India - UK Collaborative R&D for industrial sustainability Rd 2

To start an application on the Innovation Funding Service (IFS), you must:

• be a UK registered business of any size
• be or involve at least one grant claiming UK registered micro, small or medium sized enterprise (SME)
• collaborate with at least one Indian registered business applying to the Technology Development Board programme, which must be a separate legal entity, not linked to the UK partners

Indian Limited Liability Partnerships (LLPs) are not considered eligible for funding by TDB. If your consortium consists of an Indian LLP you will be made ineligible.

The consortium must include at least one business registered in India that is a separate legal entity and not linked to the UK partners. This is to ensure that projects encourage genuine international collaboration, not internal company research. Linked companies are considered a single entity under the parent company.

To collaborate with the lead, your organisation must be one of the following UK registered:

• business of any size
• academic institution
• research and technology organisation (RTO)

Indian partners will be funded by TDB following a parallel application.

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 an application it can collaborate in up to three applications. A UK registered academic institution or RTO can collaborate in any number of applications.

Your project must:

• have a grant funding request of between £100,000 and £300,000, this does not include your Indian partner’s request
• start by 1 September 2025
• end by 31 March 2027
• last between 6 and 18 months

The majority of the project work must be undertaken in the UK and India. UK project partners must carry out the majority of their project work in the UK and intend to exploit the results from or in the UK.

Your project must demonstrate a balanced technological contribution by the participants from both countries and must be equally significant to all participants.

No one country or project partner can represent more than 70% of the total project work packages. Innovate UK will review your Common Proposal Form and if it is found that your project is not genuinely collaborative you will be made ineligible.

The aim of this competition is to fund business led, collaborative research and development (CR&D) projects focused on Net Zero Technologies, for innovative proposals developed between the UK and India.

Your project 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 and Department of Science and Technology 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
• considerable potential to significantly benefit the UK and India economy
• the benefits 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 exploitation or commercialisation

Your project must accelerate the development towards achieving net zero.

We would particularly welcome applications that focus on:

• advanced materials
• decarbonising manufacturing
• renewable energy sources
• storage and distribution
• decarbonising mobility

This list is not exhaustive.

Innovate UK will hold an online briefing event on Thursday 28 November 2024 at 10.00 am: click here to register to attend. Briefing slides will be available to download from supporting information after the event.

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