Eureka Globalstars Japan Round 3

The UK registered partners in your Eureka project must nominate one business, of any size, to start an Innovate UK application. We refer to them as the ‘UK lead organisation’ and the person they nominate to have overall responsibility as the ‘UK lead applicant’.

The UK lead applicant has an overall view of the Innovate UK application and must:

• start the application
• monitor the partners’ application progress
• make sure all UK partners complete their parts of the application
• click submit once the application is complete

The UK lead applicant must collaborate with at least one SME from Japan. It must be a separate legal entity, not linked to the UK partners.

You can also collaborate with other participating Eureka countries in addition to Japan.

The UK lead applicant can also collaborate with:

• other UK registered businesses of any size
• UK registered Universities and research and technology organisations (RTOs)

UK research organisations cannot lead or work alone. They must be able to show how they will exploit the results of the project to grow the wider sector in the UK.

A UK registered business can only lead on one application but can be included as a collaborator in two further applications. If a UK registered business is not leading any application, it can collaborate in up to three applications. A UK registered academic institution or RTO can collaborate on any number of applications.

UK applicants can apply for total grant of up to £600,000 for each project.

Your project can last between 12 and 36 months and is expected to start by 1 June 2025 and end by 31 May 2028. The start date depends on the national funding procedures of the Eureka members involved in the selected projects.

Projects must be collaborative. No more than 70% of the total eligible project costs can be claimed by a single partner or by all partners from a single participating Eureka country collectively.

The overall Eureka project must nominate one organisation to start a Eureka application.

The organisations from Japan and other participating Eureka countries must meet the funding and eligibility conditions of their respective national funding bodies. These will be published on the Eureka call for proposals web page when this competition opens. In addition to the Eureka application, these organisations must apply through their own funding bodies and not through the Innovation Funding Service.

Each partner must carry out the majority of their funded work within the Eureka country from which they receive funding, for example, the UK for Innovate UK funding.

There must be a genuine collaboration. No more than 70% of the total eligible project costs can be claimed by a single partner or by all partners from a single participating Eureka country collectively.

The aim of this competition is to fund business led, collaborative research and development (CR&D) projects focused on industrial research. This competition will be for innovative proposals developed between the UK, Japan and the other Eureka participating countries. Innovate UK will be funding the UK partners only.

The EUREKA member countries confirmed as participating in this competition are Austria, Canada, Finland, France, Netherlands and Singapore.

This competition will support industrial research with Innovate UK funding the UK partners only.

Your collaborative R&D proposal must demonstrate:

• a clear game-changing or disruptive innovative idea leading to new products, processes or services
• a strong and deliverable business plan that addresses, and documents, market potential and needs
• sound, practical financial plans and timelines
• good value for money, which will always be a consideration in Innovate UK funding decisions
• a clear, evidence-based plan to deliver significant economic impact, return on investment (ROI) and growth through commercialisation, as soon as possible after project completion
• clear, considerable potential to significantly benefit the UK economy or national productivity
• the benefit of participants from the countries working together and how this adds value
• a clear definition of where intellectual property (IP) can be used and shared between the participants and countries
• a clear route to market within two to three years of project completion

Your project must demonstrate an effective collaboration between the UK partners and Japan as a minimum.

We will not fund projects that work on non-civilian technologies or are in the nuclear or pharmaceutical sector.

An online briefing event was held on Thursday 19 September: click here to view the recording.

Briefing slides are available to download from IFS at the link below.

If you would like help to find a collaboration partner, contact Innovate UK Business Connect’s Global Alliance team.