Could your digital innovation help government to identify regulatory obligations on businesses?

Up to £50k available for technological solutions to help analyse the cumulative effect of different regulations on business.

The Better Regulation Executive (BRE) aims to develop a regulatory system that is simpler for businesses to navigate, while maintaining important protections for citizens and the environment.

The historical and incremental build-up of regulations can lead to disproportionate burdens on business, particularly if obligations are poorly co-ordinated. Digital innovations give policymakers the opportunity, for the first time, to tackle this problem by looking at the UK’s regulatory environment as a whole.

BRE and the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) are seeking technological solutions to help analyse the cumulative effect of different regulations on business. For example, they can examine the complexity of regulations, how often they change and the interactions between them. Successful solutions could help the government prioritise future regulatory reform.

Potential applicants are encouraged to attend the launch event in London on 16 January.

The overall programme will be delivered over 2 phases. This is phase 1 of a potential 2-phase competition. A decision to proceed with phase 2 will depend on the outcomes from phase 1.

Phase 1: technical feasibility

The first phase involves feasibility study research and development (R&D) contracts being awarded up to £50,000, including VAT. This is for each project to demonstrate technical feasibility of the proposed solution. Projects must start by 17 May and can last up to 3 months. We expect to fund 5 projects at phase 1.

Phase 2: prototype development and evaluation

This second phase involves up to 2 R&D contracts being awarded to businesses chosen from the successful phase 1 applicants. Up to £500,000, including VAT, will be allocated for each contract, in order to develop a prototype and undertake testing for up to 12 months.

For more details on funding and how to apply, click here. The application deadline is 20th Feb 2019.