Innovate UK Competition Winners' Communications and Media Toolkit - updated July 2020.

1. Competition Winners' Communications & Media Toolkit
Introduction
Congratulations! Your project has reached the stage where it has been awarded funding
from Innovate UK.
Innovate UK is all about helping innovative ideas to flourish, and effective business
communications is a vital part of any enterprise’s path to growth. That is why we
encourage you wholeheartedly to take a proactive approach to communications.
We’ve put together this Competition Winners’ Communications & Media Toolkit. It’s
intended to help you, no matter how big or small the project or your PR knowledge is.
This toolkit covers:
1. Announcement checklist
2. Your story – in-house PR
3. Social media and Innovate UK
4. Appendices
a) PR agencies
b) Innovate UK descriptors
c) Disclaimer
Even if you are a communications expert, we hope that you will find useful information in
this toolkit.
We would greatly appreciate your feedback so that we can continuously improve the
support we offer, share best practice and success stories.

2. Innovate UK - Competition winners' communications toolkit 2
1. Announcement checklist
So you are ready to make your announcement. What next?
i. Let us know, get in touch
Firstly, let us know what you plan to do. Share your final press release with
press@ukri.org or call us on 01793 234 136.
If we are doing our own communication activity relevant to your project we will let
you know. By being co-ordinated we can best amplify all our communication, so
let’s keep in touch.
ii. Approval?
We are not here to vet or to approve your announcement; we are here to help if you
need it.
We positively encourage you to publicise your project and wish you every success.
Many of the companies we fund find that they get stronger traction in the media or
can appear more credible to potential customers, partners or other investors if they
can demonstrate their support from Innovate UK. So let Innovate UK be part of the
story you tell too.
iii. Government ministerial support
Government ministers may occasionally want to make an announcement in which
your project features. If this happens we will let you know and make sure your
announcement is co-ordinated with government to get maximum impact. If you are
the lead partner of a consortium, please ensure that all of the partners in your
project are aware of this approach to media activity.
iv. How to describe the support from Innovate UK
When you mention Innovate UK in your announcement please spell it out in full. We
like to be described as ‘Innovate UK, the UK’s innovation agency’. Here’s the
full description we use on our press releases that you’re welcome to use too:
Innovate UK drives productivity and economic growth by supporting
businesses to develop and realise the potential of new ideas.
We connect businesses to the partners, customers and investors that can
help them turn ideas into commercially successful products and services and
business growth.

3. Innovate UK - Competition winners' communications toolkit 3
We fund business and research collaborations to accelerate innovation and
drive business investment into R&D. Our support is available to businesses
across all economic sectors, value chains and UK regions.
Innovate UK is part of UK Research and Innovation.
For more information visit www.innovateuk.ukri.org
Also, as a way of linking us to your work we encourage you to consider detailing
why Innovate UK funding and support will make a difference to your work going
forward, perhaps through a quote from your spokesperson.
It is vital the funding figures are accurate and where funding is split between
Innovate UK and businesses within a project (for example, as part of our
collaborative R&D programme), please use the wording such as: –
“co-funded by the UK’s innovation agency, Innovate UK”.
If your project is being undertaken by a consortium, make this clear too. Get
approval from the lead partner of the consortium or, if you are the lead partner,
ensure that the other partners are happy.
Funding from Innovate UK comes in various forms, so we have prepared
descriptions of each of them for you use – they can be found in the Appendices.
v. Quote request for your press release
As you can appreciate, we run many competitions and fund a lot of companies, so
we receive a lot of requests for quotes. We don’t have the capacity to offer quotes
on an individual basis to competition winners. However, please check when
contacting us in the first instance as we may have written and shared our own news
story about a specific competition result and be able to provide an agreed quote
related to that.
vi. Think about who you want to tell about your story
When you come to publicising your project, think about who might want to know
about your success as this will help you target your communications effectively.
This could range from:
 other figures in your industry
 an industry body you’re a member of
 members of the local community to potential customer
 investors or multi-nationals
The media is a great way to reach large and diverse audiences, but you can also try
a more direct approach. For example, we’re often told by MPs and other elected

