Round 10 Challenges
The Round 10 Challenge encompass a wide range of sectors in need of ground breaking innovations to potentially reinvent how we do things as a society, from healthcare to emergency services, the natural world, and the circular economy. Each challenge has a total pot of £650,000 (with the exception of 10.8 with a total pot of £1.3Mn). How can technology be used to improve:
10.1: situational awareness for emergency responders, before, during and after a wide range of incidents — looking first at the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service?
10.2: firefighter exposure to contaminants across a wide range of incidents?
10.3: monitoring and protection of seabirds in various environments, focussing initially on the challenge of monitoring puffins above and below ground?
10.4: data sharing across organisations with separate legal obligations as seamless and easy to manage as possible (including, but not limited to, AI and automated data analysis)?
10.5: understanding of the supply and demand of digital economy skills at the regional level?
10.6: administration, measuring, and prediction of the performance in regards to carbon of Woodland Carbon Code and Peatland Code projects more coherently, efficiently, and effectively?
10.7: delivery of high-quality, scalable, public participation in decision-making, inspiring trust around ethical data use and sharing, AI, and wider public good activities?
10.8: reducing pharmaceutical waste?
10.9: circularity in the NHS Scotland supply chain?
Development Stages and Funding Payments:
| Dates | Competition Stage | Duration | Payment per team |
| 11th – 29th Nov. 2024 | Exploration Stage | 3 weeks | £5,000 (plus VAT) |
| 20th Jan. – 2nd May 2025 | Accelerator Stage | 15 weeks | £30,000 (plus VAT) |
| 26th May 2025 Onwards | Pre-commercial Stage | – | Up to £610,000 |
Typically three teams are selected for the Exploration stage, with one then proceeding to the Accelerator stage. The total amount available for the pre-commercial stage depends on the remaining pot for that call once the Exploration and Accelerator stages are complete. The duration of the pre-commercial stage is negotiable with the Challenge Sponsor. While the sponsors take no equity or IP rights, they do receive an in-perpetuity royalty free licence.
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 national schemes and EU programmes.
