Funding Competition: New Innovators in Immersive & Creative, Coventry & Warwickshire (UK)

Innovate UK will work with Coventry City Council, Warwickshire County Council, and the West Midlands Combined Authority to invest up to £1.5 million in innovation projects.

This funding is from Innovate UK’s Launchpad programme. The Launchpad programme supports the UK government’s goals in the Levelling Up White Paper.

The aim of this competition is to provide a package of targeted support to enable ambitious UK registered micro and small businesses to develop highly innovative ideas that have a clear route to commercialisation and business growth.

Innovate UK is offering UK registered micro and small businesses a share of the funding for this competition. In addition to the grant support, you will be offered tailored business support delivered by local business innovation experts and Innovate UK Business Growth.

In support of the UK government’s Levelling Up goals, they reserve the right to prioritise projects that:

• significantly advance innovation (the idea)
• have more innovation activity taking place within the innovation cluster or outside of the Greater South East
• achieve a balance between projects that lead to new products, processes or services, or propose an innovative use of existing products, processes or services, or involve a new or innovative business model

Specific Themes

• Your project can focus on developing and applying technologies including one or more of the following themes:
  • media technologies, including digital and mixed media
  • immersive technologies, including augmented and virtual reality
  • game engine and virtual production, including 3D environments, simulations and data visualisations
  • motion capture, including performance capture and gesture, and facial recognition
• Your project can be aimed at application in one or more of the following market sectors and industries:
  • creative industries
  • video game development
  • screen sector
  • healthcare
  • education
  • future mobility
  • manufacturing
  • retail
  • tourism, leisure and sport

Project Size

• Your project’s total costs and grant funding 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
  • purely result in reports, academic papers or similar
  • 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

Who can apply?

• Your project
  • Your project must:
    • have total project costs that equal your grant funding request
    • last between three and six months in duration
    • intend to exploit the results from or in the UK
    • help to grow your innovation activities during and after the project in the innovation cluster described in the Scope section
    • start between 1 October 2024 and 1 January 2025
    • end by 31 March 2025
  • Under current restrictions, this competition 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.
• 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 be offered funding through this competition.
  • If you have only received funding directly from Innovate UK Business Growth (previously named Innovate UK EDGE) or a Catapult scheme, you are 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.
• Number of applications
  • An eligible UK business can submit one application only. Any subsequent applications submitted with the same project lead will be ineligible and will not be forwarded for assessment. This limit extends to current owners, directors and persons of significant interest, prohibiting them from leading multiple submissions through different entities.

For more information, visit Innovate UK.