Notice

Competition guidance: biomedical catalyst 2017 round 1, primer award

Updated 22 March 2017

This notice was withdrawn on 21 September 2017

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

1. Dates and deadlines

Competition opens	23 January 2017
Competition briefing event	6 February 2017
Final date for registration	Midday 22 March 2017
Submission of full application (including finance forms, appendices and Je-S forms) deadline	Midday 29 March 2017
Decision to applicants	19 May 2017

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

2. Funding

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

Primer Award

Projects with eligible total project costs of £200,000 to £1.5 million and up to 2 years in duration. There is up to £8 million of funding available for these types of project.

3. Requirements and eligibility

To be eligible for this competition, projects must fall under the industrial research category and can potentially overlap 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 on 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 led by a micro, small or medium business enterprise (SME) with companies applying either individually or in collaboration with other SME businesses or research organisations. See more information on academic led applications
• you should have expected total project costs of £200,000 to £1.5 million
• projects are expected to last up to 2 years (projects must start by 1 August 2017 and finish by 1 August 2019)
• applicants 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 (categories being feasibility, primer, early stage and late stage). The exception is when a new project represents a progression from one award to the next category of awards. 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 evidence of sufficient resource to run 2 projects in parallel)

4. Competition process

For this competition, Innovate UK, The Medical Research Council (MRC) 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

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 2017
• 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 stick 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 ’Partner Finance Form Jan 2017.xls’ will be accepted into this competition. Previous versions of the partner 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 2017 Round 1: Primer Awards 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
• section 1: The business proposition and project details (8 questions)
• section 2: Funding and added value (2 questions)
• other funding from public sector bodies
• finance summary table

There are 10 questions in Sections 1 and 2. Each question is worth a maximum of 10 points and carries a minimum expected score to be considered for funding. Minimum expected scores are detailed for each of the 10 questions in the application description below.

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/read 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, for example the total columns of a table. These cannot be overwritten.

6.1 Confidentiality

Affinity partners co-funding on the Biomedical Catalyst scheme will be given access to applications.

As part of our objective to stimulate and support UK innovation, we have established a close network of Affinity Partners. This list is made up of organisations that can help Innovate UK fund and support innovative businesses to accelerate sustainable economic growth for the UK.

In some cases, we may share the public description of your project with other potential funding bodies, for example agencies of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, who may wish to contact you about providing funding or other support for your proposal.

Assessors are contracted to keep secret and confidential any information that is reviewed as part of the assessment process.

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).
Applicant details
Project title	Enter the full title of the project.
Technology area	Please select from the drop down list.
Is your project relevant/related to addressing the challenges of antimicrobial resistance?	Please select yes or no.
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. Projects must start by 1 August 2017 and finish by 1 August 2019.
(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. 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

Provide a short summary of the project, its objectives and the steps leading to these, and why it is innovative.

This summary is not scored. It will guide selection of assessors with experience to assess both the technical work packages and business objectives, as well as introducing your proposal to assessors. It will not be used for any public dissemination. It should cover, in brief:

• the technological challenge, business need and market opportunity to be addressed
• the technical subject matter of work packages planned and the deliverables for this project
• assuming successful completion of this project, what are the next steps?
• how the innovation will ultimately improve on the current state of the art
• please provide up to 3 keywords or phrases that best describe the healthcare challenge you are addressing and the nature of the solution

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 the general public can understand. 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 help us understand your previous track record in delivering and exploiting publicly funded projects. It 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 helps us to identify any academic collaborators. This is so that we can manage potential conflicts of interest during the assessor selection process. We can also identify projects which are looking 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 and are scored out of 10

Section 1: The business proposition and project details: Each question is allocated 2 pages

7.1 Question 1: What is the healthcare need that this project addresses and what impacts will your solution have? Minimum expected score: 7

Describe the healthcare challenge or issue that your project seeks to address. Supply evidence that the healthcare need is real and how your project will address this. Define the market that will generate demand for your proposed solution. How will the project outputs and/or the innovation lead to a commercial opportunity for your business?

