Notice

SBRI competition guidance: antimicrobial resistance (AMR) in humans

Published 9 July 2018

This notice was withdrawn on 28 September 2018

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

1. Dates and deadlines

Competition opens	16 July 2018
Final date for registration	22 August 2018
Submission of the full application (including appendices)	midday 29 August 2018
Decision to applicants	5 October 2018
Interviews (strand 2)	17 and 18 October 2018
Final notifications	26 October 2018
Contracts awarded	No later than 1 November 2018
Feedback provided	3 November 2018
Project start date	No later than 1 January 2019

These guidance notes complement the invitation to tender (Document SBRI_DH_344_001) which can be found on the FTP site, and are designed to help with completing the application form.

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

2. Funding

The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) will invest up to £10 million to address the problem of Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR). This will be across 2 competition strands:

Strand 1

Up to £5 million is available to explore the scientific and technical feasibility of innovative solutions. This will be through proof of concept studies, for infection prevention, and the development of new therapies and vaccines in relation to AMR. Individual contracts will be for up to £500,000 including VAT and 12 month duration. We expect to award up to 12 contracts.

Strand 2

Up to £5 million is available to projects at a more advanced stage of development. Individual contracts for this strand will be for projects up to £2 million including VAT and a duration of between 12 and 24 months. We expect to award up to 4 contracts.

This strand is aimed at the technical evaluation of a scientific idea in relation to:

• infection prevention
• the development of new therapies and vaccines and can include proof of concept in a model system
• progression of a technical evaluation to the point of readiness for clinical testing
• the demonstration of effectiveness in humans, patients or the relevant environment

3. How to apply

Before you apply into this SBRI competition, it is important to understand the whole application process. The information below is specific to this competition and may differ from Innovate UK’s general guidance for applicants.

Register: 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 in to the secure website to access additional documentation for this competition.

Submit your documents. You should submit:

• your application form with your unique application number for this competition
• project appendices as PDF documents, labelled with your application number

All applications will be treated in confidence.

The application process for the SBRI competition requires the completion of the Application Form. You must follow the directions in the guidance when submitting your application. Do not send by post or any other means than as directed in the guidance.

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

Interview: strand 2 applicants who are successful at the written stage will need to present to an expert panel and be interviewed. Further details about the interview process will be provided to successful applicants.

Notification: we will notify you 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. You can access the feedback by signing into the secure website where you uploaded your application documents. No additional feedback can be provided and there will be no further discussion on the application.

4. 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
• title and abstract for publication
• competition questions
• technical team and expertise
• application finances
• additional questions
• declarations

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.

These notes should be read together with the application form. They are designed to help you to provide the information required. Where text limits are indicated, please do not exceed these, as this will result in your application being rejected.

Applications will be assigned a reference number. It should be noted that you will need it for all subsequent enquiries. If your application is successful in progressing to phase 2, you will be allocated the same application number.

A reference number will be assigned to the applicant once you have registered for the competition. You will be notified of this number by email. You will need to register separately for each application that you intend to submit.

The application form should be completed using a font size no smaller than 10 (Arial). Keep the use of acronyms to a minimum and be sure to define them. Only use acronyms where a term is mentioned frequently throughout the proposal. Bear in mind that individual sections of the application may be read separately during the selection process.

In order for your application to be accepted you must submit all the required information. This includes all mandatory fields from the application form and failure to complete the whole application form will result in your application being rejected.

5. Competition questions

The following are all mandatory fields.

Field	Guidance
1. Application
Project title	Enter the full title of the project including trial acronym if applicable. This should be descriptive and concise. It should contain keywords relevant to the project.
Contract duration (months)	Projects are expected to start by 1 January 2019 and the work must be completed and delivered by the end December 2019.
Total contract cost (£)	Proposed projects can request from £50,000 to a maximum of £2 million.
Proposed start date	Projects to start 1st January 2019
What is the best way to describe your innovation?	Select from the options.
Which strand are you applying for?	Select from the options.
2. Application details	Please submit all the details requested in the application form.
3. Contact details	Please submit the lead applicant’s name, post held, institution or company, and position. Tell us where you heard about the competition.

4. Title and abstract for publication

Please provide a brief, public facing description of the project. Should your project be successful, this information will be made public once the award is confirmed. We reserve the right to amend the description before publication if necessary, but will consult you about any changes.

5. Description of proposed idea or technology

Avoiding the use of unnecessary technical jargon, describe clearly how the proposed project will deliver the outcomes as described in the competition documentation. Describe the AMR related issue that you are addressing, the approach you are taking the desired out come and the benefits that it will bring. The Department of Health and Social Care will invest up to £10 million in two competition strands.

