Sustainable Innovation Fund

Innovate UK launches two competitions to help organisations recover from Covid-19. Links to recordings of the briefings and Q&A sessions are below.

 

Two opportunities have been opened as part of Innovate UK‘s £191m Sustainable Innovation Fund, a fund to help all sectors of the UK recover, grow and create new opportunities from the aftermath of the global health pandemic.

• Sustainable Innovation Fund Round 1 (temporary framework) – an investment of up to £55m to fund single and collaborative research and development projects to help organisations across the economy recover from Covid-19 in a clean and resilient way. Each organisation working alone or in a collaboration can claim a maximum of £175,000.
• Sustainable Innovation Fund SBRI phase 1- larger clean-tech projects of up to £3m that are pathfinders to the UK’s net-zero ambitions. The overall programme will be delivered in 2 phases. This is phase 1 and will focus on exploring the feasibility of proposals. Phase 2 will concentrate on continued research, development and testing. Only successful applicants from phase 1 will be able to apply to take part in phase 2. Phase 1 projects are expected to range in size up to total costs of £60,000, including VAT.

 

Three webinars have been held.

Innovate UK competition briefing events:

Sustainable Innovation Fund Round 1 (temporary framework) – briefing event was held on 3 July and a recording is here.

Sustainable Innovation Fund SBRI phase 1 – briefing event was held on 2 July and a recording is here.

 

KTN Q&A session (please note this is not a formal competition briefing):

KTN held a Q&A session on 3 July for organisations interested in bidding into the competition. This was not a formal briefing event but a chance for participants to ask questions of the panel about areas like:

• What makes a great innovation project for this competition?
• What are the likely pitfalls?
• Should I apply for this competition or hold out for another call?

 

Chaired by KTN’s Access to Funding and Finance expert Charlotte Thompson, the panel includes Emma McKenna, KTN’s Knowledge Transfer Manager, Emerging Technologies and Industries, Ian Meikle, Director for Clean Growth and Infrastructure, Innovate UK and Jonny Voon, Innovation Lead Next Generation Services, Innovate UK.

The recording of the session is here.

 

Sustainable Innovation Fund Round 1 (temporary framework ) closes at 11:00 on 29 July 2020. You can find out more about the scope and eligibility here.

Sustainable Innovation Fund SBRI phase 1 closes at 11:00 on 5 August 2020. You can find out more about the scope and eligibility here. EEN launched a virtual marketplace website to help innovators, potential customers and other sub-contractors find each other, communicate and develop project ideas. The website will be available until the application deadline. To find out more and register, click here.