Funding Competition: UK-Taiwan CRD 2024

Innovate UK, part of UK Research and Innovation, will work with the Department of Industrial Technology (DoIT) to invest up to £5 million in innovation projects.

The aim of this competition is to fund collaborative research and development (CR&D) projects focused on industrial research. Your proposal must include at least one partner from the UK and one partner from Taiwan.

The projects Innovate UK fund are expected to result in a new product, industrial process or service, be innovative, involve a technological risk, and have high market potential.

They would particularly welcome applications from the following sectors:

• smart technology, for example next generation communication, semiconductor technology and space technology
• green energy technologies, for example electric vehicles, hydrogen transportation, renewable energy, future grids and carbon capture utilisation and storage
• smart manufacturing
• biotechnology, for example medical materials and devices
• service innovation, for example the Internet of Things, Big Data, Artificial Intelligence, 5G and 6G

Project Size

• UK applicants can apply for a maximum grant of up to £900,000 for each project.

Projects they will not fund

• They are not funding projects that:
  • work on military applications
  • do not meet Innovate UK’s eligibility criteria
  • do not submit all mandatory documentation
  • request a grant of more than £900,000 from Innovate UK
  • do not have an eligible Taiwan partner
• 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
  • Your project must:
    • start by 1 January 2025
    • end by 31 December 2027
    • last between 24 and 36 months
  • UK project partners must carry out the majority of their project work in the UK and intend to exploit the results from or in the UK.
  • The consortium must include at least one business registered in Taiwan.
  • 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 Taiwan. No more than 70% of the total project costs can be claimed by a single partner or by all partners from either the UK or Taiwan.
• UK lead applicant
  • To lead a project your organisation must:
    • be a UK registered business of any size
    • partner with a Taiwan registered business, which must be a separate non-linked entity to the UK project partners
• Project team
  • 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)
  • Each UK partner organisation must be invited into the Innovation Funding Service by the lead to collaborate on a project.
• Overseas partners
  • Taiwan partners must not be invited into Innovate UK’s application on the Innovation Funding Service.
  • Taiwan partners will be funded by the Department of Industrial Technology (DoIT) following a parallel application.
• Subcontractors
  • Subcontractors are allowed in this competition, but they are limited to no more than 20% of the total eligible costs of the UK participation.
  • Subcontractors can be from anywhere in the UK and you must select them through your usual procurement process.
  • All subcontractor costs must be justified and appropriate to the total project costs.
• Number of applications
  • A UK registered business can lead on one application but can be included as a collaborator in a further two applications.
  • If a UK registered business is not leading any application, it can collaborate in up to three applications.
  • A UK registered academic institution or RTO can collaborate on any number of applications.

For more information, visit Innovate UK.