AI Solutions to improve productivity

Fund details

Your project must:

• identify an end user for your solution within one of the priority sectors
• demonstrate an improvement in business productivity or efficiency in one of the priority sectors.
• demonstrate how key partners will facilitate the commercialisation of research

Innovate UK want to fund a variety of projects across different technologies, markets, technological maturities, locations, strands and themes, and research categories.

Specific themes

Your project can focus on one or more of the following:

• data-driven decision making
• automation of administrative tasks
• project management optimisation
• supply chain optimisation and forecast models
• waste management
• intellectual property (IP) management
• design

This list is not intended to be exhaustive.

Innovate UK is not funding projects that:

• in advertising and marketing
• involved in direct primary production in fishery and aquaculture
• involved in direct primary production in agriculture i.e. the project must be undertaking research and development, the solution must be for exploitation by the wider business community and the funding cannot be used for capital asset acquisition
• related to the purchase of road freight transport

Eligibility

Your project must:

• have a grant funding request between £700,000 and £1.2 million
• last between 10 and 12 months
• carry out all of its project work in the UK
• intend to exploit the results from or in the UK
• start on 1 April 2024
• end by 31 March 2025

To lead a project your organisation must be a UK registered business of any size.

You must involve at least one micro, small or medium-sized enterprise (SME), one large enterprise and one academic institution or RTO.

Funding

Up to £32 million has been allocated to fund innovation projects in this competition. Funding will be in the form of a grant.

If your organisation’s work on the project is commercial or economic, your funding request must not exceed the limits below. These limits apply even if your organisation normally acts non-economically but for the purpose of this project will be undertaking commercial or economic activity.

For industrial research projects, you could get funding for your eligible project costs of:

• up to 70% if you are a micro or small organisation
• up to 60% if you are a medium-sized organisation
• up to 50% if you are a large organisation

For experimental development projects which are nearer to market, you could get funding for your eligible project costs of:

• up to 45% if you are a micro or small organisation
• up to 35% if you are a medium-sized organisation
• up to 25% if you are a large organisation

Research participation

The research organisations undertaking non-economic activity as part of the project can share up to 30% of the total eligible project costs. If your consortium contains more than one research organisation undertaking non-economic activity, this maximum is shared between them. Of that 30% you could get funding for your eligible project costs of up to:

• 80% of full economic costs (FEC) if you are a Je-S registered institution such as an academic
• 100% of your project costs if you are an RTO, charity, not-for-profit organisation, public sector organisation or research organisation