Launchpad: life and health sciences, Northern Ireland – Round 2 CR&D
UK registered businesses can apply for a share of up to £4.3m for innovation activities in the life and health sciences cluster in Northern Ireland.
Opportunity Details
When
Registration Opens
04/11/2024
Registration Closes
11/12/2024
Award
Your project must have a total grant funding request of between £150,000 and £1 million. This can cover up to 70% of costs depending on project type and business size.
Organisation
Innovate UK
Innovate UK, part of UK Research and Innovation, will work with Invest Northern Ireland to invest up to £4.3 million in innovation projects. This funding is from Innovate UK’s Launchpad programme which supports the UK government’s goals for local economic growth. This Launchpad is also supporting Health Innovation Research Alliance Northern Ireland (HIRANI) as the local cluster management organisation. This will support projects across two Launchpad competition strands that target the life and health sciences innovation cluster in Northern Ireland.
The aim of this competition is to support outstanding innovation projects led by businesses. Your business must use the funding to grow your innovation activities in the life and health sciences cluster in Northern Ireland both during and after your project.
This competition is split into two strands:
- Launchpad: life and health sciences, Northern Ireland, Round 2 Collaborative Research and Development (CR&D) (this strand – £150k-£1m funding per project, must be collaborative)
- Launchpad: life and health sciences, Northern Ireland, Round 2 De minimis or Minimal Financial Assistance (MFA) (£25k-£100k funding per project, single applicants only)
It is your responsibility to ensure you submit your application to the correct strand for your project. You will not be able to transfer your application, and it will not be sent for assessment if it is out of scope. It is possible to apply to both strands, but the projects must be separate and distinct.
If you would like advice about which strand is more appropriate for your project, or help to find a collaboration partner, contact Innovate UK Business Connect’s Health team.
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To lead a project your business must:
- be a UK registered business of any size
- be or involve at least one grant claiming micro, small or medium-sized enterprise (SME)
- collaborate with other UK registered organisations
- be growing your innovation activities in the life and health sciences cluster in Northern Ireland
- have a demonstrable ambition for business growth
To collaborate with the lead, your organisation must be one of the following UK registered:
- business of any size
- academic institution
- charity
- not for profit
- public sector organisation
- research and technology organisation (RTO)
A business can lead on only one CR&D strand application for this competition, and can be included as a collaborator in any number of applications. If you are not leading any application, you can collaborate in any number of applications.
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Your project must:
- have a total grant funding request of between £150,000 and £1 million
- last between 6 and 18 months
- carry out all of its project work in the UK
- intend to exploit the results from or in the UK
- not start before 1 May 2025
- end by 31 December 2026
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The aim of this competition is to support outstanding innovation projects led by businesses. Your business must be growing your innovation activities in the life and health sciences cluster in Northern Ireland.
Your project must focus on innovation in life and health sciences.
Your project must contribute to growing your innovation activities in the cluster, both during and after your project.
This could be demonstrated by:
- your local innovation activities
- the value that your innovation activities create in the cluster
- your engagement with other innovation active organisations in the cluster, such as with Health Innovation Research Alliance Northern Ireland (HIRANI), this Launchpad’s cluster management organisation
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Your project can focus on one or more of the following:
Diagnostics, therapeutics and biomarkers
- multi-omics
- medical imaging
- liquid biopsy
- biomarker or genetic testing
- diagnostic or therapeutic development
Data, digital and medical devices
- point-of-care testing
- wearable or ambient sensors
- clinical trials decision support
- augmented reality
- digital health
Innovations in healthcare service delivery
- health service productivity
- integrated care platforms
- remote rehabilitation
Your project can also consider the following enabling areas:
- artificial intelligence, machine learning, quantum
- advanced therapies, novel formulation or delivery
- regulation or ethics
- supporting innovation in skills development
These lists are not exhaustive.
Where you can show your proposal fits within the scope of this Launchpad competition you can focus on other themes.
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Innovate UK have produced a pre-recorded briefing covering Investor Partnerships, CR&D and MFA for all the competitions running in late 2025: click here to watch the recording. They have also supplied briefing slides which can be downloaded here.
In addition, Innovate UK Business Connect will host an online briefing event on Thursday 14 November, 1pm-2.15pm: click here to register for a place. This will start with a plenary overview of the Launchpad programme, alongside information on how to apply to the competitions. Breakout rooms will then follow for each of the seven Launchpads and their respective competitions where delegates will be briefed on the key areas of interest for each cluster.
If you would like advice about which strand is more appropriate for your project, or help to find a collaboration partner, contact Innovate UK Business Connect’s Health team.