Notice

Competition guidance: design foundations 2017 round 1

Updated 15 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This notice was withdrawn on 21 September 2017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 opens	Monday 16 January 2017
Competition briefing event	Tuesday 17 January 2017
Final date for registration	Midday Wednesday 15 February 2017
Submission of the full application including finance forms and any PDF submissions	Midday Wednesday 22 February 2017
Decision to applicants	By the end of March 2017

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

2. Funding

There is £1 million of funding available from Innovate UK for strategic, early-stage design interventions to help businesses:

• understand customer needs, identify innovation opportunities and propositions that would be desirable to customers
• generate and explore new product, service and/or business model ideas quickly and with minimal risk
• communicate ideas in a clear, compelling way to investors, customers, internal teams and other stakeholders
• boost their capability to plan, procure, manage and deliver strategic design interventions

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

3. Requirements and eligibility

• to be eligible for this competition, projects must fall under the feasibility study research category. A full definition of this category is available in the guidance for applicants section of our website
• different rates of funding are available to support eligible feasibility studies, depending on the type and size of the applicant business. In your application form, please calculate the amount of grant you wish to claim. This should be in line with the Innovate UK funding rules
• applications must be business led. Only individual UK based businesses are eligible to apply
• up to a maximum of 70% of the total eligible project costs can be allocated for the sub-contracting of design services to one or more other UK registered businesses
• if an application is unsuccessful, you can use the feedback received to re-apply for the same project. This can be into another round of this competition or another competition
• where a business has had previous grants as the lead or sole applicant, no new awards will be made to that business if; no substantial efforts have been made to exploit previous grants as described in the exploitation section of the application for the previous grants
  • 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 business by the innovation lead 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. This will be as a result of independent expert assessment.

• submitted applications 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
• applications in scope will be assessed by up to 5 external assessors who are experts in design process and its application across relevant industry sectors
• 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:
  • includes ambitious projects of the highest quality
  • includes a spread of project costs and durations that fit the available funding
  • addresses a range of innovation challenges across, but not limited to, Innovate UK’s 4 priority areas: Health and Lifesciences, Infrastructure Systems, Manufacturing and Materials and Emerging and Enabling Technologies
  • reflects a range of different early-stage design challenges and output types
  • demonstrates value for money, considering the potential impact of projects relative to their cost, and the cost of other projects under consideration
• the applicant will be notified of the funding decision. It is the responsibility of the applicant to notify any intended sub-contractors of the funding decision
• all applications in scope for the competition will receive assessor feedback. In addition, those projects scoring over a quality threshold will receive extra feedback from the Innovate UK portfolio review. The extra feedback will cover why the application was or was not 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

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 Jan 2017” 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.

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 should submit:

• your completed application form with your unique application number for this competition
• your completed project finance form
• optional: up to four A4 pages of additional documentation in PDF format

Any additional information should have the filename Appendix(application number). It should demonstrate the relevant capabilities, expertise, experience and delivery capacity of the design resource (whether in-house or a named sub-contractor). Documents could include, for example, company background, process descriptions, relevant case studies, team biographies, CVs.

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 a full explanation 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 you of the outcome of your application on the date stated in the timeline. It is the responsibility of the applicant to inform any intended sub-contractors of the funding decision.

Feedback: We will give feedback to successful and unsuccessful applicants approximately 4 weeks after you have been notified of the decision. The applicant can access the feedback by signing into the secure website where you uploaded your application documents. It is the responsibility of the applicant to communicate the feedback with any intended sub-contractors. 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, including details of the applicant business and any intended sub-contractors
• summary of proposed project
• public description of the project
• gateway question: scope
• question 1: project aims and objectives
• question 2: project activities and outputs
• question 3: addressing innovation barriers
• question 4: project team and management
• question 5: additionality
• question 6: costs and value for money
• 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 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.
• 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
• you should be able to see your total answer to the question when looking at the application form in print view. Any text that cannot be seen in this view or when the form is printed will not be assessed

