The key things you need to know about the November 2024 round of Innovate UK’s Smart grant competition: who’s eligible, how much funding’s available, and how to apply.
The November round of Innovate UK’s Smart grant is now open.
This £15 million competition is designed to help UK SMEs develop “the best game changing and world leading innovative R&D projects.”
Key details
- Funding Available: Up to £700,000
- Competition Close Date: 22 January 2025, 11 am
- Eligible Organisations: Highly innovative UK SMEs and their partners
Eligibility criteria for Innovate UK Smart grants
Innovate UK’s Smart grants are designed to help innovative SMEs develop groundbreaking technologies.
As a result, all projects must include at least one UK-registered micro, small, or medium-sized business (SME).
An SME for grants purposes is a company that meets at least two of the following criteria:
- An annual turnover of no more than £36 million
- A balance sheet value of no more than £18 million
- An average employee headcount of no more than 250
Collaborative projects
SMEs can work on projects with other organisations. For instance, it’s quite common for SMEs to work with a university if their project involves cutting-edge science.
Groups of organisations working on a project are called consortiums. Projects worked on by consortiums are called ‘collaborative projects’.
For Smart, your consortium can include:
- Other businesses of any size
- Academic institutions, such as universities
- Charities
- Not for profits
- Public sector organisations
- Research and technology organisations (RTOs)
What types of innovation are right for Smart?
Smart has a high bar for the type of innovation that will receive funding. To win a grant, your proposal needs to demonstrate that the idea you’re looking to develop:
- Could lead to a groundbreaking and innovative product, process or service
- Is significantly different from what’s already available
- Would be ready for rapid commercialisation once the project’s finished
- Can positively impact the UK’s position, productivity and competitiveness
You also need to show that you the team to deliver your project successfully and on time and a clear, evidence-based plan to commercialise your innovation and generate a favourable ROI and
What types of projects are eligible?
To qualify for Innovate UK’s Smart grant competition, a project must:
- Start date: By 1 July 2025
- End date: By 30 June 2027
- Project location: All project work must be carried out in the UK. The results of the project must be exploited in the UK
Funding amounts for Innovate UK Smart grants
The Smart competition offers grants of up to £700,000.
That’s just the headline figure, though.
How much funding you can apply for depends on which stream you’re applying for, what type of organisation you work for, and a range of other factors.
Funding streams
Innovate UK smart grants are divided into two streams.
- Stream 1: Single and collaborative projects lasting 6-18 months with qualifying costs between £100,000 and £500,000
- Stream 2: Collaborative projects lasting 19-24 months with qualifying costs between £100,000 and £1 million.
Organisation types
Research organisations
If you are applying on behalf of a research organisation, the story is pretty straightforward.
Research organisations such as RTOs and universities can share up to 30% of a project’s total qualifying costs.
Out of this 30%, you will receive:
- Up to 80% of your ‘full economic costs’ (FEC) if you are a Je-S registered institution such as a university
- 100% of your qualifying costs if you are an RTO, charity, not-for-profit organisation, public sector organisation or non-Je-S registered research organisation
Businesses
Things are more complicated if you’re applying as a business. How much funding you’ll receive depends on what type of project you’re looking to undertake and how large your organisation is.
Project types
Innovate UK’s Smart competition will fund three types of project:
- Feasibility studies: Evaluating a project’s potential to determine whether it deserves additional resources.
- Industrial research projects: Testing how a product, system or component operates in the laboratory or a simulated environment.
- Experimental development projects: Helping organisations make further technical improvements to advanced products, processes or services by testing them in environments that represent real-world conditions. Experimental development projects can include prototyping, demonstrating and piloting.
Project type and company size
The table below maps how company size and project type determine how much funding you can apply for (as a % of the total project costs).
| Project Type | Micro and Small | Medium | Large |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Feasibility Studies and Industrial Research Projects |
70% |
60% |
50% |
|
Experimental Development Project |
45% |
35% |
25% |
This means that, for example, if you were applying on behalf of a small business looking to undertake a nine-month industrial research project with £400,000 in qualifying costs, you could apply for a grant of up to £280,000.
The remainder of your costs will have to be paid for with match funding. In other words, funding from other sources of capital. Equity investment, debt, R&D Tax Credits and so on.
As you can probably tell, it’s not always easy to work out how much grant funding you should apply for.
If you’d like expert advice on how large a grant you should ask for, our experts would be happy to help.
Just send us a message, and we’ll be right with you.
Smart grant application process
Applications for Smart are submitted through the Innovation Funding Service (IFS) portal.
The application for Smart has four sections:
- Project Details
- Application Questions
- Finances
- Project Impact
1. Project details
The project details section asks you to provide various summary information about your project.
2. Application questions
In this section, you must answer nine questions about your project, such as why it deserves funding, what the potential market is, and how you will deliver it.
The first three questions are not scored but are arguably the most important part of the entire application because they’re your opportunity to explain to Innovate UK’s assessors what your project is, why it matters, and how it fits the competition’s scope. Answers can be up to 600 words long.
You need to include appendices to support your answers to some of the questions in this section. Appendices must be at most two A4 pages long and no larger than 10MB.
3. Finances
This is where you and the other organisations in your consortium enter their project costs.
Academic institutions must upload a completed Je-S form.
4. Project impact
The final section, Project Impact, is where you explain the overall impact of your project, should it succeed.
Each partner in your consortium must complete this section.
It is not scored.
Let GrantTree maximise your chances of winning an Innovate UK Smart grant
The fact that Innovate UK is open to all sectors is a double-edge sword.
On one hand, it gives companies that aren’t served by sector-specific competitions the chance to win sizeable a grant. On the other, it make Smart extremely competitive, in that it receives many hundreds of applications, only 3%-7% of which are successful.
The November 2024 round is likely to be particularly competitive. It’s total prize pot is £15 million, far less than the £25 million available in previous rounds. Less funding will likely mean fewer projects funded, lowering Smart’s already small rate.
If you are thinking about applying for Smart, our experts can significantly improve your chances of success. Our seasoned grants-writing experts can explain exactly why your project satisfies the competition’s scope while unifying the answers in your application under a compelling and emotive narrative, articulating your project’s true potential.
GrantTree offers a range of service offerings to suit a variety of budgets and levels of experience with Innovate UK funding.
To learn more about our services, discuss an existing application, or gain a deeper understanding of whether your company or project are eligible for Smart, just get in touch.
