National Materials Innovation Programme: CR&D Rd1

Description Innovate UK, part of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), will invest up to £12 million into materials innovation projects. This is subject to a sufficient number of high quality applications being received. This funding is part of the National Materials Innovation Programme, announced as part of the Advanced Manufacturing Sector Plan in the UK's Modern Industrial Strategy. The focus of the programme is on the translation and adoption of key advanced materials innovations for the eight growth driving sectors (IS-8), the associated frontier industries and foundational industries and inputs identified in the UK’s Modern Industrial Strategy and sector plans. This competition is the first round of collaborative industrial research projects under the programme. The aim of this competition is to accelerate the translation and adoption of material innovations through collaborative industrial research. The competition will support the priority opportunity themes of the National Materials Innovation Strategy, unlock strategic material opportunities and enhance competitiveness across the eight growth driving sectors. Your proposal must be focused on a significant materials innovation and clearly align with at least one of the competition themes and an associated sub-theme. Materials innovation in the context of this competition are activities directed towards: • improving the functionality of existing materials for example, metals, composites, ceramics, polymers • developing and deploying completely new materials, for example, emergent advanced materials • deploying existing materials in a novel or innovative way to address a major technical barrier This leads to materials which overcome a technical hurdle and function in an enhanced way. This may be evidenced through improved performance, functionality or efficiency, bolstering security and competitiveness of UK industry, or environmental benefits, for example, sustainability or resource efficiency, as outcomes. In applying to this competition, you are entering into a competitive process. This competition has a funding limit, so we may not be able to fund all the proposed projects. It may be the case that your project scores highly but we are still unable to fund it. Our experience from similar competitions suggests that you could have a 20% chance of success. We consider a range of factors when determining whether to provide funding to applicants. This includes an assessment of prior conduct, such as any outstanding payments owed to Innovate UK or UKRI. Such factors may influence the funding decision, potentially resulting in a refusal of funding or an award subject to additional scrutiny. We also reserve the right to adjust funding allocations for any of our competitions. This may be in response to changes in policy, portfolio funding considerations or broader government funding decisions. This competition closes at 11am UK time on the deadline stated in this Innovate UK competition brief . We cannot guarantee other government or third party sites will always show the correct competition information. Funding type Grant Project size Your project’s total eligible grant funding request must be between £500,000 and £1 million. Accessibility and Inclusion We welcome and encourage applications from people of all backgrounds and are committed to making our application process accessible to everyone. This includes making reasonable adjustments for people who have a disability or a long-term condition and face barriers applying to us. You can contact us at any time to ask for guidance. We recommend you contact us at least 15 working days before this competition’s closing date to allow us to put the most suitable support in place. The support we can provide may be limited if you contact us close to the competition deadline. You can contact Innovate UK by email or call 0300 321 4357. Our phone lines are open from 9am to 12pm and 2pm to 5pm UK time, Monday to Friday (excluding bank holidays). Your proposal The aim of this competition is to accelerate the translation and adoption of material innovations through collaborative industrial research. The competition will support the priority opportunity themes of the National Materials Innovation Strategy, unlock strategic material opportunities and enhance competitiveness across the eight growth driving sectors Your project must focus on one of the sub themes within: • the three prioritised high growth opportunity theme areas, or • the one strategic opportunity theme, metamaterials and metasurfaces See the specific theme section to view the full list of these themes and sub-themes. We recognise that the metamaterials and metasurfaces strategic opportunity theme overlaps with some areas of the high growth opportunity themes. If your material innovation is fundamentally based upon a metamaterial or metasurface technology, then you must apply under Theme 4: Metamaterials and Metasurfaces. You must explain how your innovati

