Open Call for Launchpad Competition: Advanced Manufacturing CR&D Liverpool City Region (UK)

Deadline: 29-Mar-23

Innovate UK is seeking proposals for the Launchpad Funding Competition: Advanced Manufacturing Collaborative Research and Development (CR&D) Liverpool City Region (Round 2)

The aim of this competition is to support outstanding innovation projects led by businesses. Businesses must be active or growing their work activities in the advanced manufacturing innovation cluster centred on Liverpool City Region.

Your project must contribute to a sustainable, safe, advanced, agile and resilient manufacturing sector. Your innovation must make a significant contribution to at least one of the sector’s strategic imperatives:

• net zero and resource efficiency in the supply chain and manufacturing processes
• resilience and responsiveness, mitigating risks, interruptions, disruptions, and climate change
• technologically advanced and digital manufacturing supply chains and processes.

Specific Themes

• Your project can focus on one or more of the following core areas:
  • materials for the future economy
  • smart design
  • resilient supply chains
  • World class production
  • longer in use and reuse
• Projects can also consider the following enabling areas:
  • digital technologies
  • clean energy
  • proactive regulations and policy
  • future skills
  • networked relations
  • evolving value models.

Funding Information

• Your project must:
  • have a total grant funding request of between £150,000 and £1 million
  • start by 1 September 2023
  • end by 31 March 2025
  • last between 6 and 18 months
  • intend to exploit the results from or in the UK.

Eligibility Criteria

• Lead Organisation
  • To lead a project your organisation must:
    • be a UK registered business of any size
    • collaborate with other UK registered organisations
    • be or involve at least one grant claiming micro, small or medium-sized enterprise (SME)
    • be active or growing your work activities in the advanced manufacturing innovation cluster centred on Liverpool City Region
    • have a demonstrable ambition for business growth
• 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)
  • The contribution of project partners must add to the growth of the cluster.
  • 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.
  • To be an eligible collaboration, the lead and at least one other organisation must apply for funding when entering their costs into the application.

Ineligible

• They are not funding projects:
  • that are submitted by applicants who led a successful application in the Launchpad: Liverpool City Region CR&D Round 1 competition
  • that do not contribute to transforming the manufacturing sector
  • where the work location does not add to the advanced manufacturing innovation cluster centred on Liverpool City Region
  • that are requesting grant funding of less than £150,000 or more than £1 million
• They cannot fund projects that 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
  • 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.

For more information, visit Innovate UK.