Notice

Establishing a UK vaccines development and manufacturing centre

Updated 9 November 2017

This notice was withdrawn on 17 January 2018

This competition is no longer open for applications. Search current funding opportunities.

1. Dates and deadlines

Competition opens	12 October 2017
Final date for registration	Midday 15 November 2017
Submission of the full application including finance forms, appendices and Je-S forms	Midday 22 November 2017
Panel interview	4 January 2018
Decision to applicants	12 January 2018

Please read the full competition scope before you make your application.

2. Funding

There is up to £66 million of capital funding available from Innovate UK towards the capital costs of establishing a national vaccines development and manufacturing centre.

Total project costs may be up to £200 million. Proposals should provide evidence of matched funding from alternative sources. Innovate UK funding will require matched funding from industry and other sources.

Projects should last up to 4 years and start by 1 February 2018.

A successful application must show that the project will be compliant with all relevant general state aid regulations.

3. Requirements and eligibility

3.1 Application:

• you may be eligible to receive different rates of funding. This depends on what type of organisation you belong to
• make sure you use the correct application form or your submission will not be considered eligible
• if your submission has incomplete or missing finance forms, it will not be considered eligible
• you must provide all submission documents in the file formats specified later in this guidance. If you provide any document in the incorrect format, no part of your application will be sent for assessment
• if you have been awarded previous grants as the lead or sole company and we feel you have not made a substantial effort to exploit these previous grants, we will not make any new awards. This information is detailed in your previous exploitation plan submitted to us. The decision will:
  • be decided by the Innovate UK sector team using evidence from Monitoring Officer reports and other sources, which will be documented
  • be made by at least 3 sector team members collectively
  • be communicated in writing to you by the innovation lead dealing with the new grant application
  • not be contestable and Innovate UK will not enter into subsequent correspondence

3.2 Project:

• all projects must be led by a UK-based business, a research and technology organisation or a not-for-profit company limited by guarantee
• all projects must have consortium partners drawn from industry and academia
• only UK-based companies and research organisations are eligible to receive funding from Innovate UK

Project lead:

• any one business can be involved in up to 3 applications to this competition but can only be the lead partner in one application
• any one research and technology organisation can be a partner in up to 2 applications to this competition but can only be the lead partner in one application
• if a research and technology organisation is not the lead on any application in this competition, they can be a partner in any number of applications

For further information on a research and technology organisation leading a project, please see the general guidance for applicants.

4. Competition process

For this competition, the process will follow these steps:

• submitted applications will be reviewed to make sure that they are both eligible and in scope for the competition
• only applications that meet the eligibility and scope requirements of the competition will be sent for assessment
• applications in scope will be assessed by up to 5 external assessors who are experts in the innovation area identified in your application
• assessors will score applications consistently and in line with scoring matrices. They will provide written feedback for each marked question
• applications will be ranked in descending order. Applications that score over a quality threshold will be invited to attend an interview
• the lead applicant will be notified of the funding decision

All eligible and in scope applications for the competition will receive assessor feedback.

5. How to apply

Register: You will receive an email acknowledging your registration, followed by a second email up to 48 hours later. The second email will contain a username and password for our secure upload facility, along with a unique application number and form.

Application: Once you have received your unique username and password, you can sign into the secure website. You are then able to access the finance form for this competition from the public download area.

Finance form: Only finance forms named Project Finance Form.xls will be accepted into this competition. Previous versions of the project finance form will be ineligible.

Submit your documents: You or your lead partner must submit:

• your application form with your unique application number for this competition (mandatory)
• project finance forms for every partner (including the lead organisation) in your project (mandatory)
• project appendices as pdf documents, labelled correctly as per the appendices guidance in section 10
• a Je-S form for any academic partners, showing a ‘with council’ status

Scope check: Only applications that meet the eligibility criteria and scope of the competition will be sent for assessment. You will be notified if your application is out of scope with a full explanation as to why. Innovate UK reserves the right to declare applications as out of scope.

Assessment: Once the scope and eligibility checks have been completed, all suitable applications are sent for assessment.

Feedback: We will give feedback to all applications that have been assessed. The lead applicant can access and download the feedback by signing into the secure FTP site where you uploaded your application documents. It is the responsibility of the lead to communicate the feedback with the rest of the consortium (if applicable).

Interviews: Successful applications at the written stage will be invited to attend an interview.

Presentations should be a maximum of 45 minutes in length. This will be followed by one hour of questions and answers. The interview panel may invite the applicant back into the room for an additional 15 minutes of questions and answers following a closed discussion.

