Innovation Loans Future Economy Competition – Round 6

UK registered businesses can apply for loans for innovative projects with strong commercial potential to significantly improve the UK economy.

Opportunity Details

When

Registration Opens

20/09/2022

Registration Closes

09/11/2022

Award

Loans can be for between £100,000 and £2 million, with interest rates varying from 3.7% to 7.4%; more details are available from our team if needed.

Organisation

Innovate UK

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Innovate UK is offering up to £25 million in loans to micro, small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs). Loans are for highly innovative late stage research and development (R&D) projects with the best potential for the future. There should be a clear route to commercialisation and economic impact.

Your project must lead to new products, processes or services that are significantly ahead of others currently available or propose an innovative use of existing products, processes or services. It can also involve a new or innovative business model.

Your project must focus on one or more of the future economy areas included in the Innovate UK plan for action.

You must be able to show that you:

  • need public funding
  • can cover interest payments
  • will be able to repay the loan on time

The funding available will be allocated across a series of competitions with the next round opening on the day the previous round closes.

The final round 8 will close on 8 March 2023.

  • round 6 opens 20 September 2022 (this competition)
  • round 7 opens 10 November 2022
  • round 8 opens 12 January 2023

You can apply for a loan of between £100,000 and £2 million to fund your project’s eligible costs.

Projects can last up to 5 years, including both the R&D and commercialisation phases. Projects are expected to start by 31 May 2023.

To receive an innovation loan for a new project you must:

  • be a UK registered micro, small or medium-sized enterprise (SME)
  • carry out your project from or in the UK
  • intend to exploit the results from or in the UK
  • give evidence that your business is suitable to take on a loan

Individuals, large companies, not for profits, charities, academic institutions, and research organisations are not eligible for innovation loans. Only single businesses can receive loans, so collaboration with other organisations cannot be funded in this competition.

Specific themes

Your project must focus on one or more of the following themes or sub-themes:

Net Zero

  • energy
  • impact of industrial processes and use of materials
  • agriculture and food and other sources of emissions
  • capital intensity

Health and Wellbeing

  • tackling ill health
  • enhancing wellbeing
  • diet and food

Next generation digital technologies

Technology families

  • advanced materials and manufacturing
  • artificial intelligence
  • digital and advanced computing
  • bioinformatics and genomics
  • engineering biology
  • electronics, photonics and quantum technologies
  • energy and environment technologies
  • robotics and smart machines

We are also particularly interested in receiving applications from diverse businesses; those involving communities that are typically under-represented, including from regions outside the ‘Golden Triangle’ (London, Oxford and Cambridge) or with for example, female, ethnic minority and diverse ability founders.

Recorded briefings from KTN

KTN recorded several briefings in support of this competition’s previous rounds, and the advice from them is applicable to this round also: click here to watch our briefing webinar, Guide to a Good Project Application, and Financial Submission Workshop.

For further enquiries, contact our Innovation Loans team.

Related Events and Recordings

Thu
6
Oct
2022

Innovation Loans Future Economy Competition Round Six – Applicant Briefing Webinar

15.00 - 17.00 | Online

Watch now
See all events

Related programme

Innovation Loans Future Economy

Innovation Loans Future Economy

UK registered SME businesses can apply for loan funding for innovative late-stage research and development projects with strong commercial potential that will significantly boost the UK economy.

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