Innovate UK, part of UK Research and Innovation, will work with the Korea Institute for Advancement of Technology (KIAT) and Korean Energy Technology Evaluation and Planning (KETEP) to invest up to £2 million in innovation projects.

The aim of this competition is to fund business led, collaborative research and development (CR&D) projects focused on industrial research. This is for innovative proposals developed between the UK and South Korea.

Your proposal must include at least one partner from the UK and one partner from South Korea.

UK registered organisations must apply to and will be funded by Innovate UK.

Your South Korean partner will not receive any funding from Innovate UK. South Korean partners must apply to and will be funded by either KIAT or KETEP, depending on the focus sector of the project:

KIAT

• advanced manufacturing and materials
• artificial intelligence
• future mobility (including battery technologies)

KETEP

• energy storage system
• hydrogen

In applying to this competition, you are entering into a competitive process. This competition closes at 11am UK time on the deadline stated.

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Eligibility:

Your project

Your project must:

• have a maximum grant funding request of no more than £500,000
• start by 1 November 2023
• end by 30 October 2026
• last between 24 and 36 months

UK project partners must carry out the majority of their project work in the UK and intend to exploit the results from or in the UK.

The consortium must include at least one business registered in South Korea that is a separate, non-linked entity. Your South Korean partner will not receive any of this UK competition funding. South Korean partners will be funded by either KIAT or KETEP.

Each organisation will receive funding from its respective national funding body.

All businesses in a consortium must be separate legal and non-linked entities. This is to ensure that projects encourage genuine international collaboration, not internal company research. Linked companies are considered a single entity under the parent company.

Projects should have a balanced contribution of the total eligible project costs among the partners from the participating partner countries. No more than 70% of the total project costs can be claimed by any single partner or by all partners from a single participating country.

You must only include eligible project costs in your application.

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 registered business of any size
• be or involve at least one grant claiming UK registered SME
• partner with a South Korea registered business, which must be a separate non-linked entity to the UK project partners

More information on the different types of organisation can be found in our Funding rules.

Academic institutions cannot lead or work alone.

Project team

To collaborate with the lead, your organisation must be a UK registered:

• business of any size
• academic institution
• research and technology organisation (RTO)

Each UK 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. South Korean partners must not be invited into Innovate UK’s application on the Innovation Funding Service.

If collaborating with other UK registered organisations, the lead and at least one other organisation must apply for funding when entering their costs into the application.

Subcontractors

Subcontractors are allowed in this competition, but they are limited to no more than 20% of the total eligible costs of the UK participation.

Subcontractors can be from anywhere in the UK and you must select them through your usual procurement process.


All subcontractor costs must be justified and appropriate to the total project costs.

Number of applications

A UK registered business can lead on one application but can be included as a collaborator in a further 2 applications.

If a UK registered business is not leading any application, it can collaborate in up to 3 applications.

A UK registered academic institution or RTO can collaborate on any number of applications.