Innovate UK, as part of UK Research and Innovation, is offering up to 50 Women in Innovation Awards to women entrepreneurs across the UK. The winners will receive a £50,000 grant and a bespoke package of mentoring, coaching and business support.
The aim of this competition is to find women with exciting, innovative ideas and ambitious plans that will inspire others. The awards are for women founders, co-founders or senior decision makers working in businesses that have been operating for at least one year.
Applicants must be confident, with the support of an award, that they can make a significant contribution to a pressing societal, environmental or economic challenge through their innovative project.
The competition is split into 2 phases. In the application phase 1, the awards will be assessed by independent experts. In the interview phase 2, the shortlisted applicants will be interviewed by a panel of experts.
In applying to this competition, you are entering into a competitive process. The competition closes at 11am UK time on the deadline stated.
Eligibility
Your award must:
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 or Belarusian entity as lead, partner or subcontractor. This includes any goods or services originating from a Russian or Belarusian 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 be eligible for an award you must:
Applications from UK-registered social enterprises operating economically will be eligible if they meet all other criteria.
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.
You can use subcontractors from overseas but must make the case in your application as to why you could not use suppliers from the UK.
You must provide a detailed rationale, evidence of the potential UK contractors you approached and the reasons why they were unable to work with you. We will not accept a cheaper cost as a sufficient reason to use an overseas subcontractor.
All subcontractor costs must be justified and appropriate to the total project costs.
Number of applications
You can only make one application for yourself.
More than one woman working within the same organisation can apply.
The awards are for individuals, but this does not prevent you from working on the project with others.
The aim of this competition is to fund and support a diverse portfolio of Women in Innovation Award winners:
Your proposal must identify clearly evidenced pressing societal, environmental or economic challenges, and how your project and innovation can help solve them.
Applications can come from any area of innovation (where innovation is defined as the commercially successful exploitation of ideas) and be applied to any part of the economy.
We plan to offer up to 50 awards.
We want to support women who are at a critical stage with their business, where an award will enable them to take an important step forward. The funding should help you make a real difference to innovation in the UK including in and beyond your sector or innovation area.
You should be someone who will be an inspiration to others.
We are looking for women who clearly explain how they will benefit from the full package of funding and support on offer and who can describe how this will add value to them and their business.
We are particularly encouraging applications from women who:
As part of your application, you must include a short video, up to 3 minutes long, to describe or show the problem you are looking to solve and the difference that an award will make to you personally.
You must use Innovate UK ‘Women In Innovation’ Video platform (link will be available when competition opens) to record your video and then provide a link in your application.
If we are unable to view your video, your application will be made ineligible.
We want to fund a variety of projects across geographical areas. We call this a portfolio approach.
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