Who can apply Your project Your project must: • have a grant funding request of between £500,000 and £1 million • last between 18 and 30 months • start by 1 February 2027 • end by 31 July 2029 Any organisation receiving funding must carry out its project work in the UK, intend to exploit the results in the UK, and spend most of the funding within the UK. Projects must always start on the first of the month, even if this is a non-working day. You must not start your project until your Grant Offer Letter has been approved by Innovate UK. Any delays within Project Setup may mean we need to delay your project start date. You must only include eligible project costs in your application. See our overview of eligible project costs . Lead organisation To lead a collaborative project your organisation must be a UK registered business of any size. The consortium must contain at least one UK registered micro, small or medium sized enterprise (SME) claiming grant funding on this application. More information on the different types of organisation can be found in our Funding rules . Project team To collaborate with the lead, your organisation 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) Each partner organisation must be invited into the Innovation Funding Service (IFS) by the lead to collaborate on a project. Once partners have accepted the invitation, they will be asked to login or to create an account in IFS. They are responsible for entering their own project costs and completing their Project Impact questions in the application. To be an eligible collaboration: • the lead and at least one other organisation must request funding • you must explain why you’re collaborating and how the collaboration will work • no single organisation can claim more than 70% of the total project costs Non-funded partners Your project can include organisations who do not claim any funding for their work on the project. Their costs will be covered from their own resources. These can include UK, EU and other non-UK organisations. Non-UK partners are permitted to carry out project work from within their home countries and exploit the results outside the UK. Where non-funded partners have been invited to the application on IFS, their costs will count towards the total eligible project costs. Subcontractors Subcontractors are allowed in this competition and are limited to no more than 30% of the project’s total eligible costs. 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 cannot use subcontractors 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 eligible project costs. Number of applications A business can only lead on one application but can be included as a collaborator in a further two applications. If a business is not leading any application, it can collaborate in any number of applications. An academic institution, charity, not for profit, public sector organisation, or research and technology organisation can collaborate on any number of applications. Applications that do not meet these requirements will be made ineligible, in order of the most recent submission being made ineligible first. Sanctions This competition will not fund you or provide any financial benefit to any individual or entities directly or indirectly involved with you, which would expose Innovate UK or any direct or indirect beneficiary of funding from Innovate UK to UK Sanctions . For example, through any procurement, commercial, business development or supply chain activity with any entity as lead, partner or subcontractor related to these countries, administrations and terrorist groups . Use of animals in research and innovation Innovate UK expects and supports the provision and safeguarding of welfare standards for animals used in research and innovation, according to best practice and up to date guidance. Applicants must ensure that all of the proposed work within projects, both in the UK and internationally, will comply with the UKRI guidance on the use of animals in research and innovation . Any projects selected for funding which involve animals will be asked to provide additional information on welfare and ethical considerations, as well as compliance with any relevant legislation as part of the project start-up process. This information will be reviewed before an award is made. Previous applications You can use a previously submitted application to apply for this competition. If you

Before you start You must read the guidance on applying for a competition on the Innovation Funding Service before you start. Before submitting, it is the lead applicant’s responsibility to make sure: • that all the information provided in the application is correct • your proposal meets the eligibility and scope criteria • all sections of the application are marked as complete • that all partners have completed all assigned sections and accepted the terms and conditions (T&Cs) You can reopen your application once submitted, up until the competition deadline. You must resubmit the application before the competition deadline. What we ask you The application is split into four sections: • Project details. • Application questions. • Finances. • Project Impact. Accessibility and Inclusion We welcome and encourage applications from people of all backgrounds and are committed to making our application process accessible to everyone. This includes making reasonable adjustments for people who have a disability or a long-term condition and face barriers applying to us. You can contact us at any time to ask for guidance. We recommend you contact us at least 15 working days before this competition’s closing date to allow us to put the most suitable support in place. The support we can provide may be limited if you contact us close to the competition deadline. You can contact Innovate UK by email or call 0300 321 4357. Our phone lines are open from 9am to 12pm and 2pm to 5pm UK time, Monday to Friday (excluding bank holidays). 1. Project details This section provides background for your application and is not scored. Do not include any website addresses (URLs) in your answers. Application team Decide which organisations will work with you on your project and invite people from those organisations to help complete the application. Application details Give your project’s title, start date and duration. Research category Select the type of research you will undertake. Project summary Describe your project briefly and be clear about what makes it innovative. We use this section to assign the right experts to assess your application. Your answer can be up to 400 words long. Public description Describe your project in detail and in a way that you are happy to see published. Do not include any commercially sensitive information. If we award your project funding, we will publish this description. This can happen before you start your project. Your answer can be up to 400 words long. Scope Describe how your project fits the scope of the competition. If your project is not in scope, it will not be sent for assessment. We will tell you the reason why. Your answer can be up to 400 words long. 2. Application questions The assessors will score all your answers apart from questions 1 to 8. You will receive feedback for each scored question. Find out more about how our assessors assess and how we select applications for funding . You must answer all questions. You must not