Notice

Competition guidance: antimicrobial resistance

Updated 27 October 2016

This notice was withdrawn on 21 September 2017

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

1. Dates and deadlines

Competition opens	14 September 2016
Competition briefing event	London 19 September 2016
Final date for registration	Noon 27 October 2016
Submission of the full application deadline including finance forms, appendices and Je-S forms	Noon 2 November 2016
Expert panel by invitation only but please keep this date free	29 November 2016
Decision to applicants	By December 2016

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

2. Funding

Innovate UK are delivering a competition on behalf of the Department of Health to invest up to £4 million to support the UK’s capability to conduct research into antimicrobial resistance (AMR). The aim will be to develop new products and services that will reduce the impact of drug-resistant pathogens, slow down the emergence of new ones, and produce new drugs, vaccines and diagnostics. More details can be found in the brief for this competition.

This competition is for capital investment known as “investment aid for research infrastructure”, including refurbishment and equipment, and cannot go towards salaries or consumables. Capital can include the cost of setting up equipment but not the costs of maintenance or staff. Companies can only apply for 50% of the total eligible capital costs they are requesting. Universities, hospitals, and research and technology organisations can apply for 100% of their total costs.

3. Requirements and eligibility

To apply for funding you must:

• be a UK based organisation
• be an organisation of any size or type (any organisation can lead a consortium)
• carry out your project in the UK (although you can collaborate with international organisations)
• work alone or in a consortium with other UK organisations. A consortium can be made up of any type of UK organisation including businesses, charities, universities and hospitals and any mix of these
• satisfy the criterion that any equipment purchased or refurbished should be used for AMR-related activities at least 80% of the time

4. Competition process

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

• applications 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 scoring over a quality threshold will be reviewed against the Department of Health’s goals for this competition and applicants may be invited for interview
• following interviews the expert panel will review with the Department of Health and Innovate UK all quality applications, including any not invited for interview, and build a portfolio of projects that:
  • are high quality
  • together have the potential to have the greatest impact on AMR
  • will build capability across the UK
  • demonstrate sufficient potential return on investment
  • demonstrate value for money, include the potential impact relative to its cost, and the cost of other projects under consideration
• the applicant will be notified of the funding decision
• all applications will receive assessor feedback. In addition, those invited to interview will receive extra feedback from the portfolio review

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:

• state aid
• how to submit your application

You will receive an email acknowledgement of your registration followed by a second email up to 48 hours later. The second email will contain a username and password for our secure upload facility along with a unique application number and form.

Application: Once you have received your unique username and password, you can sign into the secure website to access the finance forms for this competition.

Applicants can make as many applications as they wish but we will look for capacity to deliver if multiple applications are successful

Please note: Only finance forms named ’Project Finance AMR.xls’ will be accepted into this competition. Other 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 conform to 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: You or your lead partner should submit:

• your application form with your unique application number for this competition
• project appendices as pdf documents, labelled with your application number
• partner finance forms for every non-academic partner in your project
• Je-S submission pdf output document for every academic partner in your project, if any

Assessment: Once the competition submission deadline is reached, your application is sent for assessment.

Notification: We will notify you or your 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 signing into 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 and 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: what will you do with the grant?
• question 3: how will the investment help to address the challenge(s) you have outlined in question 1?
• question 4: the team and management
• question 5: leveraging investment and partnerships
• question 6: the UK landscape
• question 7: market awareness and competition
• 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.

• you can only use the application form provided. It contains specific information including a unique reference number for your project
• 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 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 as 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, such as 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
Project timescales	You must spend and claim your grant by 31 March 2017.
(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 nature of the capital investment you are requesting, the research and development it will enable and the potential products and services that could arise as a consequence

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: what AMR challenge(s) will be addressed as a result of the investment
• what will you do: how will you spend the grant
• how will the investment help to address the needs and challenges you have identified

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 understandable 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 (10 points)

What is the AMR challenge that you will address?

• describe the antibacterial resistance challenge(s) that this investment will help you address and why it is important to public health
• describe any work you have already carried out to respond to this need

7.2 Question 2. What will you do with the grant? (10 points)

Explain how you will use the grant.

• describe what will you spend the grant on including refurbishment, hardware, software, databases and any set up costs for equipment
• how does this link with your current capabilities?
• how will it make you more competitive?

7.3 Question 3. How will the investment help to address the challenge (s) you have outlined in Question 1? (10 points)

Describe the outputs that arise from the grant.