How will the outputs of the project meet the healthcare need? Give any input you have from healthcare professionals, patients or representatives of the onward supply chain.

Measure the potential positive impact on socio-economic factors and healthcare at a patient and community level. Detail the number of anticipated users and the benefits your solution will provide, with estimated timescales.

7.2 Question 2: What is the underpinning scientific evidence to support your solution? Minimum expected score: 7

Detail all relevant prior experimental/technical evidence which can explain how the previous results link to the proposed study.

Outline any preclinical or clinical work conducted to date and the outcomes.

Please use Appendix A to present relevant figures such as chemical structures, graphs or schematics (max 2 pages) with relevant descriptions. This should not be used as an overflow of answers to the application form questions.

7.3 Question 3: What is innovative about your idea? Minimum expected score: 6

Identify the extent to which the project is innovative, from a commercial, scientific and/or technical perspective. Reference existing products and practices that are currently in use and those known to be under development both in the UK and internationally. Discuss the benefits and shortcomings of these (both technical and commercial) compared with your solution. This could include the results of competitor analyses, literature surveys etc.

In evaluating this section assessors will also consider:

• have you provided evidence that it will push boundaries over and beyond current leading-edge world science and technology?
• is it looking to apply existing technologies in new areas and if so, what are the challenges in doing so?
• could it be innovative in the area of application?

The timeliness as well as novelty of your research and/or proposed innovation should be highlighted and explained in an industrial and/or academic context.

7.4 Question 4: What technical approach will be adopted and how will the project be managed? Minimum expected score: 6

Please provide an overview of the technical approach including the main objectives of the work.

Describe where you are now and where you want to get to at the end of the project (‘deliverables’). Describe the stages of the project (‘work packages’) and link the main areas of work together with their resource and management requirements.

Identify milestones and go/no-go points.

Note: projects may be approved subject to interim review at key decision points.

The assessors will also consider:

• is the technical and methodological approach appropriate to the needs of the project? Are the innovative steps achievable through your proposed approach?
• is the project plan sufficient in comparison to the complexity of the project? For example, have you provided sufficient detail to allow assessors to understand the tasks involved and the resources required?
• is any study design robust? Are the timing of key milestones realistic?
• have you demonstrated sufficient resource commitment and capability to undertake the project?
• are clear management reporting lines identified?

If relevant please compare and contrast alternative R&D strategies and describe why your proposed approach will offer the best outcome.

Please provide justification for the use of animals or human subjects and the numbers of animals, samples, etc tested.

Please use Appendix B to provide a detailed Gantt chart (max 2 pages). Please use Appendix C to provide additional information on study design/protocol/approach e.g. experimental detail (max 2 pages).

7.5 Question 5: Do you have freedom to operate? Minimum expected score: 6

Detail any existing intellectual property (IP) which may affect or which is relevant to project delivery and exploitation. State the ownership of IP and where necessary, how rights have been assigned. Provide evidence that you have freedom to operate without infringing other patents (summarise results of patent searches etc).

Detail the intellectual property that you expect to be generated as a result of your project.

Describe your strategy for protecting the knowledge arising from the project. If a collaborative project, how will rights to arising IP be assigned among project partners?

7.6 Question 6: How do you intend to exploit the opportunity? Minimum expected score: 6

How will the outputs of this project take you nearer to your objectives, and what will the subsequent steps be in this journey?

Describe how these outputs will be exploited including, where applicable:,

• the route to market
• reconfiguration of the value system
• changes to business models and business processes and
• other methods of exploitation and protection

Provide evidence that the proposed solution would be commercially viable for the target market (consider cost of manufacturing at launch and at scale, pricing etc). You should describe the size of the market opportunities that this project would create, including details of:

• current nature of the specific markets at which the project is targeted (for example is it characterised by price competition amongst commoditised suppliers? Is it dominated by a single leading firm? What are the channels to market? Etc.)
• the dynamics of this market including measuring its current size then actual and predicted growth rates
• the projected market share for the project outcome. taking account of possible restrictions on market access and penetration, including any potential competitors
• what will be the biggest obstacles to the exploitation and commercialisation of your innovation?
• what impact will the project outputs have on the business and non-academic partners’ 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+ years after project completion?

