Innovate UK Business Growth FAQs

Typically they have witnessed, or are expecting, strong growth but they can be an early stage, growth stage or scaling business with up to 250 employees. As such, they can be pre-revenue or already earning millions. They can come from any sector but in every case their leaders are ambitious to grow further and scale.

They may or may not have been in receipt of Innovate UK funding: Whilst we provide specialist ‘wrap-around’ activities to businesses in receipt of Innovate UK funding to maximise the value and impact of a grant or loan, other innovative high growth potential and scaling businesses that may not need our funding can benefit from Innovate UK Business Growth support.

Our innovation and growth specialists are located in every region of the UK, bringing a wealth of domain knowledge and regional and national connections to client engagements.

Our innovation and growth specialists are at the heart of our offer, alongside tools, events, peer-to-peer networks and programmes that foster the connectivity and knowledge that drive innovative businesses forward.

Our specialists offer one-to-one, bespoke and intensive support and coaching. They provide an external perspective and a structured approach to help senior management teams identify and address critical issues and achieve growth and scaling. They also catalyse business partnerships and enable new market entry. We deploy hundreds of such specialists with backgrounds in a number of sectors, so you can be sure of dedicated support that is local to you, with access to an extensive pool of domain experts.

Secondly, we can bring an array of resources to bear to help our clients unlock global business partnering opportunities.  We can connect innovative businesses across borders through our partnerships tool and our connections to an expansive network of specialist advisers overseas, whilst we arrange intensive programmes supported by our specialists such as the Global Business Innovation Programme and highly focused and productive brokerage events.

No, our advisory support is funded by the UK Government, although some aspects of the offer such as IP Audits attract a grant from us, with a minority contribution from the client.

Our innovation and growth specialists and scaleup directors can spend a number of days supporting each of our clients over a shorter or longer period, according to need and potential, typically between 5-15 days.

Until 30 December 2020, you would have had support from an EEN innovation and growth specialist. After that date, your support is provided by an Innovate UK Business Growth innovation and growth specialist.

The change reflects the fact that Innovate UK has placed growth and scaling support at the centre of its strategy for business innovation in the UK. From jointly funding the services provided under EEN with the EU, it completed a transition to become the sole funder of these services from January 2022.

Each business that engages with Innovate UK Business Growth will be subject to eligibility and suitability checks. This is to ensure the business meets set eligibility criteria (such as being UK registered) and is primed to benefit from 1:1 advisory support provided by the service (for example it is at the right stage of development).

Any business which completed support twelve months or more prior to re-engaging with us will also be asked to review its eligibility and suitability with us again.

Eligibility checks

We establish that these conditions hold:

1. Your company is UK registered and the company registration number relates to the same company name
2. Your company is a trading company (or pre-revenue) and is not a holding company or a dormant company
3. Your company has fewer than 250 employees – it qualifies as a micro, Small or Medium sized Enterprise by virtue of this condition and that it falls below at least one of the other turnover and balance sheet total ceilings cited in Companies House guidance (for the same information in another format, see Government Commercial Function guidance). We consider whether the company is autonomous, partner or linked to make this judgement

We need to be confident that you understand that:

1. The company should not have missed its account filing deadline (if it has, that this is corrected in time for support commencement), that the latest accounts have not been qualified, and that the company is considered to be a going concern (your date of incorporation will be taken into account)
2. A disqualified director has not been involved in forming, marketing or running the company
3. The company should not have any significant outstanding CCJs that would impede the company’s ability to trade at the time of support commencement
4. You must comply with the requirements of the National Security and Investment Act (2021) and the statutory UK Strategic Export Control Lists
5. Your organisation is not owned or controlled by an entity based in a UK Sanctioned State or Regime or the benefit will not flow to an organisation constituted or organised under the law of any UK Sanctioned State or Regime
6. You will take reasonable account of the principles explained on the UKRI Trusted Research and Innovation page and the guidance issued by the National Protective Security Authority (NPSA). The UKRI principles expect beneficiaries to have robust arrangements for:

• assessment of R&D and commercial partner suitability
• management of information and knowledge sharing
• management of commercial applications including intellectual property
• compliance with any relevant controls as explained in in the Export Controls Joint Unit pages

7. You must take reasonable measures to protect your intellectual property, information and data. As a minimum, you must do this through implementing the core security measures listed in section 1 of the ‘Core Security Measures for Early-Stage Technology Businesses’ published by the National Protective Security Authority (NPSA) and National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC)
8. For subsidy guidance, please see the separate FAQ on subsidies below

Suitability checks

We gain an initial understanding of your business in conversation with you, to identify whether your business, and its current situation and needs, makes it suitable for Innovate UK Business Growth support.

An innovation and growth specialist, typically near your place of operation, will establish whether you have cleared the earliest startup stages, are on a realistic trajectory to build a growth business centred on your innovation and that you are ready to harness the kind of support that we provide to achieve ambitious objectives.

To those ends, the specialist will review business areas with you such as finance, innovation, marketing, operations, risk management, and leadership.

The provision of one to one advisory support is dependent on the specialist’s evaluation of your business’ suitability. Where such support is not currently the most appropriate option, they will always endeavour to refer you to other support that might be more relevant.

Innovate UK Business Growth aims to support business development services. We may provide financial and non-financial business development support to enterprises at a 100% for up to £315,000.

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