• describe how you will use the capital investment to advance AMR research and development
• describe any new products and services, for example diagnostics, drugs, wound dressings or vaccines, which you and/or your partners will work towards delivering as a consequence of the grant. How will these impact on the challenges of AMR?
• include anything that you will enable others to do as a consequence of this investment.

7.4 Question 4. The team and management (10 points)

Describe the roles, skills and relevant experience of key people who will be responsible for spending the grant and utilising any new equipment

• explain who will manage the grant
• highlight any new roles that may be required as a result of the grant

In a separate Appendix named ‘Appendix:Q4(application number)’ you may submit in pdf format 2 pages to describe the skills and experience of the main people who will be involved.

7.5 Question 5. Leveraging investment and partnerships (10 points)

Explain how you will attract funding

• describe how you will attract funding to utilise the equipment and infrastructure in both the short, mid and long-term
• describe the current relationships between any partners, both in the UK and globally and how these will change as a result of the investment
• describe any new partnerships that you aim to establish beyond this funding and explain your approach to securing these partnerships

7.6 Question 6. The UK landscape (10 points)

Explain how your proposal will improve or build on existing UK capabilities

• describe any alignment with existing infrastructure, both in the UK and if appropriate globally, and how this will maximise the impact of the investment
• describe any anticipated regional impact

In a separate Appendix named ‘Appendix:Q6(application number)’ you may submit in pdf format up to 2 pages of A4 that show the inter-relationships between what you plan to establish and existing UK; and where appropriate global; capabilities and infrastructure.

7.7 Question 7: Market awareness and competition (10 points)

Whilst this funding is for capital expenditure only, we would like you to describe the market for the proposed products and/or services (eg new diagnostics, vaccines or drugs) that will be developed as a consequence of this investment. For this question you should:

• specify the market(s) (domestic and/or international); the market size and trends
• as far as possible describe the route to market including any barriers and how they can be overcome (through, for example, new business models)
• describe the competition for the potential products and services
• review other major organisations in the UK that have similar equipment or capabilities to those you would acquire via the grant

NB: Solving the challenges of AMR is not about the greatest market but about new products and services. We are not necessarily looking to support the largest markets but we are looking to support investments that will lead to products and services that will have a high impact. You should put this impact in your answer to Q3.

7.8 Question 8: Risks (10 points)

Identify the main risks and uncertainties around delivering quality research and development and ultimately new products and services as a consequence of this investment

• include commercial, managerial and environmental risks, highlighting the most significant ones
• highlight issues that might prevent you and your consortium (if you are working with one) from spending and claiming the grant by 31 March 2017
• explain how these risks will be mitigated

In a separate Appendix named ’Appendix:Q8(application number)’ you can submit a risk register of up to 2 A4 pages in length in pdf format.

7.9 Question 9. Additionality (10 points)

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

• tell us if this programme 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 investment on the organisations involved
• tell us why you are not able to wholly fund this from your own resources or other forms of private-sector funding (what would happen if the application is unsuccessful)
• explain how this investment would change the nature of your R&D activity

7.10 Question 10: Costs and value for money (10 points)

How much grant are you requesting and how does it represent value for money for the team and the taxpayer?

• justify the grant being requested in terms of your potential impact on AMR
• if a business, explain how you will match (50:50) the grant requested and what you would spend this money on otherwise
• explain how this investment represents value for money for you and the taxpayer

7.11 Other funding from public sector bodies

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 fund amounts

8. Finance summary

This table lists the total eligible project costs by participant. Please note that this competition is for capital investment only. (This includes refurbishment and equipment, but can’t go towards salaries or consumables). Capital can include the cost of setting up equipment but not the costs of maintenance or staff. Companies can only apply for 50% of the total eligible capital costs they are requesting.

Column 1 Organisation name	Please provide the full names of the (lead) organisation and any participants 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). Universities/HEIs should enter their RC number/charitable status/legal entity registration number, etc
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	Please enter the funding sought for each participant organisation in the project.
Column 7 Other funding from public sector bodies	Please include any funding applied for separately for the project from any other public sector bodies 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 participant. 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 using “Project finance AMR.xls” available on the FTP site. This must be submitted with the application form by the lead applicant. Each finance form provides a detailed breakdown on each participant’s total eligible capital project costs listed in your finance summary table.

10. Project appendices

You may include appendices for questions 4, 6 and 8 as described in the guidance for those questions. Any additional appendices submitted will not be sent for assessment. Applications submitted with incorrect appendices will be ineligible and the applications will not be 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.