Innovation Loans Round 14 - Applicant Briefing

Click here to download the slides.

About the competition

This is the fourteenth round in a series of funding opportunities, where loans of between £100k and £2m are available to fund late-stage research and development projects for SMEs who have a clear route to commercialisation and who are suitable to take on the significant financial commitment of a loan.

Round 14 opened on Thursday 7 March 2024 and will close at 11am on Wednesday 1 May 2024. Click here for round 14 funding details.

About the event

To find out more, watch our applicant briefing webinar above. This webinar will explore background information to the Innovation Loans, including the scope of the programme, the application process (both from the project and financial aspects), the assessment process and the approach to the credit decision making process.

Please view our previously recorded webinars on creating a strong project application, and requirements for the business and financial submissions.

Applicants in this round will also have the opportunity to join an online financial submission ‘deep dive’ workshop, covering some of the most important financial aspects of suitability for a loan. Places in these workshops will be limited, to allow group discussion with our team. Information for registration for these workshops is set out on a separate page after registration for the applicant briefing webinar.

Deep dive workshops

Participate in an online ‘deep dive’ workshop for the financial submission for Innovate UK’s Innovation Loans Future Economy Competition. Please ensure you have attended or watched the recording of the Applicant Briefing webinar taking place on Tuesday 19 March 2024.

The business and financial submission is a critical part of the application loan in the future economy innovation loans programme. We will be holding ‘deep dive’ workshops to enable applicants to consider how an innovation loan may fit within their funding strategy for growth at scale through innovation, and to engage with members of the innovation loans team and other applicants. The online workshops will have a maximum of 45 participants to promote engagement and discussion. Click here to register for the deep dive workshops.

Each workshop will focus on the three areas of the financial submission where we have frequently seen applicants struggle to evidence their suitability for an innovation loan:

• Presenting credible forecasts for future revenues and costs
• Demonstrating effective management of liquidity and working capital
• Evidencing adequate capitalisation
• Workshop agenda

Workshop agenda

The workshop agenda will cover:

• Highlighting the three core ‘problem areas’ seen across many previous unsuccessful applications, with anonymised examples
• Breakout discussions in groups, led by a member of the innovation loans team, to enable participants to take a ‘deep dive’ into one of the core areas
• Reflecting on the ‘deep dive’ discussions

The workshop will last 90 minutes and will be carried out through an interactive Zoom meeting. Since there will be a limited number of participants at each workshop, we will repeat the workshops three times.

These workshops will not repeat the information provided in the applicant briefing webinar (which provides an overview of the future economy innovation loans programme and detailed information about the application process) or in the recorded financial submission webinar which focuses on the mechanics of completion of the business and financial submission, especially the mandatory financial spreadsheet).

We expect all participants at the ‘deep dive’ workshops to have already reviewed the content of these webinars (as well as the recorded webinar on completing a good project application). Please visit the Innovation Loans Resources to find these recordings. These ‘deep dive’ workshops will replace the ‘credit drop-in’ sessions that we have run in earlier rounds of the programme. These ‘deep dive’ workshops will not be recorded, so that participants can discuss their funding strategies freely.

Prior registration is mandatory for these workshops and applicants will only be permitted to register one participant at one workshop. Since each applicant will only be permitted one participant, we recommend that this should be the Chief Financial Officer or another member of the Board or Senior Leadership team with responsibility for developing the funding strategy for growth through innovation of the business.

• Deep dive workshop 1: Tuesday 26 March 3.00pm – 4.30pm
• Deep dive workshop 2: Thursday 28 March 10.00am – 11.30am
• Deep dive workshop 3: Tuesday 2 April 2.00pm – 3.30pm

Click here to register for the deep dive workshops.