UK-Taiwan Collaborative R&D 2024

There must be a ‘project lead’ and this can be either an eligible UK or Taiwan organisation. The project lead is responsible for managing the entire project.

The ‘lead applicant’, is the organisation that starts the application on the Innovation Funding Service. This must be a UK business.

To be a lead applicant your organisation must:

• be a UK registered business of any size
• partner with a Taiwan registered business, which must be a separate non-linked entity to the UK project partners

Taiwan partners must not be invited into Innovate UK’s application on the Innovation Funding Service. Taiwan partners will be funded by the Department of Industrial Technology (DoIT) following a parallel application.

To collaborate with the lead, your organisation must be one of the following UK registered:

• business of any size
• academic institution
• research and technology organisation (RTO)

A UK registered business can lead on one application but can be included as a collaborator in a further two applications. If a UK registered business is not leading any application, it can collaborate in up to three applications. A UK registered academic institution or RTO can collaborate on any number of applications.

Your project must:

• have a grant funding request of no more than £900,000
• start by 1 January 2025
• end by 31 December 2027
• last between 24 and 36 months

UK project partners must carry out the majority of their project work in the UK and intend to exploit the results from or in the UK.

Projects should have a balanced contribution of the total eligible project costs among the partners from the UK and Taiwan. No more than 70% of the total project costs can be claimed by a single partner or by all partners from either the UK or Taiwan.

The aim of this competition is to fund business led, collaborative research and development (CR&D) projects focused on industrial research, for innovative proposals developed between the UK and Taiwan.

Your project must demonstrate:

• a clear game changing or disruptive innovative idea leading to new products, processes or services
• a strong and deliverable business plan that addresses and documents market potential and needs
• sound, practical financial plans and timelines
• good value for money which will always be a consideration in Innovate UK funding decisions
• a clear, evidence based plan to deliver significant economic impact, return on investment (ROI) and growth through commercialisation, as soon as possible after project completion
• clear, considerable potential to significantly benefit the UK economy or national productivity
• the benefits of participants from the UK and Taiwan working together and how this adds value
• a clear definition of where intellectual property (IP) can be used and shared between the participants
• a clear route to market within two to three years of project completion

We would particularly welcome applications from the following sectors:

• smart technology, for example next generation communication, semiconductor technology and space technology
• green energy technologies, for example electric vehicles, hydrogen transportation, renewable energy, future grids and carbon capture storage and utilisation
• smart manufacturing
• biotechnology, for example medical materials and devices
• service innovation, for example the Internet of Things, Big Data, Artificial Intelligence, 5G and 6G

Projects that work on military applications will not be funded.

Innovate UK will hold an online briefing at 11am UK time on Tuesday 9 April: click here to register for a place.

If you want help to find a project partner, contact Innovate UK Business Connect’s Global team or the relevant team for your sector (e.g. digital, space, energy, sustainability, manufacturing, biotechnology, AI).