4. Innovate UK - Competition winners' communications toolkit 4
representatives that they are very keen to hear about companies and projects in
their areas that have been funded by Innovate UK. So why not drop them a line and
tell them about your success at the same time you’re contacting journalists – they
may even want to provide you with a supportive quote for your press release or visit
you.
You can find contact details for all your local representatives here:
https://www.writetothem.com/
vii. Innovate UK brand and logo guidelines
Although our logo is not needed on your press release, we encourage you to use it
on other stakeholder publicity material.
The Innovate UK logo and guidelines can be downloaded here: www.ukri.org/brand
and should be used for the following purposes:
 to highlight funded projects on your website
 in promotional literature for your products such as posters, event banners
and brochures
 on vehicles (where appropriate)
For guidance on positioning please contact brand@ukri.org
Sizing: To ensure legibility of the logo it should never be smaller than 7mm high in
print, and 28 pixels in digital format
2. Your story – in-house PR
In-house PR can be cost-effective. You do not have to spend the time educating an
external agency all about your project and by doing your own PR, you have an even
greater stake in its success.
Even in a communication world transformed by social media the role of crafting an
effective press release is the foundation of effective public relations.
You have to put yourself in the place of a journalist. As this guide suggests
https://www.theguardian.com/small-business-network/2014/jul/14/how-to-write-press-
release, then ask yourself these questions:

5. Innovate UK - Competition winners' communications toolkit 5
1. is there anything 'new' in my story?
2. is there anything unusual or unexpected about it?
3. would this be of interest to anyone outside my business?
4. will anyone actually care?
Think carefully about the structure your press release.
Starting with the most important information. The introduction should address the
who, what, why, when and how of your project. Leave the least important
information at the end of the release, known as the inverted pyramid structure.
The part of the press release you should spend the most amount of your time
getting right is your quote.
Journalists like to put a name and a face to a story, so the language you use in the
quote is crucial, as this often is the only thing they will use. Do not waste
opportunities by using phrases such as “We are delighted...”, or “I am pleased…',
because as question 4 (above) asks: Will anyone actually care?
Use your quote to state the tangible benefits of your project, such as: How it saves
money, how it is good for the environment, how it creates new jobs. Essentially,
anything that is positive and new.
Do not neglect the power of images. You are much more likely to secure great
coverage if you have compelling visuals. Business pages are full of pictures of
middle-aged white men in suits, so try to find something that will stand out.
If your project is at a conceptual stage, investing in computer generated imagery or
other concept artwork may well be cost-effective.
Finally, do not forget the basics. Make sure your press release is dated.
State clearly whether there is any embargo.
Ensure there are full contact details (phone, email, social media links etc.).
Now you need to get your press release to its audience. Firstly make sure that the
news section on your website is clearly sign-posted. To drive people to your news
there are various things you can do. We will address social media later in this guide,
but an email distribution list is still an effective channel. Identifying your audience
may take a lot of Googling or picking the brains of people you trust with the right
knowledge.

6. Innovate UK - Competition winners' communications toolkit 6
If you have the budget you may wish to invest in using a media database. There are
many on the market and you will need to investigate which is going to meet your
needs cost-effectively. A Google search brings up many competing products and
services.
3. Social media and Innovate UK
The way that individuals and organisations communicate has been transformed by social
media in a fantastically short space of time.
Not all social media channels are the same. A tweet can be very different to a posting on
LinkedIn and have different character limits. Not all social media channels may be right for
every company so it is best to prioritise as you can’t be everywhere and you can’t support
every platform.
Before choosing which social media channels you may wish to engage with – bear in mind
engaging often means starting a conversation, not just broadcasting – ask yourself these
questions?:
1. who is your audience?
2. what is your message?
3. what value is there to your audience in your post?
4. what tone of voice is right?
When you are ready to go, don’t forget to say hi to Innovate UK by including @innovateuk
in your tweets which means we can share your great news with our 124k+ followers.
4. Appendices
a) PR agencies
One way of potentially maximising publicity for your project is to engage a PR
agency. They have expertise in getting companies’ messages through to the media.
That expertise comes from experience with dealing with many clients and having
frequent contact with journalists, leading to a thorough understanding of the media
and its myriad outlets.
The most important factor in any PR agency's success with you, the client, is a
great relationship based on trust and a thorough understanding of your business. It
can be a big – and potentially expensive – step to employ a PR agency, so ask for
recommendations from people you trust and look for testimonials.

