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
- To lead a project or work alone your organisation must be a UK registered:
- 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)
- To collaborate with the lead, your organisation must be one of the following UK registered:
- 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