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DIGITAL

Multiple funding & business support opportunities for SMEs
& academics in the digital sector

SETsquared is the link between world class University digital technology research teams and fast-growth start-ups and scale-ups developing breakthrough technology for the new decade. So far, through our Scale-Up Programme we’ve supported over 80 bids, over a third of which have been successfully awarded.

With up to £15k of funded support available per proposal, the team will help you to:

identify high-potential funding calls

frame your grant project proposal

commission a professional bid writer (subject to internal panel review)

project manage the consortium development and bid submission

attend conferences and travel to meet partners (where possible) to build your project consortium

For companies, we can also help link you to the considerable research expertise of the our Scale-Up Partner Universities – Bath, Bristol, Cardiff, Exeter, Southampton and Surrey and provide opportunities to join consortia.

We are here to help you build relationships with research institutes and write compelling funding proposals. We’ve identified some key Government funding calls, listed below, for which we can provide support. We keep this list as up to date as possible, but if you have another specific funding call you want to submit an application for, please contact us. So if you are considering a bid to any of these funding calls now is the time to apply for this support to boost your chances of success. We welcome early stage discussions to check the viability and feasibility of grant proposal ideas before you commit.

Our Scale-Up Programme provides a broad range of support to innovative, growing SMEs, if you’re not looking for support to bid for R&D funding, check out our main Scale-Up landing page to find out more.

Supported funding calls

Innovate UK Smart Grants

An opportunity for UK registered organisations to apply for a share of £25million to deliver commercially viable or disruptive R&D innovation that can significantly impact the UK economy.

Competition opens: 21 January

Online briefing event: 5 February at 11.30

Submission deadline: 26 May 2021 at 11:00

Scope

Smart is Innovate UK’s ‘Open grant funding’ programme. Applications can come from any area of technology and be applied to any part of the economy. This includes the creative industries, science or engineering, and the arts, design and media. Projects can overlap with the grand challenge areas.

Proposals must demonstrate:

A clear game-changing, innovative and/or disruptive and ambitious idea leading to new products, processes or services
An idea that is significantly ahead of others in the field, set for rapid commercialisation
A strong and deliverable business plan that addresses (and documents) market potential and needs
A clear, evidence-based plan to deliver significant economic impact, return on investment (ROI) and growth through commercialisation, as soon as possible after project completion
A team, business arrangement or working structure with the necessary skills and experience to run and complete the project successfully and on time
Awareness of all the main risks the project will face (including contractor or equipment failure, recruitment delays, etc) with realistic management, mitigation and impact minimisation plans for each risk
Clear, considerable potential to significantly impact the UK economy and/or productivity in a positive way
Sound, practical financial plans and timelines that represent good value for money, which will always be a consideration in Innovate UK funding decisions.

View the KTN Good Application Guide

Please submit your application for support below.

Apply Now

Commercialising Quantum Technologies: feasibility studies round 2

An opportunity for UK registered businesses and organisations to apply for funding of feasibility studies or market research projects for up to £500k. This funding is from ISCF Quantum Technologies programme.

Competition opens: 18 January

Online briefing event: 18 January at 10:00

Submission deadline: 10 March 2021 at 11:00

Scope

The aim of the competition is to advance the commercialisation of quantum technologies in the UK. All proposal must identify a clear market opportunity and an innovative project which exploits it.

Projects must exploit second generation quantum techniques, study a commercial opportunity, quantify performance objectives and provide a roadmap of future exploitation

Second generation quantum technologies are defined as those involving the generation and coherent control of quantum states, resulting in phenomena such as superposition or entanglement. Technologies involving single photon generation and quantum computing are also in scope.

The projects must address at least one of the following:

Connectivity: techniques for securing data in storage and in flight.
Situational Awareness: Autonomous systems. Sensors and detectors for the built environment, transport and infrastructure. Imaging and sensing “seeing things currently invisible”.
Computing: Transformational computers for solving currently intractable problems.

Market research proposals to explore a unique commercial opportunity in quantum technologies are also in scope.

Specific themes

Projects can focus on one or more of the following:

commercialise quantum technology research undertaken by the UK academic base
involve consortia which span the supply chain of component suppliers, system integrators, and end-users
bring significant new investment and businesses into the UK’s growing quantum technologies sector
develop the quantum computing industry sector (hardware, components, simulators, algorithms and software) in the UK

Projects out of scope

Any projects that do not exploit second generation quantum techniques.

Please submit your application for support below.

Apply Now