MyWorld Collaborative R&D

Fund details

Your project must:

• provide solutions that tackle new or emerging challenges or needs of the Creative Continuum, as defined in the specific themes section
• demonstrate a realistic potential to deliver business growth, scale-up, and job creation
• actively share knowledge and outputs with the MyWorld programme and the wider creative technology industry

Innovate UK want to fund a variety of projects. The criteria for selection of the portfolio are:

• balance of research partner participation (research organisations involved)
• technologies and technological maturities
• markets
• geographic regional balance
• industry sector and technical research area
• economic impact
• social value

Specific themes

Your project must focus on screen-based and immersive technologies within the creative sector industries including one or more of the following:

Creating experiences – how acquisition, production and delivery relate to narrative, aesthetic and content types or formats in modulating experience, leading to new intelligent acquisition and production methods that facilitate immersion.

Delivering experiences – platforms, network technology and representations that support new forms of content delivery and interactivity and delivery processes that ensure the preservation of immersive properties during transmission.

Measuring experiences – perceptually robust means of assessing media quality and immersion that inform creative practice and editorial decision-making and that differentiate the impacts of technology and narrative.

Innovate UK is NOT funding projects that:

We are not funding projects that:

• do not demonstrate the potential to positively impact on the economy of the West of England area
• do not demonstrate clear advancement of technology and potential application or novel application of existing technology to solve challenges
• request substantial funding for non-UK based partners or subcontractors
• do not meet the competition eligibility or scope
• do not address the size, potential and access to market for the innovation
• do not evidence the potential for their idea or concept to lead to a significant return on investment (ROI), positive economic impact, growth and scale-up of the business
• do not commit to sharing their knowledge and outputs with the MyWorld Programme and wider industry

Eligibility

Your project must:

• have a grant funding request between £100,000 and £200,000
• start by 1 July 2024
• end by 31 December 2025
• last between 12 and 18 months
• carry out all of its project work in the UK
• intend to exploit the results from or in the West of England area

To lead a project, your organisation:

• must be a UK-registered business of any size, not-for-profit organisation or charity
• must collaborate with one of the four universities in the West of England region
• can collaborate with other UK-registered organisations
• must intend to exploit the results from or in the West of England area

Project team 

You must collaborate with at least one of the Universities based in the West of England:

• University of Bath
• Bath Spa University
• University of Bristol
• University of the West of England

You can also collaborate with additional organisations. These organisations 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)

Subcontractors are allowed in this competition and you must select them through your usual procurement process.

If you use subcontractors from outside of the West of England area you must make the case in your application as to why you could not use suppliers from the area.

Funding

Up to £2 million has been allocated to fund innovation projects in this competition. Funding will be in the form of a grant.

For feasibility studies and 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

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