Funding Competition: UK and South Korea Data Driven Urban Innovation Bi-Lateral

Innovate UK will work with the Korea Agency for Infrastructure Technology Advancement (KAIA) who will match the UK funding to support the South Korean partners.

The aim of this competition is to fund business led, collaborative research and development (CR&D) projects which link activities in the UK and South Korea.

Themes

• Mobility Innovation Solutions.
• Disaster Management Solutions.
• Net-Zero Energy Optimisation Solutions.
• Other Data-centric Innovative Solutions.

Project Size

• UK partners grant funding request for Phase 1 must be between £50,000 and £120,000.

Projects they will not fund

• They are not funding projects that:
  • duplicate existing technology
  • do not collaborate with a South Korea partner which secures funding from KAIA
• 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

Who can apply?

• Your project
  • For UK applicants, your phase 1 project must:
    • last between 6 to 8 months
    • collaborate with a South Korean partner which is successful in securing funding for this programme from Korea Agency for Infrastructure Technology Advancement (KAIA)
    • start by 1 July 2024
    • end by 28 February 2025
  • The project work must be undertaken in the UK and South Korea.
  • The consortium must include at least one business registered in South Korea that is a separate legal entity and not linked to the UK partners. 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.
  • Your project must demonstrate a balanced technological contribution by the participants from both countries and must be equally significant to all participants.
  • No one country or project partner can represent more than 70% of the total combined project cost across the UK and South Korea.
  • To be successful in securing funding in this Phase 1 competition both UK and South Korean partner applications must be awarded funding.
  • Applications identified as not eligible by either Innovate UK or South Korea will not be sent for assessment.
  • Your proposal must demonstrate a clear intention to commercially exploit the results of the project domestically or globally.
• UK lead organisation
  • To start and lead an application on the Innovation Funding Service (IFS), your organisation must be a UK registered business of any size.
  • The ‘lead applicant’, is the organisation that starts the application on the Innovation Funding Service. This must be a UK organisation.
• UK Project team
  • As a UK partner, to collaborate with the lead, your organisation must be one of the following UK registered:
    • business of any size
    • academic institution
    • research and technology organisation (RTO)
    • charity
    • not for profit
    • local authority or other public sector organisations
  • They welcome applications which include participants from:
    • social housing providers
    • city authorities
    • living lab facilities
  • Only UK registered partners must be listed in the Project Partner section of your application on the Innovation Funding Service (IFS). The funding provided to the UK partners will be made under the research and development innovation (RD&I) streamlined route.
• South Korean partners
  • Each UK project must collaborate with a South Korean partner. South Korean partners must not be invited into Innovate UK’s application on the Innovation Funding Service.
  • South Korean partners will be funded by KAIA following a parallel application. South Korean collaborators must apply for funding separately through the Korea Agency for Infrastructure Technology Advancement (KAIA).
• 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 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 one further application.

For more information, visit Innovate UK.