Circular Economy for SMEs: Innovating with NICER, Round 2 (UK)

Deadline: 7-Dec-22

UK registered businesses can apply for a share of up to £1.5 million to research, test and develop step-change circular economy approaches.

Scope

The aim of this competition is to support feasibility studies, industrial research and experimental development projects that address the challenges of transitioning to a circular economy.

Your project must demonstrate how you will create a step-change in the adoption of circular economy approaches.

The broad spectrum of circular economy approaches will be in scope, for example:

• Repair.
• Reuse.
• Remanufacture.
• Recycle.
• Regeneration.

Projects are particularly encouraged that focus on retaining the maximum amount of value in a product or system.

Innovate UK aim to fund projects with direct or indirect commercial outcomes for the partners. A project to improve understanding where the outputs would be made freely available to build the knowledge base of the broader NICER programme, for example, would be in scope.

Themes

Your project must align with the NICER programme and be supported by a NICER centre or the CE-hub.

Resource flows covered by the Interdisciplinary Circular Economy Centres:

• Chemicals (specifically Olefins).
• Bio-textiles.
• Metals (steel and aluminium).
• Technology metals.
• Mineral-based construction materials.

Themes covered by the CE-hub:

• Cross cutting research to accelerate the transition.
• Data, modelling and measuring impact.
• Knowledge sharing.
• Roadmapping.

Funding Information

• Your project’s total costs must be between £100,000 and £150,000.

Projects

• Your project must:
  • Have total costs between £100,000 and £150,000.
  • Start no earlier than 1 May 2023.
  • End by 31 October 2024.
  • Last between 12 and 18 months.
  • Carry out all of its project work in the UK.
  • Intend to exploit the results from or in the UK.
• Your application must include a letter of support from at least one of the UKRI Interdisciplinary Circular Economy Centres or the NICER CE-hub. The letter must demonstrate alignment of your proposed activities to one or more Centres’ aims and objectives. Collaboration directly with the centres or the hub as a project partner is encouraged but not essential.
• To allow sufficient time for the centres to consider your proposal for support, you should contact them prior to 16th November 2022, or earlier if you are looking to involve them as project partners.
• 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 entity as lead, partner or subcontractor. This includes any goods or services originating from a Russian source.
• If your total project’s costs or duration falls outside of the eligibility criteria, you must provide justification by email at least 10 working days before the competition closes. They will decide whether to approve your request. If you have not requested approval or your application has not been approved by us, you will be made ineligible. Your application will then not be sent for assessment.

Eligibility Criteria

• Lead organisation
  • To lead a project or work alone your organisation must be a UK registered micro, small or medium-sized enterprise (SME).
  • Academic institutions cannot lead or work alone.
• 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 organization.
    • 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.
  • If part of a collaboration the lead and at least one other organisation must claim funding when 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.
• Number of applications
  • A business can only lead on one application but can be included as a collaborator in a further 2 applications.
  • If a business is not leading any application, it can collaborate in up to 3 applications.

For more information, visit Innovate UK.

For more information, visit https://apply-for-innovation-funding.service.gov.uk/competition/1310/overview/915ed7d3-c659-4eee-b877-49ab7d92be78