Global Incentives

closed    Opened: 14 March 2022   |   Closes: 01 June 2022

Overview

UK registered organisations can apply for a share of up to £4.7 million for business led innovation in resilient time, frequency and synchronisation.

Description

Innovate UK, part of UK Research and Innovation, is working with the National Physical Laboratory (NPL) to invest up to £4.7 million in innovation projects that contribute to resilient time, frequency and synchronisation (TFS) and its dissemination and application.

The key areas for development are:

• resilience
• distribution
• trust, assurance and security
• integration and processing of signals

The aims of this competition are to:

• support and enable business led innovation across the UK supply chain in resilient TFS for the development of products, services and end user applications
• develop a TFS ecosystem and capability for relevant industries and critical national infrastructure
• disrupt and create new markets, both in the UK and globally, to improve the provision of TFS

The innovation in time resilience, dissemination and application competition has two strands:

Strand 1: demonstrator (this strand) - for projects undertaking late stage industrial research or experimental developmental projects.

Strand 2: feasibility - for projects undertaking early stage feasibility studies.

In applying to this competition, you are entering into a competitive process. This competition closes at 11am UK time on the deadline stated.

Funding type

Project size

Who can apply

Your project

Your project must:

• have total costs between £70,000 and £1 million
• start by 1 November 2022
• end by 31 March 2024
• last between 9 and 18 months
• carry out all of its project work in the UK
• intend to exploit the results from or in the UK

You must only include eligible project costs in your application.

Lead organisation

To lead a project or work alone your organisation must:

• be a UK registered business of any size
• if collaborative, partner with other UK registered businesses, a research and technology organisation (RTO), academic institution, public sector organisation, charity or not for profit.

Academic institutions and research organisations cannot lead or work alone.Project team

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

• business of any size
• research and technology organisation (RTO)
• academic institution
• public sector organisation
• charity
• not for profit

Each partner organisation must be invited into the Innovation Funding Service by the lead to collaborate on a project. Once accepted, partners will be asked to login or to create an account and enter their own project costs into the Innovation Funding Service.

Your project can include partners that do not receive any of this competition’s funding, for example non-UK businesses. Their costs will count towards the total project costs.

Subcontractors

Subcontractors are allowed in this competition.

Subcontractors can be from anywhere in the UK and you must select them through your usual procurement process.

You can use subcontractors from overseas but must make the case in your application as to why you could not use suppliers from the UK.

You must provide a detailed rationale, evidence of the potential UK contractors you approached and the reasons why they were unable to work with you. Innovate UK will not accept a cheaper cost as a sufficient reason to use an overseas subcontractor.

All subcontractor costs must be justified and appropriate to the total project costs.

Number of applications

A business can only lead on one application but can be included as a collaborator in one further application across both strands of the competition.

If a business is not leading an application, they can collaborate in up to two applications across both competition strands.

Research organisations can collaborate on any number of applications across both competition strands.

Previous applications

You can use a previously submitted application to apply for this competition.

Innovate UK will not award you funding if you have:

• failed to exploit a previously funded project
• an overdue independent accountant’s report
• failed to comply with the terms and conditions of a grant or loan

Subsidy control (and State aid where applicable)

This competition provides funding in line with the UK's obligations and commitments to Subsidy Control. Further information about the UK Subsidy Control requirements can be found within the EU-UK Trade and Cooperation agreement and the subsequent guidance from the department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS).

Innovate UK is unable to award organisations that are considered to be in financial difficulty. They will conduct financial viability and eligibility tests to confirm this is not the case following the application stage.

EU State aid rules now only apply in limited circumstances. Please see their general guidance to check if these rules apply to your organisation.

Further Information

If you are unsure about your obligations under the UK Subsidy Control regime or the State aid rules, you should take independent legal advice. Innovate UK is unable to advise on individual eligibility or legal obligations.

You must make sure at all times that the funding awarded to you is compliant with all current Subsidy Control legislation applicable in the United Kingdom

This aims to regulate any advantage granted by a public sector body which threatens to or actually distorts competition in the United Kingdom or any other country or countries.

If there are any changes to the above requirements that mean Innovate UK needs to change the terms of this competition, they will tell you as soon as possible.

Eligibility overview

Funding

Innovate UK has allocated up to £4.7 million to fund innovation projects across both strands for this competition.

If the majority of your organisation’s work on the project is commercial or economic, your funding request must not exceed the limits below. These limits apply even if your organisation normally acts non-economically.

For industrial research projects, you could get funding for your eligible project costs of:

• up to 70% if you are a micro or small organisation
• up to 60% if you are a medium-sized organisation
• up to 50% if you are a large organisation

For experimental development projects which are nearer to market, you could get funding for your eligible project costs of:

• up to 45% if you are a micro or small organisation
• up to 35% if you are a medium-sized organisation
• up to 25% if you are a large organisation

For more information on company sizes, please refer to the company accounts guidance. This is a change from the EU definition unless you are applying under State aid.

If you are applying for an award funded under State aid Regulations, the definitions are set out in the European Commission Recommendation of 6 May 2003.

Research participation

The research organisations undertaking non-economic activity as part of the project can share up to 30% of the total eligible project costs. If your consortium contains more than one research organisation undertaking non-economic activity, this maximum is shared between them.

Of that 30% you could get funding for your eligible project costs of up to:

• 80% of full economic costs (FEC) if you are a Je-s registered institution such as an academic
• 100% of your eligible project costs if you are an RTO, charity, not for profit organisation, public sector organisation or research organisation

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