Yearly Archives: 2020

Funding your business and your innovation

One of the current focuses for the UK Government is trying to respond to the impacts of Covid-19 by widely investing in the UK’s recovery. Supporting jobs and businesses, building back greener and meeting the 2.4% of GDP target by 2027 for R&D spending are just some of the ways they are planning to challenge the economic impacts of the pandemic.

R&D funding- Technologies for the future

“…at least £490 million in 2021-22 for Innovate UK core programmes and infrastructure to support ground-breaking technologies and businesses”.… See more...

What is TRL ???

Technology Readiness Level (TRL) was originally created by NASA to assess whether their emerging technology was suitable for space exploration. Nowadays, this approach is used over a variety of different industries to understand the maturity of a technology and assess whether it’s ready for use in the “real world”.

How does TRL apply to grant funding?

R&D grant funds support the development of novel technologies from TRL 1 (Basic Principle Observed) through to TRL 9 (Actual Technology Proven in Operational Environment).… See more...

What is CRL ???

What is Commercial Readiness Level (CRL)?

R&D grant funders have shifted in the balance between technical innovation and commercial potential in current years. We find ourselves now in a position of equality where organizations must demonstrate both novelty and scalability to be successful.

Innovate UK, in particular, are now presenting Innovation Loans that support late-stage R&D activity with a preference for near-commercial products, techniques and services.

The Commercial Readiness Level (CRL) framework assesses various indicators which influence the business and market conditions beyond just the science maturity.… See more...

How to Evidence Disruptive Innovation Market Drivers

Innovation funders are eager to fund innovation for market sectors exhibiting market pull tendencies as there is a greater likelihood of innovation adoption. This consequences from the market demand for a solution, combined with a readiness and willingness in adopting change by the customer.

Contrast the distinction between the fever pitch at the release of a new Tesla (Market Pull) vs consumer annoyance and avoidance of double glazing salespeople (Market Push).

What are market Drivers/pull?

This is where a product and/or provider is produced in response to market forces or customer needs.… See more...

Innovate UK Eligibility Requirements

Every Innovate UK funding competition has eligibility requirements to make sure the funder receives value for money and that the project they are investing in will be a success. Reading through the full eligibility, scope and guidance is imperative, however sometimes it can be hard to navigate through the jargon to become aware of what the funder actually wants.

This blog will help you to get a higher understanding of Innovate UK eligibility by focusing on three key requirements.

Scope

Every funding competition will have essential scope details that need to be met for your project to be classed as eligible.… See more...

Party Manifestos: Should they be legally binding contracts?

One thing is sure, Innovation & Politics dont fit well together however;

Why is it not a crime to break party manifestos promises? This seems a simple way of making election manifestos genuinely meaningful documents – and also protecting the democratic process. Some allowance could be made for changing situations once power has been won, but I don’t see general downside in holding party leaders individually and criminally responsible for broken guarantees.

The simple answer is that it’s not a crime because Parliament hasn’t passed a law making manifesto’s legally enforceable.… See more...

Benefits of collaborating with an academic partner when applying for Grant Funding

Applying for grant funding can facilitate collaborations with unique industry, research and academic partners to help deliver world-leading innovation projects. These collaborations open up access to new technologies, strategies and expertise – further enhancing results for your business.

With the growing complexity of problems needing solutions, universities can supply a new or different perspective to your product, process or answer and potentially offer more time to reflect onconsideration on the problem and published literature.

Not only can lecturers provide you with their expertise, but they can also provide the use of facilities that could transform your innovation into an industry-leading technology.… See more...

Dont miss out on R&D Tax Credits !

Research and Development (R&D) Tax Credits have grow to be a valuable source of funding for companies and can useful resource in accelerating business growth. This weblog encompasses everything you need to be aware of about the scheme to assist you identify if you are missing out on claiming expenditure spent on research and development.

What are R&D Tax Credits?

R&D tax credits are an incentive designed via the Government to reward innovative companies who spend cash on growing new products, processes, or services; or enhancing present ones.… See more...

Plans to increase public R&D investment to £22 billion

Already heavily influenced by Brexit and the dynamic new government and a chancellor eager to make a dramatic move, many will feel that last week’s budget was totally replaced by the extraordinary and global response to the evolving Covid-19 pandemic.

However, although we are far from an “environment”, the budget gives a clear indication of how this government intends to support R&D

In particular, UK Chancellor Rishi Sunak announced ambitious plans to dramatically increase public R&D investment to 22 billion pounds per year 2024-2025.… See more...

How to develop an innovative game changing grant fundable project

Innovation game changing grant funding involves a competitive and often time-consuming application process.

To ensure a successful approach you need to have a defined project before commencing the bid writing process. By doing this, you’ll make certain the proper grant fit for your venture whilst maintaining a consistent narrative and alignment to your wider corporation strategy, catching the interest of the assessors and enhancing the high-quality of the proposition.

In this blog, our grant writing crew has put together 5 key focal point areas to assist you improve a grant fundable project, think of it as a pre-bid sanity check!… See more...