Call for EOIs: Canada-UK Ocean Collaborative R&D

Innovate UK, part of UK Research and Innovation, will work with Canada’s Ocean Supercluster to invest a combined total up to £4 million in innovation projects that can involve a collaboration of industry and academia. The funding will support projects to deliver innovative outcomes in ocean technology.

Innovate UK will fund UK partners to collaborate with Canadian partners as their co-funding counterparts on industrial research projects, over a 12 month period.

The aim of this competition is to stimulate the development and implementation of innovative technologies in ocean technology, and to build technical capabilities required for the development and economically sustainable production of the next-generation of products and services.

The bilateral research and development (R&D) collaborations between the UK and Canada will enable both countries to be well positioned to respond to improvements in ocean technology.

Your project must focus on one of the following themes:

• alternative energy
• aquaculture systems
• seaweed cultivation and production
• carbon capture and storage
• autonomous vessels or ocean systems
• robotics & drones
• ocean sensors and environmental monitoring

The aim of this competition is to foster and support collaborative research and development (CR&D) through Canadian and UK partnerships.

Your project must demonstrate:

• a focus on co-development, adaption, or validation of an innovative product, process or technology that has commercial potential and outcomes
• quantified performance objectives
• a plan for future exploitation

They particularly encourage projects that:

• involve consortia which span the supply chain of service or component suppliers, integrators, and end user businesses
• progress ocean technology from lab prototypes to industry ready systems for commercial use through integration of innovative and scalable technologies

Funding Information

Project size: The total grant funding request for all UK partners can be between £165,000 and £500,000 for each application. The total funding request for all Canadian partners combined can be between CA$280,000 and CA$850,000 for each application.

Who can apply?

• Your project
  • This application is for an Expression Of Interest (EoI). No funding will be awarded at this stage. If you are successful, then you will be invited to apply for funding in the full stage competition.
    • Your project must:
    • have no more than 60% of the total grant funding request allocated to UK organisations
    • have no more than 60% of the total grant funding request allocated to Canadian organisations
    • start by 1 June 2024
    • last up to 12 months
  • Applications identified as not eligible by either Innovate UK or Ocean Supercluster will not be sent for assessment.
  • In order to receive any grant funding, your project proposal must be successful on both sides of the consortium and be invited to apply for the full stage. If successful at full stage, UK participants will receive grant funding from Innovate UK and Canadian participants will receive grant funding from Ocean Supercluster. UK participants must be part of an application submitted to Innovate UK. Canadian partners must submit a parallel application to Ocean Supercluster.
  • All businesses in a consortium must be separate legal and non-linked entities. This is to ensure that projects encourage genuine international collaboration, not internal company research. Linked companies are considered a single entity under the parent company.
  • Projects should have a balanced contribution of the total eligible project costs among the partners from the UK and Canada. No more than 60% of the total project costs can be claimed by a single partner or by all partners from either the UK or Canada.
  • 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, Innovate UK will not fund any procurement, commercial, business development or supply chain activity with any Russian or Belarusian entity as lead, partner or subcontractor. This includes any goods or services originating from a Russian or Belarusian source.
  • To meet its reporting requirements to the Federal Government, Canada’s Ocean Supercluster (OSC) requires all Participants to a Project Agreement who receive matched funding from the OSC to disclose to the best of their ability whether their organization has any business dealings with or in Russia, as contemplated in the Sanctions related to Russia imposed under the Special Economic Measures Act or otherwise. This may include ownership or investors; board membership; established operations in foreign economies, including via subsidiaries; joint ventures or other close business relationships; as well as arm’s length business relationships, such as sales.
  • Please note they may be required to share this information with the Government of Canada and, depending on the response, additional information may be requested.
• Lead organisation
  • To lead a UK application your organisation must:
    • be a UK registered business of any size
    • be or involve at least one grant claiming UK registered micro, small or medium sized enterprise (SME)
    • partner with a Canadian registered SME, which must be a separate non-linked entity to the UK project partners
    • include at least one further eligible grant claiming partner from either the UK or Canada
• Project team
  • All collaborations must include at least 3 eligible organisations from Canada and the UK as part of the project.
  • UK 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 UK partner organisation must be invited into the Innovation Funding Service (IFS) 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 IFS. They are responsible for entering their own project costs in the application.
  • Canadian partners must not be invited onto Innovate UK’s IFS application platform. Their involvement in the project is listed as part of your answers to the questions. If you include a grant claiming Canadian partner in your IFS application you will be made ineligible and your application will not be sent for assessment.
  • 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.
  • Subcontractors can be from anywhere in the UK or Canada 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 or Canada.
  • You must provide a detailed rationale, evidence of the potential UK and Canadian 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.

For more information, visit Innovate UK.