7.7 Question 7: What are the risks (technical, commercial and environmental) to project success? What is the project’s risk management strategy? Minimum expected score: 6

Innovate UK recognises that projects of this type are risky, but we ask that the project has adequate arrangements for managing this risk. Please focus on the arrangements for managing and mitigating risk as follows:

• identify the key risks and uncertainties of the project and provide a detailed risk analysis for the project content and approach. Include the technical (including regulatory), commercial, managerial (e.g. managing stakeholders) and environmental risks as well as other uncertainties, such as ethical issues, associated with the project.
• develop a risk register, identifying the main risks as high/medium/low (H/M/L)
• discuss the potential impact of these scenarios. State how the project would mitigate all significant and relevant risks

Identify project management tools and mechanisms that will be used to minimise operational risk. This should include the arrangements for managing the consortium where applicable.

7.8 Question 8: Does the team have the right skills and experience and access to facilities to deliver the project and exploit it? Minimum expected score: 6

Please detail the expertise and track record of the project participants, including collaborators and subcontractors, to show your capability to deliver the project and exploit the output.

In evaluating this, the assessors will also consider whether:

• the project builds the UK supply chain and addresses end-user needs
• for collaborations; are the consortium’s formation objectives clear? Is extra benefit gained from the collaboration, for example, increased knowledge transfer? Is the consortium is greater than the sum of its parts?
• is the work being conducted internally where possible and if subcontractors are being used, is there adequate justification for the choice made?
• the project has access to the appropriate facilities

If you are planning to use subcontractors outside the UK then you must provide evidence that no UK alternative exists or strong justification to support your choice of non-UK contractor

Section 2: Funding and added value: Each question is allocated 2 pages

7.9 Question 9: What are the resources required to deliver the project and their cost? Minimum expected score 6

Indicate the anticipated project cost making clear the level of contribution from any project participants and the level of funding required.

This information should complement the financial summary table in the application form.

Please use this section to detail the resources required to carry out the project (for example, materials, capital equipment, infrastructure, people). Fully break down the costs and justify them (for example quotations to evidence value for money). This should include all internal and external costs.

Costs must be consistent with the category of R&D being undertaken. Please see our funding rules guidance for more information on the rules for the various categories.

Important: projects must start by 1 August 2017 and conclude by 1 August 2019.

In evaluating the costs, assessors will consider the following questions:

• is the budget breakdown realistic and justified for the scale and complexity of the project?
• is it clear how costs are being allocated?
• does the financial support required fit within the limits set by the specific competition?
• does the funding request provide value for public money?
• is a financial commitment from other sources demonstrated for the balance of the project costs? Will funding be available to cover cash flow pending quarterly reimbursement of costs from Innovate UK?

Read detailed guidance on eligible and ineligible project costs in our project costs guidance.

Note: Where individuals have roles in 2 or more participating collaborative organisations, costs will be closely scrutinised.

7.10 Question 10: How does financial support from Innovate UK and its funding collaborators add value? Minimum expected score: 6

Could this project could go ahead in any form without public funding? What difference would public funding make (such as faster to market, more partners, reduced risk)? Describe the likely impact of the project on the business of the partners 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).

Explain how failure to secure public funding for this project would change the nature of R&D activity the collaborating partners would undertake (and related spend profile).

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 names 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. View our information on eligible project costs and how to complete the finance forms.

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	Please enter the funding sought 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 partner 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.

9. Project appendices

You may include appendices of additional supporting information for particular questions with the Primer 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.