Apply for Collaborative R&D: Creative Catalyst (United Kingdom)

Innovate UK, part of UK Research and Innovation, will invest up to £2 million in collaborative innovation projects.

The aim of this CR&D competition is to advance the development of collaboration with innovators in the creative industries. They’re looking for products and tools across the creative supply chain which benefit and strengthen the UK creative economy.

Themes

• Your project lead’s area of business must focus on one or more of the following creative industries subsectors:
  • advertising and marketing
  • animation
  • architecture
  • arts and culture
  • crafts
  • design
  • fashion
  • film, TV and video
  • games
  • publishing
  • music and radio
  • visual art and photography

Funding Information

• Your grant funding request must be between £150,000 and £200,000.

Ineligible Projects

• They are not funding projects that:
  • are not led by a UK registered micro or small creative business
  • do not support the creative industries
  • are not R&D, for example, podcasts, informational only websites, networking platform, courses, retreats, training
  • commission content, for example, a new festival, game, or film, that do not have an innovative edge to the way your company usually addresses new projects
  • commission business as usual (BAU) activities
  • create secondary funding, for example, grant programmes, accelerators, awards
  • include physical construction or infrastructure, for example, studio, workspace, hub, deli
  • are for fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) products
  • lack evidence that their proposed innovation is expected to lead to significant and positive economic impact, or that value for money will be achieved
• They cannot fund projects that are:
  • dependent on export performance, for example, giving a subsidy to a baker on the condition that it exports a certain quantity of bread to another country
  • dependent on domestic inputs usage, for example, giving a subsidy to a baker on the condition that it uses 50% UK flour in their product.

Eligibility Criteria

• Your project
  • Your project must:
    • have a grant funding request between £150,000 and £200,000
    • last between six and nine months
    • carry out all of its project work in the UK
    • intend to exploit the results from or in the UK
    • start by 1 July 2025
    • end by 31 March 2026
• Lead organisation
  • To lead a project your organisation must:
    • be a UK registered micro or small business
    • collaborate with other UK registered organisations
    • fall within one of the creative industries subsectors
    • involve at least one grant claiming business from outside the Greater London area
  • Academic institutions and research and technology organisations (RTOs) cannot lead or work alone, as collaboration with a business is a requirement in this competition.
• Project team
  • The project team must have a least one grant claiming business outside of the Greater London area.
  • To collaborate with the lead, your organisation must be one of the following UK registered:
    • micro, small, or medium sized business; large businesses can make up your consortium but will not receive grant funding
    • academic institution
    • charity
    • not for profit
    • public sector organisation
    • community interest company (CIC)
    • research and technology organisation (RTO)
• Non-funded partners
  • Your project can include partners that do not receive any of this competition’s funding, for example, non-UK businesses or large businesses. Their costs will count towards the total eligible project costs.
• Subcontractors
  • Subcontractors are allowed in this competition.
• Number of applications
  • A project lead can only lead on one application but can be included as a collaborator in two further applications.
  • A business that is not leading an application can collaborate on any number of applications.
  • An academic institution, charity, not for profit, public sector organisation, community interest company (CIC), or research and technology organisation (RTO) can collaborate in any number of applications.

For more information, visit Innovate UK.