Grant Writing Masterclass
16 August 2019
Lorraine Acheson, Manager for
Northern Ireland

3
What % of the UK workforce is employed by
the construction sector?
5%
8%
10%

4
How much larger is the construction sector
than the automotive sector?
3x
6x
9x

5
What proportion of the construction workforce
is over 50?
11%
19%
32%

6
What proportion of the construction workforce
is under 25?
10%
14%
22%

7
How many new schools does the UK build per
year to renew old stock?
1300
2000
2600

8
Waste from construction, demolition and
excavation makes up what % of all UK waste
each year?
33%
45%
60%

9
How much has the UK Government committed
to the Transforming Construction challenge?
£98m
£144m
£172m

10
How much has Innovate UK given out in grants
for R&D since 2007?
£1.7bn
£2.5bn
£2.9bn

11
What proportion of applications for Innovate
UK funding come from NI?
1.5%
2.5%
3.5%

12
What is the average success rate of NI
applications for Innovate UK funding?
1 in 2
1 in 4
1 in 6
Is this more, less or the same as the rest of the
UK?

Ageing Society Future of mobility
Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund
Approx. £1bn investment
AI and Data
Economy
NationalSatellite TestFacility
Audience of the future
Quantumtechnologies
Nextgeneration services
Made smarter
DigitalSecurity by Design
Leading-edge healthcare
(inc. medicinesmanufacturing)
Data to earlydiagnosis
and precision medicine
Healthyageing
Accelerating detection of disease
Self-drivingvehicles
Manufacturing and materials
of the future
Faradaybatterychallenge
Robotsfor a safer world
Drivingthe electric revolution
Future flight
Clean growth
Energyrevolution
Transformingconstruction
Transformingfoodproduction
Industrialdecarbonisation
Smart sustainable plasticpackaging
TransformingFoundation Industries

14

Innovation Funding Service
15

16

Nuts and bolts
17
• Competitive calls, all guidance available online
• Applications are typically open for 2 months
• Grant funding, sliding scale depending on size of company e.g. up to 70% project
costs for SMEs undertaking feasibility studies
• Online application process, 10 questions
• Peer-reviewed by up to 5 independent assessors
• Quality threshold
• Feedback provided to unsuccessful applicants
• Application can be resubmitted once where there is a relevant competition

Lorraine.Acheson@innovateuk.ukri.org

Masterclass
A guide to writing applications
for R&D Grant Funding
Stephen Mc Comb, KTN
@mccomb_sj

Types of Funding Products
1. Competition Based Grants
2. Innovation Loans
3. Investment Accelerator
4. SBRI
5. UKRI Future Leaders (Emerging)
This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-SA-NC

Assess Suitability
• Stage of R&D – Blue sky or close to commercialisation
• Level of Government Contribution – Can I fund the gap?
• Single or Collaborative – Can I find suitable partners? Can I work with them?
• Loan or grant – Match your company needs.
• Equity – Have I considered the equity implications
• Duration – Does this match the stability of the company.
• Level of Innovation Required – Business may be profitable but unsuitable to the
competition.

Considering Eligibility Criteria
• Are You Eligible - Small/Micro, Medium or Large (EU definition), Research
Organisations, Public Sector Organisations doing research activity.
• Participation Rules - 50%/ 70% of total eligible project costs may be incurred by
business. Focus on funding to Business.
• Collaboration – Business Led, Multiple Organisations and effective partnership.
• Scope – does your project align with the competition.
• Innovation – world leading science and business which drives growth.
We would expect to see projects that align with the challenge and with a structure and rationale
of the collaboration that makes business sense.

Searching for Innovate UK funding
opportunities
https://apply-for-
innovation-
funding.service.gov.uk/co
mpetition/search

Support for businesses
Invest NI

Quick Icebreaker
Group Activity

Impact
- Write a sentence, fold it over,
then pass it on
Question:
What impact might glider buses
have on the City of Belfast?
This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-SA

How Did You Score?
1) What if it was the financial director Reading it?
2) What if it was someone who knew nothing about transport?
3) What if the reviewer only care about passenger safety?
@mairidillon

Answering the assessors’
prayer …
“Oh, Lord, send me a good one!”

It’s an exam and a story …
- Answer the Question
- Tell a Story
- Convince Rather than Meet the Word Count
- High Scores in all Questions

Before you Start
A well told story about robots won’t win the romantic fiction awards.
Check that your scope aligns.
If in doubt, check with lead technologists at Innovate UK. Use the
competition help. They are helpful.

… First Impressions
Project Summary
Please provide a short summary of your project.
• This is the first thing they read - ‘wow!, I get this and I like this’.
• Top tip – ‘Economist’ editorial style. 9 word sentences, active tense.

1. Need or challenge
What is the business need, citizen challenge, technological challenge or
market opportunity behind your innovation?
“Here’s an unmet business needs that is costing or denying (John/s)
value. We can develop the tech/service/product to fix this challenge and
when we do, (John/s) will buy it.”
• Depth about the wider context
• Insight on how you will solve it where others fail

1. Need or challenge
Good
Great

2. Approach and innovation
What approach will you take and where will the focus of the innovation
be?
“We will technically solve the challenge by x, y, z. This is better than
competitors a, b, c because … Based on earlier work (patent searches)
we have freedom to operate. We will deliver (this/these) outputs.”
• “and here’s a picture (Appendix Q2) that oozes ‘wow factor!’”
• A technical stretch is important – Not off the shelf

2. Approach and innovation
Good
Great

3. Team and resources
Who is in the project team and what are their roles?
“Our team is the best - and here’s a list of credentials/track record that
shows we can build it and get traction in the market. We will additionally
need (these) resources and this is where we get them”.
• Do not be shy!
• Use the competition to expand your network

3. Team and resources
Good
Great

4. Market awareness
What does the market you are targeting look like?
• The market looks like (this) and here’s the trends with numbers and
recent references that show we really know our stuff. Our target
addressable market is (sensible, conservative, argued) numbers).

