UK and South Korea data driven urban innovation

To start and lead an application on the Innovation Funding Service (IFS), your organisation must be a UK registered business of any size.

As a UK partner, 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)
• charity
• not for profit
• local authority or other public sector organisations

We welcome applications which include participants from:

• social housing providers
• city authorities
• living lab facilities

Only UK registered partners must be listed in the Project Partner section of your application on the Innovation Funding Service (IFS). The funding provided to the UK partners will be made under the research and development innovation (RD&I) streamlined route.

Your South Korean partner will not receive any of this UK competition funding. South Korean partners will be funded by KAIA following a parallel application.

Each organisation in your consortium will receive funding from its respective national funding body.

Each UK project must collaborate with a South Korean partner. South Korean partners must not be invited into Innovate UK’s application on the Innovation Funding Service.

South Korean partners will be funded by KAIA following a parallel application. South Korean collaborators must apply for funding separately through the Korea Agency for Infrastructure Technology Advancement (KAIA).

You must work very closely with your South Korean partners during application development. You must bear in mind that KAIA’s eligibility and timelines may be slightly different to the UK process.

A business can only lead on one application but can be included as a collaborator in one further application. If a business or organisation is not leading any application, it can collaborate in any number of applications.

In this phase 1 competition, £1 million is available to fund UK organisations undertaking collaborative feasibility projects of up to eight months. South Korea is investing an equivalent amount to fund South Korean participants.

Projects which have successfully participated in phase 1, may be invited by Innovate UK, to apply into phase 2 of this competition.

During phase 2, your project must be collaborative and enhance your innovation with improvements through comprehensive testing and iteration in real or representative settings. You must work with potential future customers and users.

Phase 2 projects will be up to two years and the results must be commercialised at the end of phase 2.

Up to £4 million has been allocated to fund UK organisations for innovation projects over the two phases of this competition. Funding will be in the form of a grant. Phase 1 will fund up to £1 million for feasibility studies projects.

For UK applicants, your phase 1 project must:

• have a grant funding request between £50,000 and £120,000
• last between 6 to 8 months
• collaborate with a South Korean partner which is successful in securing funding for this programme from Korea Agency for Infrastructure Technology Advancement (KAIA)
• start by 1 July 2024
• end by 28 February 2025

The project work must be undertaken in the UK and South Korea.

The consortium must include at least one business registered in South Korea that is a separate legal entity and not linked to the UK partners. This is to ensure that projects encourage genuine international collaboration, not internal company research. Linked companies are considered a single entity under the parent company.

Your project must demonstrate a balanced technological contribution by the participants from both countries and must be equally significant to all participants.

No one country or project partner can represent more than 70% of the total combined project cost across the UK and South Korea.

To be successful in securing funding in this Phase 1 competition both UK and South Korean partner applications must be awarded funding.

Your proposal must demonstrate a clear intention to commercially exploit the results of the project domestically or globally.

The aim of this competition is to fund business led, collaborative research and development (CR&D) projects which link activities in the UK and South Korea.

Your project must focus on exploring the potential of proposed data driven innovations in cities that will deliver positive impact around key urban issues such as:

• sustainability
• liveability
• resilience
• inclusiveness
• safety

This list is not exhaustive.

The scope for this competition is broad and is aligned to the priorities of KAIA which focus on:

• land
• infrastructure
• transportation research and development (R&D)

Your project must demonstrate an effective collaboration with a South Korean partner applying for funding through KAIA.

This competition has four themes and you must select the theme you are focused on. If your proposed solution falls outside of the first three themes, or significantly cuts across those three theme areas, you must select theme 4.

Themes:

1. Mobility Innovation Solutions.
2. Disaster Management Solutions.
3. Net-Zero Energy Optimisation Solutions.
4. Other Data-centric Innovative Solutions.

Innovate UK will hold an online briefing at 11.30am on Thursday 11 January 2024: click here for the joining link. A recording will be available.

If you would like help to find a project partner in the UK, contact Innovate UK KTN’s Digital team in the first instance; if you would like help to find a South Korean partner, contact our Global team.