[UK] Funding Competition: Knowledge Asset Grant Fund – Explore

Deadline: 8-Jun-23

Applicants are now invited to submit applications for the Knowledge Asset Grant Fund – Explore.

The funding will aid exploitation of high potential 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).

The programme has £15 million funding available from 2021 to March 2025, with approximately £5 million allocated to this financial year. Innovate UK is administering this competition on behalf of GOTT.

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

Specific Themes

• The Government Office for Technology Transfer (GOTT) reserves the right to prioritise projects within specific themes to help meet the Government’s objectives.
• If actioned, themed calls will be scheduled within existing funding rounds. The introduction of themed calls will not have an impact on deadlines and panel dates.
• GOTT will support themes by providing substantive guidance and application support to ‘on-theme’ projects. Further information will be made available when applicable.

Funding Information

• Your project’s total grant funding request must be a maximum of £25,000.

Eligibility Criteria

• Your project
  • Your project must:
    • start by 1 September 2023
    • end by 28 February 2025
    • last between 2 and 18 months
    • spend at least 50% of the budget during the first half of the project
    • generate social, financial or economic benefits to the UK
    • seek funding to develop a knowledge asset that is majority owned by the UK government organisation applying for funding
  • Under current restrictions, this competition will not fund any procurement, commercial, business development or supply chain activity with any Russian and Belarusian entity as lead, partner or subcontractor. This includes any goods or services originating from a Russian and Belarusian source.
• 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.
• 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.
  • Overseas subcontractors can be used but justification must be provided as to why suppliers from the UK have not been selected. You must include evidence that you approached potential UK contractors and the reasons why they were unsuitable or unable to work with you.
  • All subcontractor costs must be justified, and an explanation 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.

Ineligible

• 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
  • private sector organisations
  • independent charities

For more information, visit Innovate UK.