Presentations should use Microsoft PowerPoint, 4:3 aspect ratio. Please do not include any video or embedded web links.

Ahead of the interview your presentation slide pack needs to be formally submitted to Innovate UK via the FTP site. This should be on the date stated in the notification email. No changes may be made to the presentation after this date.

A maximum of 9 attendees from your project may attend the interview panel. Please submit these names to Innovate UK prior to the panel. The consortium should select the most appropriate people to attend. We recommended that each consortium member organisation is represented. You will be expected to answer questions based around the application form and the feedback you will have received from the written assessment.

Please make sure that your selected representatives for the interview presentation are available on all published dates. We are unable to reschedule slots once allocated.

Notification: We will notify the lead organisation of the outcome of the application by the date stated in the timeline, using the email address provided in the application form.

6. The application form

This section explains the structure of the application form and offers guidance on what to answer in each question.

The structure is as follows:

• application details
• summary of proposed project
• public description of the project
• gateway question: scope

Section 1: Business proposition

• question 1: approach and innovation
• question 2: market awareness
• question 3: wider impacts
• question 4: support

Section 2: The project details

• question 5: project governance structure
• question 6: project management and timeline
• question 7: risks
• question 8: team skills, experience, and facilities

Section 3: Funding and added value

• question 9: financial commitment
• question 10: funding from the Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund
• other funding from public sector bodies
• finance summary table

Please make sure that you upload the final version of your application by the deadline. It is the lead organisation’s responsibility to ensure that you do not upload a blank or incomplete application form. You should also follow these steps:

• you can only use the application form provided. It contains specific information including a unique reference number for your project
• the application form contains specific fields. It is important that you complete each field and submit a fully completed form. Incomplete forms will be considered ineligible and won’t be sent for assessment
• the application form must not be altered, converted or saved as a different version of Microsoft Word
• the space provided in each field of the form is fixed. You must restrict your responses in each of the fields to the space provided. The typeface, font size and colour are predetermined and cannot be changed. Illustrations, graphics and hyperlinks cannot be included in the application form
• the light grey shaded fields are completed automatically from other information entered on the form, such as the total columns of a table. These cannot be overwritten
• you should be able to see your total answer to the question when looking at the application form in print view. Any text that cannot be seen in this view or when the form is printed will not be assessed
• your answer to the questions should be no longer than 12 A4 pages for section 1, 12 A4 pages for section 2 and 6 A4 pages for section 3 using the font Calibri 11

As part of our objective to stimulate and support UK innovation, we have established a close network of affinity partners. This list is made up of organisations that can help Innovate UK fund and support innovative businesses. Our joint aim is to speed up sustainable economic growth for the UK.

In some cases, we may share the public description of your project with other potential funding bodies, for example Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEP’s), agencies of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. These bodies may wish to contact you about providing funding or other support for your proposal.

Field	Guidance
Competition name	This field will show the full name of the Innovate UK competition to which the form applies. You do not need to enter anything here.
Document ID	This field is completed automatically.
Applicant number	This field is completed automatically and is the reference that you should use on all correspondence (this is the 6 digit number after the dash).
Application details
Project title	Enter the full title of the project.
Project timescales	Enter the estimated start date and its planned duration. These are indicative at this stage and are not guaranteed.
(Lead) organisation name	Enter the full registered name of the (lead) organisation for the project. If you are not in a consortium application, these will be your organisation details. Please note that the lead organisation will be the main point of contact between Innovate UK and the project team.
(Lead) organisation contact details	Enter the full name, postcode, email address and telephone number of the main point of contact between Innovate UK and the project.

6.1 Summary of proposed project (not scored)

Guidance

Please provide a short summary of the content and objectives of the project including what is innovative about it.

This summary is not scored, but provides an introduction to your proposal for the benefit of Innovate UK staff and assessors only. It will not be used for any public dissemination. It should cover, in brief:

• the business need, technological challenge or market opportunity to be targeted
• the approach to be taken and how this will improve on current state-of-the-art
• the difference the project will make to UK competitiveness and productivity

6.2 Public description of the project (not scored)

Guidance

To comply with government practice on openness and transparency of public-funded activities, Innovate UK has to publish information relating to funded projects. Please provide a short description of your proposal in a way that will be understandable to the general public. Do not include any commercially confidential information, for example, intellectual property or patent details.

Describe your project. Funding will not be provided to successful projects without this.

6.3 Gateway Question: Scope

Guidance

How does this application align with the specific competition scope?

