WIREDGOV

Members have until 18th April to raise interest in getting involved.

We want to raise with members the latest announcement from UK Research and Innovation regarding the Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund Wave 3 opportunity. UK Research and Innovation is currently inviting expressions of interest (EoI) from industry led consortiums to identify the next wave of challenges to be supported under the Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund (ISCF). Partner organisations in a consortium can be other businesses, research organisations, public sector organisations or charities, but the EoI must be industry-led.

The aim of this open EoI is to identify the main challenges faced by industry and society in the UK and the level of demand for innovation funding in order to address them. Challenges must be business led, and solving them must offer tangible benefits in terms of productivity and economic growth. Proposals will be required to identify the challenge and explain what the impact would be if it were solved as well as provide evidence of strong industry demand for funding and identify what market opportunities a solution would create. EoI should also relate to least one of the 4 ‘grand challenges’ identified in the government’s Industrial Strategy: building a Britain fit for the future, published in November 2017.

While this is not a competition for funding this is an opportunity for industry to express an interest in helping to identify challenges to be supported in future waves of the ISCF. For challenges to be chosen there must be evidence of interest from across industry and the research base.

Industry has until 12pm on 18th April to submit expressions of interest which should include an estimate of the amount of funding required to address the challenge in question. Once the expression of interest process has closed, UK Research and Innovation will select a shortlist of challenges. Funding for these will be made available through competitions beginning in 2019.

Further details on this opportunity can be found here.

If you would more information about this opportunity you can contact the Innovate UK helpline on 0300 321 4357 or email at support@innovateuk.gov.uk.