Document the current state of development or readiness of the project.

Provide relevant data as evidence to support the rationale for the project in a supplementary document. This can be a maximum of 2 A4 pages.

6. Scientific or technical project summary

Please provide a structured summary of the technical basis of the project, including trial design and proposed methodology and any data to provide confidence in the likely successful delivery of the project.

This should outline the background to the technology, including what the innovation is and the main deliverables. This would typically involve highlighting the research and development that will prove the scientific and commercial merit of the project. Also describe what might be achieved by deploying the innovation to address the technical challenges.

Explain and justify all statistical aspects of any study/trial and the assumptions they are based on (for example power calculations, sample sizes and effect sizes).

Relevant data providing evidence to support the rationale for the project should be provided in a supplementary document. This should be a maximum of 2 A4 pages and should be submitted in PDF format.

7. Technical background, current state of the art and intellectual property (IP)

Please provide details of any competing technologies or market alternatives and the relative benefits of the proposed technology. Please describe how the proposed study or trial will differ from or complement any relevant planned, ongoing or recently completed studies internationally. Include details of any existing IP and its significance to your freedom to operate, both in the current project and the future commercialisation.

8. Project plan and methodology

The project plan should identify the major packages of work within the project, with well-defined milestones and deliverables. Highlight what resources will be required to address the technical challenges and what the key success criteria would be. The plan should be comprehensive and the emphasis throughout should be on practicality – we are seeking evidence that the technology works, can be made into a viable product and can achieve the proposed benefits. Where animal studies are proposed the number of animals must be clearly justified including statistics. Appropriate record-keeping and reporting are essential but reports are not in themselves the main goal of the project.

• a Gantt chart should be supplied (in PDF format)
• please provide an indication of how any IP which might arise during the project would be handled

Project Management

Identify the project management processes that you will use to ensure that milestones are achieved in a timely manner. In addition, also provide details of identified risks (technical, commercial and environmental) and mitigation actions.

9. Technical team and expertise

Provide a detailed description of the skills, expertise and track record of the team, including the relevant knowledge and skills of each member and the proportion of their time that will be spent on the project. Include relevant commercial, scientific, clinical and management expertise.

10. Application finances

Summarise and justify all costs. All costs must include VAT. If there is significant use of subcontractors, please explain how these will be used and the costs of each. Your costs must reflect actual costs at a “fair market value” and not include profit.

Please note the assessors are required to judge the application finances in terms of value for money. For instance, they will ask whether the proposed cost for effort and deliverables reflect a fair market price.

Please provide:

• quarterly spend profiles for the duration of the project
• a payment schedule

The costs should cover the following, as applicable.

Directly incurred costs

These are costs that are specific to the project. They will be charged to the project as the amount actually spent. They should be fully supported by an audit record in justification of a claim. They comprise:

• labour costs for all those contributing to the project broken down by individual
• material costs (including consumables specific to the project)
• capital equipment costs
• sub-contract costs
• travel and subsistence
• indirect costs
• other costs specifically attributed to the project

Indirect costs

Indirect costs should be charged in proportion to the amount of effort deployed on the project. Calculate them using your own cost rates. They may include:

• general office and basic laboratory consumables
• library services or learning resources
• typing or secretarial
• finance, personnel, public relations and departmental services
• central and distributed computing
• cost of capital employed
• overheads

You may be asked for an itemisation of costs and methods of calculation at a later date.

11. Commercialisation

Please describe how you would realise the potential commercial solution and the relevant timescales.

Give an overview of your commercialisation and business plans, from feasibility to market launch, including an estimate of the resources needed to get there.

What is the anticipated cost of your proposed solution both at launch and at scale? How does this compare with competing solutions? If the cost is anticipated to be greater than competing solutions, why will your solution be favoured or be more appropriate for deployment in a low or middle income country or epidemic situation.

Consider how the product is likely to be used, by whom, how it will be paid for and distributed.

What is the size of the market opportunity that this project might open up?

13. Declarations

You should discuss your proposals with your own organisation as well as those who will be required to co-operate in the project. Do this before you submit your application.

By submitting the application you are confirming that the information given is complete. You also confirm that you are actively engaged in this project and responsible for its overall management. You agree to administer the award if made.

You are also confirming that you have read and understood the relevant explanatory materials: the invitation to tender, the guidance notes and the guide for participants.

By submitting this application you acknowledge that you have read the statement above and agree that your contact details can be passed to other government agencies and Affinity Partners. For further information please see our Personal Information Charter.