Sources of R&D funding for your business

Technological innovation is essential for many businesses to improve productivity and competitiveness, and to stimulate business growth. Yorkshire Forward administers R&D grants funded by the UK government and the European Commission, variously available to individuals, SMEs and large companies.

GRDs for SMEs

The national Grants for Research and Development (GRD) scheme, administered in our region by Yorkshire Forward, sets aside £18.5m over 5 years to provide finance to individuals and SMEs in England (partnerships/companies with less than 250 employees, which make up 99% of the businesses in our region) to research and develop technologically innovative products and processes. It is anticipated that these GRDs will support at least 185 projects across Yorkshire & Humber.

An SME can apply at any time for a GRD worth up to 60% of the cost of an R&D project, providing it can fund the balance itself. Four types of grant are available:

• Micro projects (simple, low-cost development projects of no longer than 12 months, with up to £20,000 available)
• Research projects (for investigating the technical and commercial feasibility of innovative technology, lasting 6 to 18 months, with up to £100,000 available)
• Development projects (for developing a pre-production prototype of a new product or process over 6 to 36 months, with up to £250,000 available)
• Exceptional development projects (involving a significant technological advance which is strategically important to a particular technology or industrial sector, lasting 6 to 36 months with a negotiable grant of up to £500,000 available)
• The new Proof of Market Grant helps you test the commercial potential of an innovative idea for a new technology – the result will be a thorough and professional analysis of  the scale of the market opportunity.

If you wish to make an initial enquiry please complete the Expression of Interest form.

Yorkshire Forward Industrial R&D Awards

We award R&D grants to large companies in Yorkshire & Humber, in support of industrial research and pre-competitive development projects, or a combination. The current £24.2m round of funding began in autumn 2008 and runs until 2013.

We distinguish between industrial research and pre-competitive development. You will need to think carefully about how this relates to your project, as different levels of grant support apply to each. There are official definitions and other funding conditions, such as which capital and revenue costs are eligible as total project costs, in the guide for applicants.

To receive support under this scheme, the project must:

• Have a total project value of between £650,000 and £2.5 million
• Last for 12-24 months
• Be business-led, with the main applicant a large company with a base in Yorkshire & Humber. Large companies which plan to move to Yorkshire & Humber may also apply, but will not receive an offer letter until they have a base here.
• Collaborate with another organisation and/or knowledge base in order to maximise the potential of the research & development.

If you wish to make an initial enquiry please complete the Expression of Interest form.

The size of grants are up to the European Commission State Aid maximum rates:

• Industrial research: 50% of the project cost
• Pre-competitive development: 25% of the project cost.

Applications are made directly to Yorkshire Forward. Read the Guide for Applicants document.

The next opportunity for funding - Call 7:

• The next ‘Call’ (session of funding) is due to commence on 6th January 2010 and is open to submissions across all sectors.
• The deadline for submission of Outline Proposals is 12 Noon, 31st March 2010.
• A briefing session will be held to provide more details about submission on 6th January 2010 (10am – 12 Noon) followed by a buffet lunch at Cedar Court Hotel, Bradford.  Please email lbuffoni@uk.ey.com if you are interested in attending or would like more information. 

FP7: European funding for innovation

With a budget of over €50bn, Framework Programme 7 (FP7) is the European Commission’s main method of funding collaborative research and development. The programme began on January 1 2007 and will run for 7 years. To help our region’s businesses and universities maximise their chances of success in accessing a share of FP7 funding, Yorkshire Forward has launched a comprehensive range of free services. If you would like more information, or would like one of our experts to visit you, please contact the team on 0845 630 8003.

Types of FP7 funding available:

• Ideas: frontier research designed to generate new knowledge €7.5bn
• People: training & mobility of researchers throughout Europe €4.7bn
• Capacities: development of research infrastructures, support for SMEs & clusters €4.3bn
• Co-operation: trans-national collaborative R&D projects €32.3bn

‘Cooperation’ is in turn organised into 9 priority areas:

• Information & communication technologies €9.1bn
• Health €6.0bn
• Transport (including aeronautics) €4.2bn
• Nanosciences, nanotechnologies, materials & new production technologies €3.5bn
• Space & security €2.8bn
• Energy €2.3bn
• Food, agriculture and biotechnology €1.9bn
• Environment (including climate change) €1.9bn
• Socio-economic sciences & the humanities €0.6bn

Other sources of R&D funding

Business Link Yorkshire has details of additional grants, not administered by Yorkshire Forward, including Collaborative Research and Development Grants (awarded by the Technology Strategy Board).

The Technology Strategy Board also runs the SBRI programme that brings innovative solutions to specific public sector needs, by engaging a broad range of companies in competitions for ideas that result in short-term development contracts.

A list of all open and past competitions can be viewed on the Technology Strategy Board website here. We also list all open competitions on our Tenders page.

Contact

If you’d like to find out more about these issues, speak to a member of the Yorkshire Forward Industrial R & D Awards and GRD scheme team:

John Millar
R & D Grants Manager
(john.millar@yorkshire-forward.com)
0113 394 9866
     
If the contact you're looking for isn’t listed here, please visit our main contact page.