Call for Applications: Collaborative AI Solutions to improve Productivity in Key Sectors (UK)

Innovate UK, part of UK Research and Innovation, will invest up to £32 million in innovation projects.

The aim of this competition is to support the development and adoption of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) solutions in the priority sectors of transport, construction, agriculture and creative industries.

Your proposal must:

• identify an end user for your solution within one of the priority sectors
• clearly indicate how your solution will improve business productivity or efficiency in one of the priority sectors
• demonstrate how key partners will facilitate the commercialisation of research

Specific Themes

Your project can focus on one or more of the following:

• data driven decision making
• automation of administrative tasks
• project management optimisation
• supply chain optimisation and forecast models
• waste management
• intellectual property (IP) management
• design

Funding Information

• Project size: Your project’s total grant funding request must be between £700,000 and £1.2 million
• Up to £32 million has been allocated to fund innovation projects in this competition. Funding will be in the form of a grant.
• If 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 but for the purpose of this project will be undertaking commercial or economic activity.
• 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

Who can apply?

• Your project
  • Your project must:
    • last between 10 and 12 months
    • carry out all of its project work in the UK
    • intend to exploit the results from or in the UK
    • start on 1 April 2024
    • end by 31 March 2025
  • Projects must always start on the first of the month and this must be stated within your application. Your project start date will be reflected in your grant offer letter if you are successful.
  • You must only include eligible project costs in your application.
  • Under current restrictions, this competition will not fund any procurement, commercial, business development or supply chain activity with any Russian and Belarusian entity as lead, partner or subcontractor. This includes any goods or services originating from a Russian and Belarusian source.
• Lead organisation
  • To lead a project your organisation must be a UK registered business of any size.
  • You must involve at least one micro, small or medium-sized enterprise (SME), one large enterprise and one academic institution or RTO.
• Project team
  • To collaborate with the lead, your organisation must be one of the following UK registered:
    • business of any size
    • academic institution
    • charity
    • not for profit
    • public sector organisation
    • research and technology organisation (RTO)
  • Each partner organisation must be invited into the Innovation Funding Service by the lead to collaborate on a project. Once partners have accepted the invitation, they will be asked to login or to create an account in the Innovation Funding Service. They are responsible for entering their own project costs and completing their Project Impact questions in the application.
  • To be an eligible collaboration, the lead and at least one other organisation must apply for funding when entering their costs into the application.
• Non-funded partners
  • 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 but they are limited to no more than 20% of each project partner’s total grant request.
  • 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.
• Number of applications
  • A business can only lead on one application but can be included as a collaborator in a further 2 applications.
  • A business that is not leading on an application can collaborate in a total of 2 applications.
  • An RTO, Academic Institution or Public Sector Organisation can collaborate in any number of applications.

For more information, visit Innovate UK.