4. Market awareness
Good
Great

5. Outcomes and route to market
How are you going to grow your business and increase your productivity
into the long term as a result of the project?
“The value proposition to our target customers is (how they benefit in a
business sense and it’s worth x to them). Our routes to market are
(credible ideas, preferably relevant to market identified in Q4). Currently
we sit (here) in the market but this project will take us to (there).”

5. Outcomes and route to market
Good
Great

6. Wider impacts
What impact might this project have outside the project team?
• “There are external (wider) benefits to
(economic/social/environmental/greater good stuff) attributable to this
solution being implemented and they are worth (some sort of
guestimate). Stress any regional impacts (local economy stuff).”

6. Wider impacts
Good
Great

7. Project management
How will you manage the project effectively?
“Here’s a fantastic project plan (work packages, costed, research
category, description of deliverables, management techniques and
structure”.
• “and here’s a Gantt chart (AppendixQ7)”.
• The plan lines up with all other comments and comitments made in
earlier sections.

7. Project management
Good
Great

8. Risks
What are the main risks for this project?
“Here’s a thorough risk assessment
(project/technical/commercial/environmental/regulatory/whatever)
with risk ownership assigned and sensible mitigation suggested along
with a description of how risk will be managed during the project.”
• “and here’s a nice initial risk register (AppendixQ8).”
• Top tip – this is a ‘graph question’, label the axes.

8. Risks
Good
Great

9. Additionality
Describe the impact that an injection of public funding would have
on this project.
“We seriously need support. It will not happen without it. Support
enables (faster time to market; derisking to the point where private
investors will come in; a new type of collaboration) – and look at those
awesome (stakeholder and/or wider) benefits.”

9. Additionality
Good
Great

10. Costs and value for money
How much will the project cost and how does it represent value for
money for the team and the taxpayer?
“It’s excellent value for money - look how modestly the work packages
are costed. Subcontracts are justified because (they’re the best/we
worked well with them previously/etc). The return to the tax payer
comes from (increased VAT/payroll taxes/improved
productivity/efficiency/contribution to govt strategy/etc).”

10. Costs and value for money
Good
Great

Summary
• Wow them from the off.
• Answer the questions.
• Use short, punchy sentences. Create a narrative flow.
• Bring Innovation
• Be Great not Good

Tip – Read News Articles
• Previous awards
• 5-10 years experience (Frequently International)
• Identified & quantified a problem
• Early explorations & Analysis
• The results promising with HOWEVER still
significant challenges (lack of sensitivity,
unproven, scalable)
• Lead to world firsts
• Ambitious - high risk - multidisciplinary

First Impressions Count
Group Activity

Critique
As a group consider:
• What standard is the response?
• Does it leave a lasting impression?
• How would you improve or amend?

Thank you
Register for our updates:
www.ktn-uk.org
Original Presentation from @mairidillon

Richard Pelan
Grant Writing Masterclass -
16th Aug 2019
Innovation Advisor
Engineering, Construction &
Transportation

Importance of Innovation
• Companies who are innovating are twice as likely to be growing (ITI
Business Monitor)
• Companies who invest in innovation demonstrate greater job growth,
employed better qualified people and are more likely to export (NESTA)
• Companies who collaborate on innovation are more productive than those
that do not (OECD)
• Investments in innovation are responsible for 2/3rds of UK productivity
growth (NESTA)

The Innovation Escalator

Support Available
• Free Advice & Guidance – NIBusinessinfo.co.uk
• The Innovation Canvas – www.innovationcanvas.ktn-uk.org - opportunity,
capability and offer
• Innovation Vouchers – re-opens mid-Sept
• Technical Development Incentive Grants (TDI)
• Project Definition – You can use PD to make an application for external
funding – such InnovateUK
• Grant for R&D
• KTP

Project Definition (PD) –
changes
• Project Definition - grant to explore the technical feasibility or commercial potential of new
products, processes or services
• Maximum Grant rates
• Max of 2 offers in a rolling 5-year period or 8-year period if a PD is not progressed into an R&D
project within a year of completion
• Consultancy – supported eligible costs capped at £400 per day
• Prior to submission of an application, company must engage with an Invest NI named contact
Employees Max Grant
0-2 No support unless HPSU
3-15 £15,000
16-250 £30,000
> 250 No Support unless Collaborative

Project Definition Eligible Costs
• Internal staff time
• Consultancy
• Intellectual Property
• Travel and Accommodation

What makes a good project?
Project
•Level of Innovation
•Technical Risk and R&D Challenge
•Potential to create IP
•Exploitation Potential
•Company & Economic Benefit
Company / Applicant
• Management Ability & Staff Expertise - Track Record
• Additionality – Show the difference public money will make
• Viability

Remember, we can help
• Project Definition can be used to apply for ISCF & Innovate UK
competitions
• We can connect you with partners and the KTN
• We can provide advice and feedback on draft applications prior to
submission
• Invest NI Tutorial video – a guide to writing Innovate UK funding
applications

Thank you
Richard Pelan
Innovation Advisor
Advanced Engineering R&D Team
richard.pelan@investni.com
07780002603
02890698632

Transforming Construction competition briefing event
11 September, Titanic Belfast