SBRI: Healthy Ageing - scaling social ventures

This is a Small Business Research Initiative (SBRI) competition funded by Innovate UK, part of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI). This is a single-phase competition.

The aim of the competition is to fund Social Ventures with the ability to scale and deliver social impact. Your proposal must address one or more of the 7 themes of the Healthy Ageing Challenge Framework.

Projects:

• must have total costs of between £200,000 to £500,000, inclusive of VAT
• can start by 1 February 2023
• must end by 31 March 2024
• must last between 6 months and 12 months

To lead a project, you can:

• be an eligible organisation of any size
• work alone or with others from business, research organisations, research and technology organisations or the third sector as subcontractors

As an organisation you must:

• be a social enterprise and exist to provide benefits for society
• have stated commitment to social outcomes for an identified set of beneficiaries related to your social or environmental mission
• have objects in your constitutional documents, which form a constitutional lock, that protect your social or environmental mission
• have a policy to distribute a portion of profits after tax, or be open to including one, so surpluses are used to achieve social or environmental impacts in the long term

A total of up to £3million, inclusive of VAT, is allocated to this competition.

The R&D contracts will be between £200,000 to £500,000 inclusive of VAT, for each project for 6 to 12 months. We expect to fund between 6 and 12 projects.

The contract is completed at the end of the competition, and the successful organisation is expected to pursue commercialisation of their solution.

Scope

The aim of this competition is to enable businesses with a social purpose to scale up existing innovative products, processes and services where the innovation element is at a Technology Readiness Level (TRL) between 3 and 7.

In this competition you must:

• address one or more of the 7 themes identified by the Healthy Ageing Challenge Framework to support people as they age
• identify a clear route to market, scalability and sustainability for your product or service
• have a validated business plan to scale your product or service and plan to scale by at least 25% of current baseline
• include an evidence-based theory of change
• provide evidence of an existing lead customer who is using your product or service and the plan to increase their uptake
• detail a minimum of one and up to four new customers and an implementation plan for each
• describe how scaling your innovation addresses critical social or environmental challenges
• demonstrate a causal link between your business activities and achievement of your declared social or environmental impact
• describe how all social impact will be measured, evidenced, and reported
• outline your commitment to specific social outcomes, clearly identifying beneficiaries related to your social or environmental mission
• explain how any profits after tax will be distributed so surpluses are used to achieve future social or environmental impacts
• describe how ongoing collaborations between all members of the project team will develop
• have the required ethical approvals, data sharing agreements and contracts in place

Contracts will be given to successful applicants.

You must demonstrate a credible and practical route to market, so your application must include a plan to commercialise your results.

Your project can focus on one or more of the following 7 themes from the Healthy Ageing Challenge Framework:

• living well with cognitive impairment
• sustaining physical activity
• maintaining health at work and work in later life
• managing the common complaints of ageing
• design for age-friendly homes
• creating healthy active places
• supporting social connections

An online briefing event will be held on 21st September: click here to register for a place.