Deadline: 7-Sep-23
Eligible UK public sector organisations can apply for up to £25,000 from the Knowledge Asset Grant Fund under the strand Explore.
The funding will aid exploitation of intangible assets that have a broader application or client base than their owner organisation.
The Knowledge Asset Grant Fund (KAGF) is run by the Government Office for Technology Transfer (GOTT) and funded by the Department for Science Innovation and Technology (DSIT).
Aims
- The aim of this competition is to support the identification and development of public sector knowledge assets, including repurposing, commercialisation or expanded use.
- These assets can include:
- inventions
- designs
- certain research and development (R&D) outcomes
- data and information
- creative outputs such as text, video, graphics, software and source code
- know-how and expertise
- business processes, services
- other intellectual resources
Themes
- This competition will prioritise projects in either of the following two themes:
- a digital economy
- environment and sustainability
Funding Information
- Your project’s total grant funding request must be a maximum of £25,000.
Projects they will not fund
- They are not funding:
- fundamental research and development aimed at creating new knowledge assets
- projects which have already advanced to the point where they could be eligible for investment by private funding sources
- projects that are directly or indirectly requesting funding for an existing commercial entity that is not a government body
- projects that aim to subsidise ‘business as usual’ activities, for example, activities directed by Ministers or set out in organisational strategies or remit, unless they address new markets or customers
- projects that only benefit the organisation applying or existing customers and users
- privately owned companies, including spin-out companies
Organisations not eligible to apply for the KAGF include, but are not limited to:
- universities and academic institutions
- local governments and their organisations
- local Enterprise Partnerships
- devolved administrations and organisations overseen by the Scottish Government, Welsh Government or Northern Ireland Executive – this includes NHS Scotland and Wales, and Health and Social Care in Northern Ireland
- publicly owned commercial organisations, such as The Crown Estate
- NHS secondary and tertiary care sector, including NHS trusts
- private sector organisations
- independent charities
Funding will not be conditional on:
- export performance, for example, awarding funding to a baker on the condition that it exports a certain quantity of bread to another country
- UK content, for example, awarding funding to a baker on the condition that it uses 50% UK flour in their product
Eligibility Criteria
Your project
- Your project must:
- start by 1 December 2023
- end by 31 March 2025
- last between 2 and 14 months
- spend at least 50% of the budget during the first half of the project, unless the project starts and ends within the same financial year
- generate social, financial or economic benefits to the UK
- develop a knowledge asset that is majority owned by the UK government organisation applying for funding
Lead organisation
- To lead a project your organisation must be a UK public sector organisation headed by an Accounting Officer responsible for upholding Managing Public Money (MPM). Eligible organisations are generally Central Government Organisations and their arm’s length bodies, though others may be in scope.
- Your project must have approval from a Senior Civil Servant, or equivalent from the lead organisation, with delegation from the Accounting Officer, up to and including the value of the grant being sought.
- Central government departments, Arm’s Length Bodies and Public Sector Research Establishments are eligible for the Knowledge Asset Grant Fund.
Subcontractors
- 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. An explanation must be provided as to why external expertise is needed. It is your organisation’s responsibility to ensure any spend of the grant fund follows existing commercial arrangements of your organisation and Crown Commercial rules.
- The Knowledge Assets Grant Fund aims to support the development of public sector owned Knowledge Assets for the benefit for the UK. If the KAGF secretariat or panel concludes that the project would disproportionately benefit a subcontractor, the project will be deemed ineligible.
Number of applications
- An eligible public sector organisation can lead on any number of applications for different projects.
For more information, visit Innovate UK.