Notice

Competition guidance: Biomedical Catalyst 2016 - technical feasibility studies

Updated 7 September 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This notice was withdrawn on 21 September 2017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	4 July 2016
Competition briefing event	12 July 2016
Final date for registration	Noon 7 September 2016
Submission of the full application (including finance forms, appendices and Je-S forms) deadline	Noon 14 September 2016
Decision to applicants	by 4 November 2016

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

2. Funding

There is up to £10 million of funding available from Innovate UK, The Medical Research Council and Scottish Enterprise for research and development projects that address the technical challenges described in the brief for this competition.

Technical Feasibility Studies: Projects with eligible costs of up to £200,000 and up to 1 year in duration. There is up to £2 million of funding available for these types of project.

A further £8 million is available in the early stage award. The rest of this competition brief concerns the technical feasibility studies.

3. Requirements and eligibility

To be eligible for the Biomedical Catalyst 2016 Technical Feasibility Studies, projects must fall under the technical feasibility research category. A full definition of these categories is available in the guidance for applicants section of our website:

• 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
• Innovate UK will fund up to 70% for micro/small enterprises and 60% for medium enterprises. No large organisations will be funded through this competition
• projects must be SME business-led, with companies applying either individually or in collaboration with other SME businesses or research organisations. See more information on academic led applications
• expected project costs of up to £200,000
• projects are expected to last up to 1 year (projects must start by 1 January 2017 and finish by 1 January 2018)
• you must address the specific requirements of the competition as outlined in the scope of the competition brief
• the level of total research participation is set at a maximum of 50% of total eligible project costs
• if there is more than one research organisation (university, non-profit distributing RTO, catapult, PSRE, Research Council Institute, charity or public sector organisation undertaking research) in the project, the maximum 50% of eligible costs must be shared between them
• only UK-based companies and research organisations are eligible to apply
• if an application is unsuccessful, you may use the feedback received to re-apply for the same project once more into any Innovate UK competition
• any one company may be involved in up to 3 applications to this competition but may only be the lead partner in 1 application
• businesses may only lead 1 active project in any 1 category at any time. So for example, if you hold an early stage award as project lead you must finish this project before starting a new early stage project. There is an exception when a new project represents a progression from one award to the next category of award. For example, if you hold both a feasibility and an early stage award, and the feasibility project finishes, you may apply for an early stage award to continue that specific programme of work, while holding your original early stage award (subject to approval and evidencing of resource)

4. Competition process

For this competition, Innovate UK, The Medical Research Council and Scottish Enterprise 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.

• 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

Our assessment processes changed in May 2016. External, independent experts assess the quality of your application. We will then select the projects that we fund to build a portfolio that is consistent with the spend profile of available funding, comprised of projects that are:

• high quality
• reflect a range across the scope of Biomedical Catalyst 2016
• reflect the potential for short, medium and long term return on investment for the company and the UK

Affinity partners (MRC and Scottish Enterprise) will consider co-funding opportunities for high quality projects that fall within their strategic priority areas.

This means that the portfolio of projects funded may not adhere to a strict ranked sequence of the assessor score, however they will all meet or exceed the quality line which will be agreed through our independent external assessment process.

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

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.

Please note: Only finance forms named ’Project Finance Form 2016.xls’ will be accepted into 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.

Submit your documents. You or your 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 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 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 Biomedical Catalyst 2016 – Technical Feasibility Studies 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
• public funding
• academic collaborators
• questions 1-6
• 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 VIEW: 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, e.g. the total columns of a table. These cannot be overwritten.

6.1 Confidentiality

Affinity partners co-funding on this competition, for example MRC and Scottish Enterprise, will be given access to applications.

Assessors are contracted to keep secret and confidential any information that is reviewed as part of the assessment process. Read our personal information charter in full.

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	Please enter the full title of the project
Technology area	Please select from the drop down list
Research category	Please select from the drop down list
Have you or your company previously submitted the same or a similar application into a previous round of the Biomedical Catalyst?	Please select yes or no. If yes, please provide your previous application number
How are you intending to match-fund the grant?	Please select from: existing funds revenue seeking new investment other
Project timescales	Enter the estimated start date and its planned duration. Please note that projects must start by 1 January 2017 and finish by 1 January 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

6.2 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
• 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

6.3 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.

6.4 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

6.5 Public funding

Guidance

This section is to enable us to understand your previous track record in delivering and exploiting publicly funded project/s and may be used to inform a funding decision.

Have you received public funding in the previous 5 years? Note: Your funding history may influence the decision on whether to fund your project.

• please select yes or no
• if yes, set out the value and identity of the funding body. If Innovate UK, list project numbers. Summarise the project aims and outcomes, and progress towards commercialisation. Does the present proposal represent a direct progression from a previous Innovate UK / Biomedical Catalyst award?

6.6 Academic collaborators

Guidance

This section enables us to readily identify any academic collaborators. This is so that we can manage potential conflicts of interest during the assessor selection process and to readily identify projects which are seeking to translate previously publicly funded research (a main focus of the Biomedical Catalyst and part of metric collection). This information will not be used to inform funding decisions.

Does your project have an academic partner?

• please select yes or no
• if yes, please list the lead investigator (name, department and institute). Please also state if the academic partner has or has had a role in the lead company or any collaborating businesses. If this project is translating previously UK publicly funded research, please summarise the former research (including research funders)

7. Competition questions

All questions apply to all project partners.

7.1 Question 1: The idea (30 points)

You should:

• state the opportunity you wish to address
• detail the potential health impact of the solution being developed
• describe what is innovative about the approach or technology
• detail the previous work conducted in relation to the study or underpinning science relating to the area
• discuss the competitor landscape including relevant Intellectual Property (IP)
• state the specific issues you wish to address, why they are important, and what you believe is needed to successfully address them
• describe the size of the market opportunities that development of the study might open up
• if applicable, also state if and how the proposed solution has potential for wider impact across sectors or across multiple applications (i.e. technology platform)

7.2 Question 2: The workplan (20 points)

You should:

• explain the project work plan including technical approaches and milestones
• describe the roles of individuals/organisations
• identify interdependencies
• detail main risks, impact and mitigation strategy

Please use Appendix A to present a detailed Gantt Chart (up to 2 sides of A4).

7.3 Question 3: The people (15 points)

You should describe the main people and organisations involved in the project, including internal and external resources, their backgrounds and prior experience of delivering similar programmes.

7.4 Question 4: The deliverables (15 points)

You should describe the outputs of the project:

• what will be the deliverable/s?
• assuming success, how will you take project deliverables forward after the project ends?

7.5 Question 5: The business (10 points)

You should:

• describe the nature of your current business and outline your business plan including financing strategy (lead applicant)
• explain how this project and its outcomes will add value to your business
• for collaborations describe how the partners will gain value from the project

Please use Appendix B to present a business plan for the lead applicant (up to 2 sides of A4).

7.6 Question 6: Project costs and added value (10 points)

You should:

• provide a breakdown of costs aligned with tasks. Where possible describe how best value for money has been decided (quotation comparisons etc)
• state why public funding is necessary for this project. For example why you cannot fund it yourself or how public funding allows you to undertake this project differently

7.7 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 amount of the funds

8. Finance summary and project appendices

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 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 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
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

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.

8.1 Project appendices

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

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.