UK - Germany Bilateral: Collaborative R&D Round 2

To lead a project your organisation must:

• be a UK registered business of any size
• be or involve at least one grant claiming UK micro, small or medium-sized enterprise (SME)
• collaborate with at least one German registered SME applying to the German ZIM programme, which must be a separate legal entity, not linked to the UK partners

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

• business of any size
• academic institution
• charity
• not for profit
• public sector organisation
• research and technology organisation (RTO)

An eligible UK business can lead on one application and collaborate on two further applications.

If an organisation is not leading any application, it can collaborate in up to three applications.

Your project must:

• have a maximum grant funding request of £750,000
• start by 1 July 2024
• end by 30 June 2027
• last between 18 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.

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

Note that eligibility on the German counterpart competition also states that in a project with two cooperating partners, no partner may contribute more than 70% of total person months to the project. Person months is the metric for the time in months devoted by staff to a project.

In a project with more than two cooperating partners, no partner may contribute more than 50% of total person months. All research organisations involved in the consortium may altogether not contribute more than 50% of the total person months.

Your collaborative R&D proposal must demonstrate:

• a clear game-changing or disruptive innovative idea leading to new products, processes or services
• a strong and deliverable business proposal within your application that addresses and documents market potential and needs
• sound, practical financial plans and timelines
• good value for money
• how you intend to deliver significant economic impact, return on investment (ROI) and growth through commercialisation within 2 to 3 years of project completion
• clear potential to significantly benefit the UK economy or national productivity
• the benefit of participants from the countries working together and how this adds value
• a clear definition of where intellectual property (IP) can be used and shared between the participants and countries
• a clear route to market within 2 to 3 years of project completion

Proposals can come from any area of technology, and we particularly encourage applications from the following sectors:

AI

We encourage applications in the areas of:

• sustainable AI
• responsible and ethical AI
• applications of AI to improve business productivity in BridgeAI target sectors
• AI for healthcare

Quantum

We encourage projects that:

• involve consortia which span the supply chain of service or component suppliers, integrators, and end user businesses
• progress quantum technology from lab prototypes to industry ready systems for commercial use through integration of innovative and scalable technologies

Your project can focus on one or more of the following areas:

• sensing and imaging
• component and sub system technologies supporting communications, computing and networking
• scalable solutions and fabrication processes for chip scale quantum photonic and optoelectronic systems
• software hardware codesign for reproducible quantum processor enhanced applications

Semiconductors

We encourage applications in the areas of:

• semiconductor design
• compound semiconductors
• advanced packaging and heterogeneous integration
• advanced materials

Future Telecommunications

We encourage applications in the areas of:

• non-terrestrial communications
• open radio access network (ORAN) deployments and innovations
• use of AI and data analytics to improve network efficiency
• energy efficient technologies
• neutral host networks
• antenna innovation, massive multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO)
• cross border lab collaborations
• network security

Engineering Biology

Your proposal must align with one of the National Engineering Biology Programme’s themes, or focus on the development of cross cutting technology or service development.

The themes are:

• food systems
• biomedicine
• clean growth
• environmental solutions

Green Technologies

Battery technology:

• advanced battery materials
• emerging battery technologies, for example; sodium ion, lithium sulfur, solid state
• technologies to achieve 350 Wh/kg and above at pack level
• innovations in battery manufacturing processes
• design innovation for cells, modules, packs
• integration of digitalisation
• advanced predictive analytics and degradation modelling
• sustainable recycling approaches
• technologies for increased safety
• skills development and training

We will not fund Quantum-focussed projects that are:

• not covered by any of the four specific themes
• not ‘second generation’ quantum technologies defined as those involving the generation and coherent control of quantum states, resulting in phenomena such as superposition or entanglement
• feasibility studies or projects that are low maturity in their development
• market research, road mapping or landscape studies

An online briefing event will be held on Wednesday 13th September, 10am-noon UK time (11am-1pm CET): click here to register to attend.

If you would like help to find a collaboration partner, contact Innovate UK KTN’s Global Alliance team in the first instance.