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
Theme	Please select from the drop down list
Research category	Feasibility study (this field is completed automatically).
Project timescales
Estimated start date Duration	Enter the estimated start date and its planned duration. These are indicative at this stage and are not guaranteed.
Lead organisation
Company name	Enter the full registered name of the applicant business for the project. Please note that the applicant business will be the main point of contact between Innovate UK and the project team.
Contact details	Enter the full name, postcode, email address and telephone number of the main point of contact between Innovate UK and the project.
Sub-contractor details
Company name	Enter the full registered name of the business being sub-contracted, if applicable.
Contact details	Enter the full name, postcode, email address and telephone number of the main point of contact.
Business sector	Please select from the drop down list
Enterprise category	Please select from the drop down list
Staff	How many people are employed by this business, including any temporary staff or freelancers expected to be contracted at the time of the project?
Project team size	How many employees in this business will be working full-time (or equivalent) on this project?

You should add further details for any other business you intend to sub-contract during 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:

• the context of the project
• the challenges you are aiming to address and the approach you will take
• the intended outcomes and impact of the project
• how the project represents a different approach for your business
• whether you plan to sub-contract other businesses e.g. to provide design expertise

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. Funding will not be provided to successful projects without this description.

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 5 aspects of the design foundations competition scope, namely:

• is it early-stage design?
  • does the project include activities at the discover, define and develop stages of the ‘double-diamond’ design process? Please refer to the following Design Council reports to learn about the ‘double-diamond’:
  • 11 lessons: a study of the design process
  • Innovation by design: how design enables science and technology research to achieve greater impact. This process is explained in more detail in the ‘Competition questions’ section.
  • does the project allow a range of different solutions to be considered, rather than starting out with a particular solution in mind?
  • does the project focus on understanding human motivations and behaviour and use this insight to inspire desirable, beneficial and easy-to-use solutions?
• does the project include activities to help clarify ongoing strategy and next steps, including the creation of necessary plans and/or materials?
• how will the project build design understanding and capability within the applicant business?
• how will the project support a more effective and efficient innovation culture within the applicant business (e.g. by identifying and addressing barriers to innovation)?
• does the project represent a new approach and challenge for the applicant?

7. Competition questions

All questions are scored out of 10 marks

7.1 Question 1: Project aims and objectives

This question asks why you need to do the project. You should explain the context and your motivations for carrying out early-stage design activity. You should also describe what the project will achieve, both in terms of creating value for your business and boosting future innovation capabilities.

Project aims might include:

• gaining valuable customer insight
• identifying value propositions and routes to market
• generating new ideas and creating the plans and materials that will help you exploit those ideas.

Objectives could also relate to improving the innovation capability of the business by addressing internal barriers and/or adopting new processes.

7.2 Question 2: Project activities and outputs

This question asks how you will conduct the project to achieve the aims and objectives set out in Question 1. You should think of this as a step-by-step project plan and include enough detail to identify any links or dependencies between work packages or milestones. Break the project down into individual phases of work and, for each, explain:

• what will be done?
• who will be involved and how?
• what will the outputs be (specific deliverables)?
• how will these outputs help towards the overall project objectives?
• how long the work take?
• what are the associated costs?

Note that all projects will be expected to create a final written report on their findings as part of project closure.

In planning and describing your project, you should refer to the ‘double-diamond’ design process.

In-scope projects should include activities and outputs at the first 3 stages of the “double-diamond” design process: discover, define and develop. The 4th stage, deliver, is out of scope. If your project excludes 1 or more of the first 3 stages, you should explain why it is not necessary or appropriate.

The double-diamond describes a generic, four-stage design process that can be used to create new and valuable products, services or business models in direct response to customer needs.

