Deadline: 24 January 2024
UK registered small and micro businesses can apply for a share of up to £2 million to develop data driven digital applications solving challenges in delivering net zero.
This funding is from Net Zero Living and Telecoms Technology Missions Fund programmes. The aim of this competition is to provide a package of targeted support to enable ambitious UK registered micro and small businesses to develop and deliver net zero solutions through data driven digital applications.
Your proposal must be a software or data lead solution in one or more of the net zero challenges:
- power
- heat
- mobility
- product manufacture and usage
Your digital product must be for domestic, commercial, industrial, or public authority users. Links to other sectors are also welcome where relevant to the delivery of net zero.
Project Size
- Your project’s total costs and grant request must be between £25,000 and £50,000.
Projects they will not fund
- They are not funding projects that:
- do not meet the competition eligibility or scope requirements
- do not support the net zero agenda
- do not focus on innovative data applications and utilisation of data sets
- purely result in reports, academic papers or similar
- do not evidence potential for the proposed innovation to lead to significant and positive economic or societal impact
- do not evidence value for money
- They cannot fund projects that:
- involve primary production in fishery and aquaculture
- involve primary production in agriculture
- have activities relating to the purchase of road freight transport
- are not allowed under De minimis regulation restrictions
- are not eligible to receive Minimal Financial Assistance
- are dependent on export performance, for example giving an award to a baker on the condition that they export a certain quantity of bread to another country
- are dependent on domestic inputs usage, for example if they give an award to a baker on the condition that they use 50% UK flour in their product
Who can apply?
- Your project
- Your project must:
- start by 01 April 2024
- end by 30 September 2024
- last between 3 and 6 months in duration
- carry out its project work in the UK
- intend to exploit the results from or in the UK
- 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.
- Your project must:
- Lead organisation
- To lead a project your organisation must be a UK registered micro or small business.
- If your business has been funded directly by Innovate UK previously, you are not eligible to apply for this competition. If however you have received funding directly from Innovate UK EDGE or a Catapult scheme, you are still eligible to apply for this competition.
- Businesses with directors who have previously received a grant or Innovation Loan from Innovate UK as part of a different company, are eligible to apply but will be considered on a case by case basis.
- A business with a previous award to a parent or subsidiary would also be eligible to apply, but the parent company must be classified as a micro or small business. Applications will be considered on a case by case basis.
- 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 also provide a detailed rationale, evidence of the potential UK contractors you approached and the reasons why they were unable to work with you.
- They expect all subcontractor costs to be justified and appropriate to the total eligible project costs. They will not accept a cheaper cost as a sufficient reason to use an overseas subcontractor.
- Number of applications
- An eligible UK business can submit one application only. They will only award grant funding to one project per business.
For more information, visit Innovate UK.