Innovate UK, part of UK Research and Innovation, will work with the Department of Industrial Technology (DoIT) to invest up to £2 million in innovation projects. This competition has an open scope.

The aim of this competition is to fund collaborative research and development (CR&D) projects focused on industrial research. Your proposal must include at least one partner from the UK and one partner from Taiwan.

UK registered organisations must apply to and will be funded by Innovate UK. Taiwan partners must apply to and will be funded by the Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI) an agency of the Department of Industrial Technology (DoIT).

The projects Innovate UK fund are expected to result in a new product, industrial process or service, be innovative, involve a technological risk, and have high market potential.

We would particularly welcome applications from the following sectors:

• smart technology for example next generation communication and semiconductor technology
• green energy technologies for example electric vehicles, hydrogen transportation and renewable energy
• smart manufacturing
• biotechnology for example medical materials
• service innovation for example the Internet of Things, Big Data, Artificial Intelligence, 5G and 6G

This list is not meant to be exhaustive.

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 grant funding request of no more than £750,000
• start by 1 March 2024
• end by 28 February 2027
• 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 Taiwan that is a separate, non-linked entity.

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 UK and Taiwan. No more than 70% of the total project costs can be claimed by a single partner or by all partners from either the UK or Taiwan.

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

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 Taiwan 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.

To be an eligible collaboration, 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.