The process consists of 4 consecutive stages of divergent thinking (creating choices) and convergent thinking (making choices) as follows:

1. discover (divergent thinking): Latent needs and innovation opportunities are identified by observing human interaction experiences, mapping system interdependencies and studying social, technological, ecological and regulatory trends.
2. define (convergent thinking): Discoveries from stage 1 are interpreted and aligned with business objectives. Specific value propositions are defined, customer experience goals set and development activities planned.
3. develop (divergent thinking): In response to the propositions and goals identified at stage 2, Various solutions are created and developed via fast cycles of simulation and testing.
4. deliver (convergent thinking): Progression of the best ideas from stage 3 towards implementation. The “deliver” phase is out of scope for this competition.

7.3 Question 3: Addressing innovation barriers

You should describe how, through preparation, planning, structure and activities of your project, you will identify and overcome barriers that could otherwise restrict the value and impact of the design project.

Consider, for example:

• are key stakeholders (including within your own business) fully on-board with the project? If not, how will the project engage them?
• how will you ensure effective communication between the different stakeholders involved in the project?
• are appropriate, transparent decision-making processes in place or can they be implemented as part of the project?
• effective design requires the consideration of a broad range of potential solutions many of which, through fast simulation and testing, might be found to fail. Are “good failures” tolerated? How will team members be empowered explore, fail and learn?
• how will you make sure that stakeholders are prepared to work from first principles, reframe objectives, challenge assumptions, reassess existing ideas and explore alternative solutions in response to new insight?
• what tangible outputs will be required to secure buy-in and facilitate next steps? For example, reports, visuals, simulations, plans, business model canvas, roadmaps, investment pitches, further funding applications.

7.4 Question 4: Project team and management

Who will carry out the work and how will you manage the project effectively?

In your answer, you should

• describe the roles, skills and relevant experience of all members of the project team including specific design capabilities and expertise
• describe any resources, equipment and facilities required for the project and how you will access them
• provide details of any key external parties, including sub-contractors, who you will need to work with to successfully execute the project
• highlight any gaps in the team that will need to be filled

7.5 Question 5: Additionality

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

In your answer, you should

• tell us if this project could go ahead in any form without public funding and if so, the difference the public funding would make (faster results, working with other businesses or organisations, reduced risk, increased investment potential)
• explain how this project represents a new and significantly different approach to innovation for the applicant
• describe the likely impact of the project on the applicant’s business
• 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 this project would change the nature of R&D activity the applicant would undertake (and related spend)

7.6 Question 6: 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?

In your answer, you should

• justify the total project cost and the grant being requested in terms of the project goals
• explain how the applicant will finance their contribution to the project
• explain how this project represents value for money for you and the taxpayer, for example how does it compare to what you would spend your money on otherwise?
• justify any sub-contracting costs and why they are critical to the project

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 names 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, your contribution and the funding being sought. Please note that only certain project costs are eligible for grant funding under UK State Aid rules. See our project costs guidance for information on eligible project costs and how to complete the finance forms.

Column 1 Company name	Please provide the full name of the applicant business (name as noted in Companies House)
Column 2 Company registration number	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 majority of work will be done	Please provide the postcode of the applicant business.
Column 5 Contribution to the project by the applicant business (£)	Please list the total contribution to be made to the project by the applicant business.
Column 6 Funding sought from Innovate UK (£)	Please enter the funding sought from Innovate UK for this 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 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

Along with the application form, the applicant must submit a project finance form using the template “Project finance form Jan 2017” which is available on the FTP site. The finance form provides a detailed breakdown of the total eligible project costs listed in your finance summary table.

10. Supplementary documents

You may submit supplementary documentation to demonstrate the relevant capabilities, expertise, experience and delivery capacity of the design resource (whether in-house or a named sub-contractor). Documentation could include company background, process descriptions, relevant case studies, team biographies etc . You may submit up to four A4 pages of supplementary documentation in total, including images, across one or more files.

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

• 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 more than four A4 pages of documentation. Assessors are instructed to only read supplementary documents to the lengths specified in the guidance.