UK: Germany Bilateral – Collaborative R&D (Round 2)

Deadline: 6 December 2023

UK registered organisations can apply for a share of up to £4 million for projects resulting in innovative solutions for emerging technologies. You must collaborate with at least one German SME applying under the equivalent German ZIM programme.

Innovate UK, part of UK Research and Innovation, will work with The Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action (BMWK), to invest up to £4 million in innovation projects.

The aim of this competition is to enhance UK and German collaborations and capabilities in the emerging fields of technology in the society. The result being, the developing and delivering of new innovations and applications of the technologies across a broad range of other sectors.

Only UK registered partners must be listed in the Project Partner section of your application on the Innovation Funding Service (IFS). Your German partner will not receive any of this UK competition funding. German partners will be funded by the German ZIM programme, following a parallel application.

Specific Themes

Proposals can come from any area of technology, and they particularly encourage applications from the following sectors:

AI
- They encourage applications in the areas of:
  - sustainable AI
  - responsible and ethical AI
  - applications of AI to improve business productivity in BridgeAI target sectors
  - AI for healthcare
Quantum
- They encourage projects that:
  - involve consortia which span the supply chain of service or component suppliers, integrators, and end user businesses
  - progress quantum technology from lab prototypes to industry ready systems for commercial use through integration of innovative and scalable technologies
- Your project can focus on one or more of the following areas:
  - sensing and imaging
  - component and sub system technologies supporting communications, computing and networking
  - scalable solutions and fabrication processes for chip scale quantum photonic and optoelectronic systems
  - software hardware codesign for reproducible quantum processor enhanced applications
Semiconductors
- They encourage applications in the areas of:
  - semiconductor design
  - compound semiconductors
  - advanced packaging and heterogeneous integration
  - advanced materials
Future Telecommunications
- They encourage applications in the areas of:
  - non-terrestrial communications
  - open radio access network (ORAN) deployments and innovations
  - use of AI and data analytics to improve network efficiency
  - energy efficient technologies
  - neutral host networks
  - antenna innovation, massive multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO)
  - cross border lab collaborations
  - network security
Engineering Biology
- Your proposal must align with one of the National Engineering Biology Programme’s themes, or focus on the development of cross cutting technology or service development.
- The themes are:
  - food systems
  - biomedicine
  - clean growth
  - environmental solutions
Green Technologies
- Battery technology:
  - advanced battery materials
  - emerging battery technologies, for example; sodium ion, lithium sulfur, solid state
  - technologies to achieve 350 Wh/kg and above at pack level
  - innovations in battery manufacturing processes
  - design innovation for cells, modules, packs
  - integration of digitalisation
  - advanced predictive analytics and degradation modelling
  - sustainable recycling approaches
  - technologies for increased safety
  - skills development and training

Funding Information

Project size: Your UK partners grant funding request must not be more than £750,000.
Up to £4 million from Innovate UK, and a minimum of €4 million from the German BMWK, has been allocated to fund innovation projects in this competition. Funding will be in the form of a grant.
Each country will fund its eligible participants according to their national procedure and funding rules. Funding conditions and eligibility criteria may vary between UK and Germany. The bilateral joint cooperation between the partners and its added value is an important aspect to be considered within the evaluation.
UK Partners
- If your UK organisation’s work on the project is commercial or economic, your funding request must not exceed the limits below. These limits apply even if your organisation normally acts non-economically but for the purpose of this project will be undertaking commercial or economic activity.
- For industrial research projects, you could get funding for your eligible project costs of:
  - up to 70% if you are a micro or small organisation
  - up to 60% if you are a medium sized organisation
  - up to 50% if you are a large organisation
- For experimental development projects which are nearer to market, you could get funding for your eligible project costs of:
  - up to 45% if you are a micro or small organisation
  - up to 35% if you are a medium sized organisation
  - up to 25% if you are a large organisation

Who can apply?

Your project
- Your project must:
  - start by 1 July 2024
  - end by 30 June 2027
  - last between 18 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.
- Your project must demonstrate a balanced technological contribution by the participants from both countries and must be equally significant to all participants.
- Note that eligibility on the German counterpart competition also states that in a project with two cooperating partners, no partner may contribute more than 70% of total person months to the project. Person months is the metric for the time in months devoted by staff to a project.
- In a project with more than two cooperating partners, no partner may contribute more than 50% of total person months. All research organisations involved in the consortium may altogether not contribute more than 50% of the total person months.
- Your application must be in line with the rules of Innovate UK and The Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action (BMWK).
- Applications indentified as not eligible by either Innovate UK or BMWK will not be sent for assessment.
- Your project 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, 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.
- If you have not requested approval or your application has not been approved by them, you will be made ineligible. Your application will then not be sent for assessment.
Lead organisation
- To lead a project your organisation must:
  - be a UK registered business of any size
  - be or involve at least one grant claiming UK micro, small or medium-sized enterprise (SME)
  - collaborate with at least one German registered SME applying to the German ZIM programme, which must be a separate legal entity, not linked to the UK partners
Project 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)
- Only UK registered partners must be listed in the Project Partner section of your application on the Innovation Funding Service (IFS). Your German partner will not receive any of this UK competition funding. German partners will be funded by the German ZIM programme, following a parallel application.
- Each organisation in your consortium will receive funding from its respective national funding body.
- Each UK partner organisation must be invited into the Innovation Funding Service 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 the Innovation Funding Service. They are responsible for entering their own project costs and completing their Project Impact questions in the application.
Non-funded partners
- Your project can include partners, including overseas partners, that do not receive any of this competition’s funding. Their costs will count towards the total project costs.
Subcontractors
- Subcontractors are allowed in this competition.
- You can use subcontractors from the UK, Germany and other countries but must make the case in your application as to why you could not use suppliers from the countries providing grant funding for the project. All subcontractors must be selected through your usual procurement process.
- You must provide a detailed rationale and evidence of the potential UK or German contractors you approached, with the reasons why they were unable to work with you. They will not accept a cheaper cost as a sufficient reason to use a subcontractor from a third country.
- All subcontractor costs must be justified and appropriate for the project.
Number of applications
- An eligible UK business can lead on one application and collaborate on two further applications.
- If an organisation is not leading any application, it can collaborate in up to three applications.