Analysis for Innovators Round 14: Stage 1

To apply to this stage, your organisation must be a UK registered business of any size. A business may make only one application to this competition.

The funded stage 2 of this competition will be in two strands:

• grant funding in strand 1 will be awarded as Minimal Financial assistance (MFA)
• grant funding in strand 2 will be match-funded under the Research, Development and Innovation Streamlined route (RDIS)

To establish your eligibility for strand 1, we will need to check that our support added to the amount you have previously received does not exceed the limit of £315,000 in the ‘applicable period’ (c. 3 years).

If you are in Strand 2, your company will have to make a contribution to the project costs. The exact amounts you will have to contribute, and the amount of any grant offer, will be determined by Innovate UK according to the size of your organisation and the scope of your proposed project.

Your project must:

• meet the Analysis for Innovators problem scope requirements
• relate to work being undertaken in the UK
• intend to exploit the results from or in the UK
• involve at least one of the Analysis for Innovators partner organisations
• indicate a stage 2 project duration of between three and six months

Confirmation of your stage 2 project duration and start date will be agreed with your Analysis for Innovators partner during brokerage following a successful stage 1 application.

The aim of this competition is to help businesses address their existing analysis and measurement problems. These are problems that can be best explored by scientists and cutting-edge facilities available in the UK.

You must outline what you consider to be the benefits of solving your problem, such as improved productivity or competitiveness.

We will only consider problems that:

• are related to an existing process, product or service owned or used by a company
• are related to the measurement or analysis of some quantities or properties of your process, product or service
• are not effectively solvable by simple ‘off the shelf’ methods or techniques
• relate to a product, service or process improvement owned or used by a company

You must outline any methods and attempts that you have previously tried to address the problem. Do not propose how the problem should be solved.

Analysis problems cannot be simply software related, for example pure data analysis.

We will not consider problems that are:

• not measurement or analysis problems
• ones we consider to be resolvable with easily available methods, such as those that do not require any innovative or cutting-edge science or facilities
• solely computer software analysis problems, such as algorithms to analyse objects
• not related to a company’s existing processes, products or services owned or used by the company

In the stage 2 competition we will not fund any projects that are:

• involved with primary production in fishery and aquaculture
• involved with primary production in agriculture
• relating to the purchase of road freight transport

As part of your application, you must include a short video, up to two minutes long. You must use the Innovate UK video recording platform to record your video. If we are unable to view your video, your application will be made ineligible.

If you experience any technical difficulties whilst using the platform, you must contact Customer Support Service on 0300 321 4357 or support@iuk.ukri.org before the submission deadline.

If you need assistance with using the video platform, please contact the Innovate UK Business Connect Analysis for Innovators support team at a4i@iuk.ktn-uk.org.

A briefing event was held on Thursday 5 September: click here to watch the recording, and download the slides and Q&A.

Innovate UK Business Connect can provide assistance with your application. Please contact the dedicated Innovate UK Business Connect Analysis for Innovators support team at a4i@iuk.ktn-uk.org.