Funding
Funding Round-Up
Take a look at the latest funding competitions of relevance to organisations and academics working within the field of plastics.
The Sustainable Innovation Fund: round 3 (temporary framework)
Competition opens: Tuesday 1 September 2020
Competition closes: Wednesday 30 September 2020 11:00am
Innovate UK, as part of UK Research and Innovation, is investing up to £10 million to fund single and collaborative research and development projects as part of the Sustainable Innovation Fund.
The aim of this competition is to help all sectors of the UK rebuild after the effects of COVID-19.
All projects must be led by a business and include at least one micro, small or medium-sized enterprise (SME). Proposals can either be from a single business or a collaboration. These grants are a form of state aid under the COVID-19 Temporary Framework for the UK.
COVID-19 has affected R&D across all sectors, and the aim of this competition is to help all sectors of the UK recover, grow and create new opportunities from the aftermath of the global health pandemic. Your proposal must show evidence of key challenges as a direct consequence of COVID-19, including the sudden shortage or availability of finance, and how your project can help solve them. In addition, your proposal must consider its impact on climate change and/or environmental sustainability.
Manufacturing made smarter: digital supply chain, feasibility studies
UK registered businesses can apply for funding towards feasibility studies into digital technologies to transform supply chains in UK manufacturing. This funding is from the Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund.
Projects must help UK manufacturing supply chains develop digital technologies to become more efficient, productive, flexible, resilient. These must encourage the use of digital approaches to better integrate and optimise the performance of supply chains.
A series of workshops are being organised to explore the opportunities for using digital solutions to improve and re-engineer existing manufacturing supply chains, design new supply chain solutions and to help collaborators develop their applications for the Manufacturing Made Smarter supply chain competition.
Competition Details:
Opens: Monday 6 July
Closes: Wednesday 7 October
Online briefing event: recording
More information here
Manufacturing made smarter: digital supply chain, industrial research
Opens: Monday 6 July
Closes: Wednesday 7 October
UK registered businesses can apply for funding towards an industrial research project in digital technologies to transform supply chains in UK manufacturing. This funding is from the Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund.
Innovate UK, part of UK Research and Innovation, is to invest in 2 competitions to drive digital innovation in UK manufacturing supply chains. The funding is from the Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund (ISCF).
Your project must help UK manufacturing supply chains to develop digital technologies to become more efficient, productive, flexible, resilient. These must encourage the use of digital approaches to better integrate and optimise the performance of supply chains.
In this competition all projects awarded funding must upload evidence for each expenditure with every claim made. These might include invoices, time sheets, receipts or spreadsheets for capital usage. This is part of Innovate UK’s obligations under the Managing Public Money government handbook in relation to assurance, financial management and control.
View back the briefing recording here.
Knowledge Transfer Partnerships
Current KTP period: Close date: 07.10.20 (after this the next round will be available immediately, so don’t rush your application unnecessarily)
A Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) links your organisation with one of the UK’s world-class knowledge bases (a university or research organisation) to power strategic innovation projects, embed expertise and drive commercial growth. needed to develop it, a Knowledge Transfer Partnership may be the answer. It creates a dynamic three-way collaboration – between a business or not for profit organisation, a UK university or research organisation, and a suitably qualified graduate – to help realise a strategic innovation project, bring about transformative change and embed new capability.
Innovate UK Smart Grants
- Competition opens: Friday 28 August 2020
- Competition closes: Wednesday 25 November 2020 11:00am
Smart is Innovate UK’s ‘Open grant funding’ programme.
Innovate UK, part of UK Research and Innovation, is investing up to £25 million in the best game-changing and commercially viable innovative or disruptive ideas. All proposals must be business focused.
