Deadline: 31-May-23
The Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Simon Coveney, together with the Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science, Simon Harris, and Minister of State for Trade Promotion, Digital and Company Regulation, Dara Calleary, launched the sixth call for applications to the Disruptive Technologies Innovation Fund (DTIF).
DTIF is seeking investment in the development and deployment of disruptive innovative technologies, on a commercial basis, targeted at tackling national and global challenges. The fund is driving collaboration between the world class research base and industry as well as facilitating enterprises to compete directly for funding in support of the development and adoption of these technologies and seeding a new wave of start-ups.
DTIF Call 6 is a general call and welcomes applications from all sectors. They would particularly encourage projects that complement the priority enterprise policy objectives on digital transformation and integrating decarbonisation and net zero commitments, as set out in the White Paper on Enterprise. Projects that help to drive the innovation and transformation opportunities that are needed in sectors such as construction are also encouraged. However, all projects will be expected to demonstrate a positive contribution to the sustainability targets in the Climate Action Plan.
Objective
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The DTIF objectives are to:
- Support enterprises in Ireland to exploit the enterprise opportunities associated with “disruptive technologies” by de-risking collaborative projects
- Support enterprises in Ireland to collaborate in order to engage with and be prepared for challenges associated with new “disruptive technologies” that will have a transformative impact on the way they work and live in the future
- Build on research undertaken in Ireland and to leverage that research further by supporting the delivery and exploitation of new technology-based solutions from that research
- Foster deeper and wider RD&I collaborations between the public and private sectors in key technology areas and, in particular, to support collaborations between large firms and SMEs in Ireland
- Strengthen spin-out, spin-in and other start-up activity associated with disruptive technology.
- Prepare Irish enterprises and public bodies to engage in European and global partnerships around the development and deployment of disruptive technologies
- Promote innovation and drive collaboration between Ireland’s enterprises and its research base
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Essentially, DTIF is about funding collaborations that demonstrate technology-based disruptive innovation, collaborations that can:
- Alter markets
- Alter the way business operates
- Involve new products or the emergence of new business models
Funding Information
- All projects should be seeking minimum funding of €1.5 million over three years.
DTIF Projects
- DTIF Calls 1-4 were general calls, where applications were required to be within the Research Priority Areas 2018-2023. The fifth DTIF Call was a pilot themed call on Advanced and Smart Manufacturing, and it is expected that successful projects will be announced shortly.
- The calls were seeking projects of scale with a strong enterprise agenda to harness maximum medium-term economic impact for Ireland. Ideally, they were looking for enterprise-driven research and development challenges that can demonstrate commercial impacts within 3 to 7 years of project completion.
Eligibility Criteria
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The main eligibility criteria for DTIF Call 6 include:
- Each project to have at least three independent partners seeking funding from DTIF, including at least one SME and one other enterprise partner
- SMEs can claim up to 50% of their eligible costs, whereas large companies can claim up to 40% of their eligible costs
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Research organisations (including colleges) can claim up to 100% of the eligible costs but can receive no more than 50% of the total DTIF grant aid per project to draw down funding under DTIF, project partners:
- Must be a current client of Enterprise Ireland, IDA Ireland or Údarás na Gaeltachta or an eligible Research Performing Organisation (RPO), and
- Must be based in Ireland
- The type of eligible research to be carried out by all partners, must include “industrial research” and/or “experimental development”, that is, within Technology Readiness Levels 3-9
- All company partners must provide financial information to demonstrate that they are not Undertakings in Difficulty (UiD)
For more information, visit DTIF.