Apply for Investor Partnerships – Digital Technologies, North East: Round 2 (UK)

The projects will be led by ambitious UK registered micro, small or medium sized businesses (SMEs) who will use the funding to grow their innovation activities in the digital technology cluster in North East England, both during and after the project.

For this competition, North East England refers to the geography of the North East Combined Authority which includes Northumberland, Tyne and Wear and County Durham.

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 Innovation SuperNetwork as the local cluster management organisation.

Aims

• The aim of this competition is to provide you with support for research and development and access to the capital investment you need to develop and commercialise your innovations.

Specific Themes

• Your project can focus on one or more of the following:
  • Immersive technologies:
    • extended reality
    • digital twins
    • games engines
    • virtual production
  • Artificial intelligence:
    • data science
    • machine learning
    • neural networks
    • computer vision
    • robotics
    • large language models
    • quantum computing
• This list is not exhaustive. Where you can show your proposal fits within the scope of this competition you can focus on other themes.

Funding Information

• Up to £1.7 million of grant funding from Innovate UK is available in this competition.
• The total funding available for this Launchpad competition can change. The funders have the right to:
  • adjust the funding allocations between all Launchpad competitions and strands
  • apply a ‘portfolio’ approach
• You will receive Innovate UK grant funding only if you also receive a minimum level of aligned investment, led or catalysed by your investor partner. The minimum level of investment depends on your project’s research category.
• Feasibility studies and industrial research projects
  •  feasibility studies and industrial research projects, Innovate UK will fund:
    • up to 70% of eligible project costs for micro or small organisations
    • up to 60% for medium sized organisations
  • The aligned investment must always be at least equal to your grant funding request.
• Experimental development projects
  • For experimental development projects Innovate UK will fund:
    • up to 45% of eligible project costs for micro or small organisations
    • up to 35% for medium sized organisations
  • The aligned investment must always be at least twice as much as your grant funding request.

Ineligible Projects

• They are not funding projects that are:
  • not carried out by SMEs
  • collaborative R&D projects
  • unable to demonstrate that there is potential for return on investment and growth
  • large capital infrastructure
  • not invited by one of Innovate UK’s investor partners
  • not meeting the competition eligibility or scope requirements
  • purely resulting in reports, academic papers or similar
• 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
  • The eligibility criteria will depend on your research category.
  • For feasibility studies projects:
    • your total project costs must be between £50,000 and £300,000
    • your project duration must be between 6 and 12 months
  • For industrial research projects:
    • your total project costs must be between £100,000 and £1 million
    • your project duration must be between 6 and 12 months
  • For experimental development projects:
    • your total project costs must be between £250,000 and £2 million
    • your project duration must be between 12 and 18 months
  • For all projects, your project must:
    • not start before 1 September 2025
    • end by 31 March 2027
  • Total project costs, detailed within your application, must not exceed the maximum project costs for your research category. If your total project costs do exceed the maximum, then your application will be made ineligible.
  • Your project will only be allowed to start once the aligned investment has been confirmed.
  • Projects must always start on the first of the month, even if this is a non-working day. You must not start your project until your Grant Offer Letter has been approved by Innovate UK. Any delays within Project Setup may mean they need to delay your project start date.
  • You must only include eligible project costs in your application.
• Your organization
  • 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 all 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 your application
    • have sufficient capital resources to enable you to meet all your project’s eligible costs, including through the grant funding and the aligned investment

For more information, visit Innovate UK.