Biomedical Catalyst Funding Programe in the UK

Deadline: 25-May-22

Innovate UK, part of UK Research and Innovation has announced Biomedical Catalyst funding programme to support UK businesses to test and develop innovative technologies for health and care.

Themes

• Disease prevention and proactive management of health and chronic conditions
• Earlier and more accurate detection of disease, leading to better patient outcomes
• Tailored treatments that either change the underlying disease or offer potential cures
• The development of digital health technologies

Funding Information

• Your project’s total costs must be between £150,000 and £4 million. The total grant cannot exceed £2 million.

They will not fund

• Are fundamental research or feasibility projects
• Are not related to human life sciences
• Focus on a product that is already on the market
• Focus on laboratory accreditation
• Are conducted to anything less than the highest standards of animal welfare
• 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
• Are 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

Eligibility Project

• experimental evaluation (at laboratory scale)
• use of in vitro and in vivo models to evaluate proof of concept or safety
• exploring potential production mechanisms
• prototyping
• product development planning
• intellectual property protection
• a demonstration of clinical utility and effectiveness
• a demonstration of safety and efficacy
• regulatory planning

Eligibility Criteria

• Your project must:
  • have total project costs between £150,000 and £4 million
  • not exceed a grant request of £2 million
  • have at least 50% of the total project costs shared by the SMEs, if collaborative
  • start by 1 December 2022
  • end by 30 November 2025
  • last between 6 months and 36 months
  • carry out all of its project work in the UK
  • intend to exploit the results from or in the UK
  • You must only include eligible project costs in your application. If you have requested an overall grant of over £500,000, and your online application is successful at Stage 1, you may be invited to attend an interview

• To lead a project or work alone your organisation must be a UK registered micro, small or medium-sized enterprise (SME).

• 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)
  • Each partner organisation must be invited into the Innovation Funding Service by the lead to collaborate on a project. Once accepted, partners will be asked to login or to create an account and enter their own project costs into the Innovation Funding Service.
  • Partners must accept terms and conditions (T&C’s) and complete the subsidy question in order for the application to be submitted.
  • For collaborations, the lead and at least one other organisation must claim funding by entering their costs during the application.
  • Your project can include partners that do not receive any of this competition’s funding, for example non-UK businesses. Their costs will count towards the total project costs.

• 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. Extenuating circumstances where overseas work may be allowable include, for example; clinical trial in a specific patient population.
  • You must provide justification by email to support@iuk.ukri.org at least 10 working days before the competition closes. Innovate UK will decide whether to approve your request via email.The application assessors will also be asked to judge whether you have sufficiently made a case for the use of overseas subcontractors.

For more information, visit https://apply-for-innovation-funding.service.gov.uk/competition/1107/overview