7. Innovate UK - Competition winners' communications toolkit 7
A good starting point for you is the trade association for public relations agencies in
the UK, the PRCA. http://www.prca.org.uk/membership/directory
b) Innovate UK descriptors
Standard Innovate UK description:
Innovate UK drives productivity and economic growth by supporting businesses
to develop and realise the potential of new ideas.
We connect businesses to the partners, customers and investors that can help
them turn ideas into commercially successful products and services and business
growth.
We fund business and research collaborations to accelerate innovation and drive
business investment into R&D. Our support is available to businesses across all
economic sectors, value chains and UK regions.
Innovate UK is part of UK Research and Innovation.
For more information visit www.innovateuk.ukri.org
Programme-specific descriptions:
Catapult network: Catapult network is a vital asset of the Innovate UK portfolio and an
essential part of UKRI’s overall infrastructure roadmap, providing expertise and
infrastructure through its world-leading Catapult centres across the UK bringing new
products and services more quickly to commercialisation. Focusing on areas with great
market potential, Catapults open up global opportunities for the UK and generate
economic growth for the future. For more information, please visit www.catapult.org.uk
Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund: The Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund aims to
bring together the UK’s world leading research with business to meet the major industrial
and societal challenges of our time. The fund was created to provide funding and support
to UK businesses and researchers, part of the government’s £4.7 billion increase in
research and development over the next 4 years. It was designed to ensure that research
and innovation takes centre stage in the Government’s Industrial Strategy and is run by
Innovate UK and the Research Councils on behalf of UK Research and Innovation.
SBRI: The SBRI programme uses the power of government procurement to drive
innovation. It provides opportunities for innovative companies to engage with the public
sector and gain contracts to solve specific problems. Competitions for new technologies
and ideas are run on specific topics and aim to engage a broad range of organisations.
SBRI enables the public sector to engage with industry during the early stages of
development, supporting projects through the stages of feasibility and prototyping.
https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/sbri-the-small-business-research-initiative

8. Innovate UK - Competition winners' communications toolkit 8
Knowledge Transfer Partnerships (KTPs): KTPs or Knowledge Transfer Partnerships
http://ktp.innovateuk.org is Europe's leading programme helping businesses to improve
their competitiveness by enabling companies to work with higher education or research
and technology organisations to obtain knowledge, technology or skills which they
consider to be of strategic competitive importance. The UK-wide programme is overseen
by Innovate UK, the UK’s innovation agency, and supported by 16 other public sector
funding organisations.
Missions: Innovate UK supports key events known as entrepreneur ‘missions' run in
partnership with UK Trade and Investment. Missions involve the pick of innovative and
often early-stage UK companies in Innovate UK priority areas or themes including digital,
healthcare or clean technology travelling to countries strong in innovation and enterprise,
such as the US, China and Brazil. While there the companies have the opportunity to
make new connections and meet potential investors, suppliers and customers and grow
their business internationally.
https://www.gov.uk/innovation-get-support-and-advice
c) Disclaimer
Innovate UK does not endorse any of the products, services or companies
mentioned in this guide. It mentions sources of information that you may or may not
choose to investigate. Innovate UK does not take any legal responsibility for any
course of action competition winners may choose to take.