Applications can come from any area of technology and be applied to any part of the economy, such as, but not exclusively:
- the arts, design and media
- creative industries
- science or engineering
ISCF: Smart Sustainable Plastic Packaging
Part of the Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund Wave 3, this Challenge will develop a new generation of advanced and sustainable plastic packaging to reduce single-use plastics, increase recyclability and the amount of plastic packaging that is recycled and ultimately reduce the amount of plastic waste entering the environment. Government is prepared to invest up to £60 million in this Challenge from the Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund until 2024, with additional funding of up to £149 million from industry. The Smart Sustainable Plastic Packaging Challenge aims to establish the UK as a leading innovator in sustainable plastic packaging for consumer products, delivering cleaner growth across the supply chain, with a dramatic reduction in plastic waste entering the environment by 2025.
Your project must aim to:
- help make the plastics packaging supply chain more circular
- deliver the targets of the UK Plastics Pact
- improve on current state-of-the-art plastic packaging, while still demonstrating practical and close-to-market solutions
Projects are welcomed across the following areas: materials; design; technology or process; business model or behaviour change. Your project must showcase close-to-market solutions that go beyond the current state-of-the-art and deliver a more circular economy for plastic packaging.
Future Plastic Packaging Solutions Competition
Planned to open in October 2020 the Future Plastic Packaging Solutions competition will see Innovate UK, part of UK Research and Innovation, invest up to £2 million in early-stage projects. This is part of the Smart Sustainable Plastic Packaging (SSPP) Challenge which aims to establish the UK as a leading innovator in smart and sustainable plastic packaging for consumer products. Its goals are to deliver cleaner growth across the supply chain, with a dramatic reduction in plastic waste entering the environment by 2025.
Innovation continuity loans: Strand 2 September 2020 follow-on competition
Competition opens: Wednesday 2 September 2020
Competition closes: Wednesday 30 September 2020 11:00am
Innovate UK is offering up to £210 million in loans to micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and third sector organisations that have a challenge in continuing, completing or following on an innovation project. Loans are for organisations that find themselves facing a sudden shortage or even unavailability of funds resulting directly from the COVID-19 pandemic.
There are two parallel strands for innovation continuity loans:
- strand 1: for applicants who are continuing and completing a live project with an Innovate UK award
- strand 2: for applicants who have a new project that follows on from a project with an Innovate UK award that was completed in the last 36 months (this competition)
We are looking to support highly innovative late stage projects with a clear route to commercialisation and economic impact.
The purpose of this competition is to help businesses and third sector organisations overcome barriers to their innovations becoming a successful, commercial reality, particularly where they find themselves facing a sudden shortage or even unavailability of funds resulting directly from the COVID-19 pandemic.
Wales’ Circular Economy Fund scope widened in response to COVID-19
WRAP Cymru has implemented changes to the £6.5m Circular Economy Fund – a Welsh Government initiative – in order to support more organisations more quickly. Capital grants from £6,000 (previously £25,000) to £750,000 are now available to facilitate the use of recycled materials in Welsh manufacturing, plus preparation for re-use, refurbishment and re-manufacturing activities in Wales. Visit the WRAP Cymru website to for full details and to apply.
Zero Waste Scotland Circular Economy Investment Fund
The Circular Economy Investment Fund is a funding opportunity for small and medium sized businesses and organisations in Scotland working in all business and social economy sectors. Zero Waste Scotland are investing up to £18 in grant funding for businesses;
- Exploring markets for new circular economy products
- Development and adoption of innovative business models for new circular economy products and services
- Development and uptake of innovative technologies, products and services to support a circular economy
Read More (applications ongoing, 30 day turnaround, projects can run until June 2023)
You can also read about Zero Waste Scotland’s Action on Plastics initiative here.
Ecosurety Exploration Fund
Horizon 2020 Projects
There are a number of ongoing H2020 projects of relevance to plastics. This includes the following areas:
- Nanotechnologies, Advanced Materials, Advanced Manufacturing and Processing, and Biotechnology
- Health, Demographic Change and Wellbeing
- Food Security, Sustainable Agriculture and Forestry, Marine, Maritime and Inland Water Research and the Bioeconomy
- Climate Action, Environment, Resource Efficiency and Raw Materials