Collaborative R&D – Creative Catalyst

The aim of this CR&D competition is to advance the development of collaboration with innovators in the creative industries. Innovate UK will invest between £150k-£200k (£2Mn total pot) in collaborative innovation projects for products and tools across the creative supply chain which benefit and strengthen the UK creative economy.

DATES:

Competition closes: 29th January 2025, 11:00 am.

Applicants notified: 2nd April 2025.

Project start date & duration: Start by 1st July 2025, end by 31st March 2026.

SCOPE – proposals must demonstrate

  • That they clearly support the growth of the UK creative industries.
  • A clearly innovative and ambitious idea which addresses an industry challenge.
  • A significant improvement over currently available solutions, with a demonstrable impact to your company’s growth plan
  • The creation of a new revenue stream & be market ready within 12 months after project completion.

 

SPECIFIC THEMES

  • Your project must focus one or more of the following creative industries subsectors: advertising and marketing | animation | architecture | arts and culture | crafts | design | fashion | film, TV, and video | games | publishing | music and radio | visual art and photography |.
  • Applications are welcomed from businesses collaborating with other organisations in their regional cluster, including; screen sector sustainability, music innovation, managing digital media copyright, new possibilities within VFX, modernising traditional design & crafts, improving advertising supply chain transparency and accountability.

PROJECTS THAT WILL NOT BE FUNDED

  • Projects that aren’t led by UK registered micro or small creative businesses
  • Projects that are not R&D or that don’t support the creative sectors.
  • Commission content, BAU activities, include physical construction or infrastructure, are for fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) products, or create secondary funding (i.e. accelerators, awards).

 

ELIGIBILITY

  • Must be led by a UK registered small or micro business
  • Must collaborate with other UK registered organisations, including businesses of any size (large organisations cannot claim grant funding), academic institutions, not for profits, public sector organisations, community interest companies, and research and technology organisations.
  • Work must be carried out in the UK and project results exploited from UK.
  • Subcontractors must be UK based, with costs no more than 50% of each partners total project costs.

FUNDING RATES – for industrial research projects

  • You may have a grant funding request between £150k-£200k
  • You can get for up to 70% of eligible project costs if you are a small or micro organisation.
  • You can get for up to 60% of eligible project costs if you are a medium organisation.
  • Research organisations can share 30% total project costs, with 80-100% project costs funded.

 

How PNO can support you

The UK team has a strong track record in securing some of the most competitive national and European grants on behalf of its clients, with a full understanding of how a project should be presented to stand the highest chance of success. Each year in the UK alone, we are responsible for the submission of more than 100 funding applications across all sectors and priority areas. Based on this extensive experience, through careful project selection and using key insight into how a project should be best positioned, we consistently achieve success rates that are more than 5 times the typical success rates for UK and EU programmes.

For further information or to discuss a project idea please contact PNO Consultants

0161 488 3488 | info.uk@pnoconsultants.com

https://www.pnoconsultants.com/uk/

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