• all applications must align with the specific competition scope criteria as described in the relevant competition brief
• to demonstrate alignment, you need to show that a clear majority of the project’s objectives and activities are aligned with the specific competition

7. Competition questions

All questions apply to all project partners and are scored out of 10 marks.

7.1 Section 1: Business proposition

Question 1. Approach and innovation

What is the vision for the facility and the future operating model?

• detail the vision for the facility you intend to deliver at the end of the project, presenting each of its major features/capabilities and benefits
• describe what the facility will offer that is unique to its target market and will put the UK in a strong competitive position for future investment. Link this to the main objectives of the competition brief. Why has this delivery option been selected? Who will the users of the centre be and what demand estimates do you anticipate?
• define the type of work that industries or companies would do before and after successful engagement with the centre
• describe the nature of the challenges or issues facing your organisation or your potential customers, collaborators or partners. How will the intended outputs of the project address these? Explain why existing facilities cannot meet these requirements
• describe how the centre will be established and where the facility will be located along with justification and details of other options considered
• describe where you will recruit any new staff from (for example, from the unemployed, universities, other businesses), how highly skilled you expect the roles to be, and what level of demand you expect there to be in the market place for these staff
• describe how this facility will link to, collaborate and work alongside the current innovative manufacturing ecosystem in the UK
• define what the expected operational and maintenance costs will be, who will be responsible for these, and how these costs will be financially sustainable
• explain how the facility will address the challenge of being a national open-to-all facility capable of follow the good manufacturing practice standard, and how it can support innovation in the development and manufacture of novel vaccines. Detail how these capabilities will develop over time
• demonstrate that the project will encourage usage by multiple organisations. Explain how you intend to address confidentiality issues between users
• set out the return on investment that the project could reasonably achieve in low, expected and high cases
• detail the total projected spend profile of the project and the spend profile of the capital investment you are applying for in this competition

In a separate appendix named ‘AppendixQ1-(application number)’ you can submit in pdf format up to 2 pages to provide a summary of your business plan to outline the expected life and sustainability in your answer.

Question 2. Market awareness

What does the target market look like? How do you propose to support and work with collaborators and customers?

• describe the market and the customers and collaborators that the facility and operating model will target. Address its potential to add value for the UK
• detail the market analysis that shows the size of the attainable market and competitors, both current and expected in the medium term
• describe how your proposal proves that the UK needs this facility, and explain your strategy to capture market share. Provide evidence where possible
• focus on how the facility will:
  • ensure that it is impartial to industrial and academic partners
  • ensure that it can successfully work with competing companies
  • allow, through its design, concurrent collaborative as well as independent activities
• why is this facility internationally attractive and what attracts competing companies to work together in the same facility?
• provide details of the expected project work that will be undertaken in the facility, and the associated funding streams

Note: Risks associated with accessing investment should be captured in the risk analysis (Question 7) and risk table in your Q7 appendix. If you have any evidence of your intention for manufacturing in the UK, for example, letters of intent, please include these in your Q7 appendix.

Question 3. Wider impacts

• describe the impact the facility will have on the UK and international vaccines industry. What economic and social impact will the facility have?
• describe the economic and social impact you expect the proposed facility to have on the UK, the international vaccines manufacturing community and other industry sectors. Consider a high, medium and low sales scenario approach
• describe how the proposed facility will add value and increase the UK’s reputation for being a focal point for vaccines development and manufacturing
• detail how the project process will deliver economic and social impact
• explain how project inputs, such as funding, will generate activities like testing, which will lead to outputs such as research findings, outcomes such as exploitation of technology and finally impacts like exports. If helpful, you can provide a ‘logic model’ in the appendix to demonstrate this process
• detail, using a timeline, the number of jobs that will be created directly at the facility and in any direct or indirect supporting roles. How many jobs will be created or retained to work on the project? Also include the expected longer-term employment impact. What skills will be transferable (internally and externally)?
• how will the facility provide teaching and skills development to increase the UK skill base for the vaccines manufacturing industry?
• how will research be disseminated beyond direct users of the facility? Provide any plans for public engagement, such as having an interactive exhibition, as well as the facility to host events and visits.
• show how any suppliers of equipment or services required to create the facility will be engaged to support UK knowledge capture and exploitation.
• how will the facility integrate with and develop the UK supply chain?

If your project involves research organisations that are funded for undertaking non-economic activity, we will need evidence of your plans to publish and share their project outputs over a reasonable timescale. This requirement is intended to secure wider benefit from the higher level of public support given to research organisations.

Question 4. Support

How will the facility support UK vaccines development and manufacturing? How will this be established beyond what is delivered as part your project?

