identified during or after the project
• for the partner organisation activity in the project, outline their plans to disseminate project research outputs over a reasonable timescale
• if you expect to use the results generated from the project in further research activities, describe how

In the ‘projected growth’ tab of your partner finance form, please complete the following for each business and non-academic partner:

• show your current annual turnover, profit, exports and R&D spend (as a percentage of turnover if appropriate) and employment (in full time equivalent or FTEs). Indicate the proportion of this that relates to the area of the project
• show your forecasts for annual turnover, profit, exports and R&D spend (as a percentage of turnover if appropriate) and employment (in FTEs) for 1, 3 and 5 or more years after project completion. Indicate the proportion of this that will relate to the area of the project
• your answer to this question should be no longer than half a page using font Arial 11

7.6 Question 6: Wider impacts

What impact might this project have outside the project team?

• identify, and where possible quantify, the economic benefits from the project to those outside the project (customers, others in the supply chain, broader industry and the UK economy) such as productivity increases and import substitution
• identify, and where possible quantify, any expected social impacts, either positive or negative on, for example, the quality of life, social inclusion/exclusion, jobs (safeguarded, created, changed, displaced), education, public empowerment, health and safety, regulation, diversity, and any expected impact on government priorities
• identify, and where possible quantify, any expected environmental impacts, either positive or negative
• identify any expected regional impacts of the project
• your answer to this question should be no longer than half a page using font Arial 11

7.7 Question 7: Project management

How will you manage the project effectively?

• outline the main work packages of the project, indicating the relevant research category and lead partner assigned to each, and the total cost of each one
• describe your approach to project management, identifying any key tools and mechanisms that will be used to ensure successful project delivery and highlighting your approach to managing the most innovative aspects of the project
• outline the management reporting lines
• outline your project plan in sufficient detail to identify any links or dependencies between work packages or milestones
• your answer to this question should be no longer than half a page using font Arial 11

In a separate Appendix named ’AppendixQ7(application number)’ you may submit a project plan/Gantt chart up to two A4 pages in length in pdf format

7.8 Question 8: Risks

What are the main risks for this project?

• identify the key risks and uncertainties of the project, including the technical, commercial, managerial and environmental risks, highlighting the most significant ones (providing a risk register if appropriate)
• explain how these risks will be mitigated
• list any project inputs on the critical path to completion (such as resources, expertise, data sets)
• is the output likely to be subject to regulatory requirements, certification, ethical issues, etc., if so how will you manage this?
• your answer to this question should be no longer than half a page using font Arial 11

In a separate Appendix named ’AppendixQ8(application number)’ you may submit a risk register of up to two A4 pages in length in pdf format.

7.9 Question 9: Additionality

Describe the impact that an injection of public funding would have on this project.

• tell us if this project could go ahead in any form without public funding and if so, the difference the public funding would make (such as faster to market, more partners, reduced risk)
• describe the likely impact of the project on the business of the partner organisation involved
• tell us why you are not able to wholly fund the project from your own resources or other forms of private-sector funding (what would happen if the application is unsuccessful)
• your answer to this question should be no longer than half a page using font Arial 11

7.10 Question 10: 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?

• justify the total project cost and the grant being requested in terms of the project goals
• explain how the lead partner will finance their contributions to the project
• explain how this project represents value for money for you and the taxpayer. How does it compare to what you would spend your money on otherwise?
• justify the balance of costs and grant between the project lead and the partner organisation
• justify any sub-contractor costs and why they are critical to the project
• your answer to this question should be no longer than half a page using font Arial 11

7.11 Other funding from public sector bodies which are not project partners

If you have included one or more entries in column 7 of the finance summary table (on the following page), please provide:

• the name(s) of the bodies
• the name of the programme or scheme from which the funds are provided
• the amount of the funds

8. Finance summary

This table lists the total eligible project costs by participant. Please note that only certain project costs are eligible for grant funding under UK State Aid rules. For information on eligible project costs and how to complete the finance forms see the Innovate UK website.

Column 1 Organisation name	Please provide the full names of the (lead) organisation and the partner organisation participating in the project consortium (organisation names as noted in Companies House)
Column 2 Organisation registration number	Companies should provide the Company Registration Number (as noted in Companies House).
Column 3 Enterprise category	Please select your enterprise category. SME definition is based on the EU definition Medium sized: Headcount <250: Turnover <=50 million euros or balance sheet total <=43 million euros Small: Headcount <50: Turnover <=10 million euros or balance sheet total <=10 million euros Micro: Headcount <10: Turnover <=2 million euros or balance sheet total <=2 million euros
Column 4 Postcode where the majority of work will be done	Please provide the postcode of each organisation participating in the project.
Column 5 Contribution to the project by each organisation (£)	Please list the total contribution to be made to the project by each organisation.
Column 6 Funding sought from Innovate UK	Please enter the funding sought from Innovate UK for each participant organisation for this competition. The funding for the partner organization from Innovate UK will be zero.
Column 7 Other funding from public sector bodies	Please include any funding for the project from any other public sector bodies which has been applied for separately, and not as part of this competition. Funding from other public sector bodies might include other applications to research councils, other government departments, devolved administrations, other public sector organisations and some charities. The purpose of this column is to provide Innovate UK with information on the total public funding for the project.
Column 8 Total (£)	The total cost of the project for each participants. This is the sum of columns 5, 6 and 7 and will be entered automatically.
Bottom row Total (£)	The total of each column will be entered automatically.

9. Finance form

Each non-academic participant in your project must provide a finance form which must be submitted with the application form by the lead applicant. Each finance form provides a detailed breakdown on each participant’s total eligible project costs listed in your finance summary table.

10. Project appendices

You may include appendices of additional supporting information for particular questions with the application form. Please do not use the appendices as an overflow of answers to the application form questions.

It is very important that your appendices conform to the competition guidance. Applications submitted with incorrect appendices will be ineligible and not sent for assessment.

In order that assessors can open and read the appendices, each appendix must:

• conform to the maximum length specifications stated for each question
• be submitted in Portable Document Format (pdf)
• be legible at 100% zoom/magnification
• display prominently the ‘application number’ as in the filename of the application form

Please do not submit appendices longer than the specified lengths. Assessors are instructed to only read appendices to the lengths specified in the guidance.