Apply for Combined Investor Partnerships – Round 12 (UK)

Innovate UK, as part of UK Research and Innovation, has selected investor partners to work with. They have demonstrated the credibility, capability, capacity and appetite to invest in innovative, technology-led businesses in areas that align with the objectives in programme areas. The investor partners will work with Investor partnership programmes to bring together:

• Innovate UK’s expertise in identifying innovation and using grant funding to change the risk profile of businesses
• investor partners’ aligned funding and expertise in identifying opportunities and teams that can best use extra investment finance

Research Categories

• As defined in the guidance on categories of research, they will fund:
  • feasibility studies
  • industrial research
  • experimental development

Eligibility Criteria

• Your project
  • The eligibility criteria will depend on which investor partnership programme you are applying to. Each investor partnership programme has one or more investor partners who may consider investing in your business alongside the grant funding for your project. You must be invited by the investor partner you plan to work with to apply for this competition.
  • The investor partner will provide the additional eligibility criteria for your application in writing, but the following rules apply to all applications.
  • The introducing investor partner will inform you of:
    • the latest date for the start of your project
    • the latest date for the end of your project
    • the minimum and maximum duration of your project
• This competition is open to single applicants only. To apply your organisation must:
  • be a UK registered micro, small or medium sized business (SME)
  • carry out its project work in the UK
  • intend to exploit the results from or in the UK
  • be invited to apply by your investor partner
  • have discussed and agreed your proposal with your investor partner before submitting
• 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. They 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.

Ineligible

• Innovate UK is not funding projects that are:
  • not carried out by SMEs
  • collaborative research and development (R&D) projects
  • not part of a company’s growth plan
  • unable to prove there is potential for return on investment and growth
  • large capital infrastructure
  • not invited by a specified investor partner
• Innovate UK 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.

For more information, visit Innovate UK.