Funding Competition: Design Foundations in the UK

Deadline: 31-Aug-22

Innovate UK is pleased to announce an open call for the Funding Competition for Design Foundations.

The aim of this competition is to help businesses develop new ideas that will deliver benefits for people and the planet, aligned with the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals. These can be for new or significantly improved products, services, places or business models.

The competition is for eligible organisations that want to test and improve the customer experience, social and environmental benefits of their early stage ideas, as well as generating new ideas.

Applications are encouraged from organisations that have not previously used people and planet centred design processes or expertise.

Themes

Your project must focus on one or more of the following UN’s Sustainable Development Goals, which are:

No poverty
Zero hunger
Good health and wellbeing
Quality education
Gender equality
Clean water and sanitation
Affordable and clean energy
Decent work and economic growth
Industry, innovation and infrastructure
Reduced inequality
Sustainable cities and communities
Responsible consumption and production
Climate action
Life below water
Life on land
Peace, justice and strong institutions
Partnerships for the goals

Funding Information

Project size: Your project’s total costs must be between £40,000 and £80,000.

Eligible Activities

Your project can include activities or work packages to:

understand market, social and environmental needs and customer behaviour
define problem statements and innovation opportunities
generate new or significantly improved ideas
create imagery, models, mock-ups or simulations to test ideas with customers and other stakeholders
use appropriate tools and models to evaluate the likely environmental and social impact of ideas
improve ideas in response to customer feedback and new discoveries
plan next steps to develop your ideas toward commercialisation
create design outputs to support investment pitches or funding applications

Eligibility Criteria

Your project must:
- start by 1 March 2023
- end by 31 August 2023
- last between 3 months and 6 months
- carry out all of its project work in the UK
- intend to exploit the results from or in the UK
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.
You will be made ineligible if you exceed the Minimal Financial Assistance limit. You must submit a complete declaration as part of your application.
Lead organisation
- To lead a project or work alone your organisation must be a UK registered:
  - business of any size
  - charity
  - not for profit
  - public sector organisation
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)
Your project team must include appropriate design expertise. Businesses without this capability are encouraged to collaborate with designers as project partners.
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 collaborate, the lead and at least one other organisation must claim funding by entering their costs during the application.
Your project can include UK registered partners that do not receive any of this competition’s funding. Their costs will count towards the total project costs.

For more information, visit https://apply-for-innovation-funding.service.gov.uk/competition/1231/overview/0443af44-d8d5-4909-8b66-2e5bb46a4a11