• show how the facility will be further developed or improved beyond the timeframe or outside of the scope of this project. Detail any follow-on projects or future improvement opportunities you envisage
• confirm how the facility will ensure it stays at the forefront of relevant manufacturing research and technology
• explain how recycling will be integrated into the manufacturing development activities
• describe how the facility will be adaptable to changes in the target markets

7.2 Section 2: The project details

Question 5. Project governance structure

What project governance structure will you use to ensure the project is delivered successfully in terms of scope, time, cost and quality?

• detail the facility governance structure you will use. This could include:
  • overarching centre governance (including structure of the team)
  • management reporting lines
  • milestones and gateways
  • deliverables with timings
  • leading KPIs
  • communication management
• set out how you will monitor project progress, including over the set-up phase. What metrics do you intend to monitor (such as spend, usage rate) and how will you report this information? Who will be responsible for collecting and collating this data?
• detail how the governance team will be kept informed of progress and highlight concerns or issues early to all affected stakeholders. Identify who these stakeholders are.
• describe the main commitments and responsibilities of each partner. This could be captured, for example, in the form of a RASIC (responsible, approves, supports, is informed, is consulted) matrix
• how will the finances be managed and contingency supported?

Question 6. Project management and timeline

How will the project be managed and what is the timeline?

• identify who will lead the project on a day to day basis and how the project team will be structured
• detail a clear project plan, deliverables, milestones and gateways, and identify the main work packages
• describe how the project will achieve effective project team integration between partners, as well as the supply chain and any other main factors
• identify any internal and external support that is required. Indicate what is agreed at the time of writing, and what is still to be agreed
• explain how you will manage and govern the facility’s transition to an effective operational unit, and what the plans are for the centre beyond the financial year of 2020/2021
• explain your development plans to deliver a self-sustaining centre beyond the timeline of this competition’s capital funding

Question 7. Risks

What are the risks to project success? What is the project’s risk management strategy?

• identify the main risks and uncertainties of the project, and provide a detailed risk analysis for the project content and approach. You should include the technical, commercial, managerial, economic and environmental risks, as well as other uncertainties associated with the project (including ethical issues, risks to job creation or safeguarding jobs). The main risks should be rated in a format that is integral to the projects risk management strategy (high, medium or low)
• explain how these risks would be mitigated, and provide evidence
• distinguish between the probability of mitigation strategies not being effective, and the impact this would have on the realisation of future activities, sales and production
• identify which project management tools and mechanisms will be used to ensure that sufficient control will be in place to minimise operational risk and promote successful project delivery. This should include arrangements for managing the project team and its partners
• specifically address any legal agreements or consents that need to be put in place to enable the works to be undertaken
• cover in detail how the consortium will ensure open access by all. How have they guaranteed wider participation and the freedom of users to retain all IP related to the developments?

In a separate appendix named ‘AppendixQ7-(application number)’, provide a risk table in your chosen format. This should be no more than 2 pages and supplied in pdf format.

Question 8. Team skills, experience and facilities

Does the project team have the right skills, experience and access to facilities to deliver the identified benefits?

• detail the track record of the organisations undertaking the project in delivering successful research and development and exploiting the results. In evaluating this, the assessors will consider whether:
  • the project team has available the right mix of skills and experience to deliver the project successfully
  • the project team’s formation objectives are clear, and whether it would have been formed without Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund investment
  • there is additional benefit demonstrated as a result of the collaboration, for example, increased knowledge transfer
  • the organisations working together will achieve more than if they were working individually
• detail how the core team will be trained
• ensure there is appropriate capability to focus on the manufacturing development, not purely research and development.
• how will you ensure the most effective manufacturing and operational practices are used?

7.3 Section 3: Funding and added value

Question 9. Financial commitment

What is the financial commitment required for the project?

• what initial project cost do you anticipate?
• if there are any project participants, what will they contribute, and how much grant funding is required? Provide this information in the financial summary table in the application form
• explain why the specific level of grant funding requested is needed. Why not more or less?
• explain how the facility will continue to be funded throughout its life
• provide supporting information and an explanation for project costs, describing:
  • your cost plan, with details of how costs have been assessed, including any professional costs advice and benchmarking
  • how the works and equipment will be procured to ensure best value for money
• tell us how you will ensure most of the funding will be spent in the UK by describing the proposed tendering strategy. In evaluating this the assessors will consider whether:
  • the budget is realistic for the scale and complexity of the project
  • a financial commitment from other sources is demonstrated for the balance of the project costs
  • a realistic budget breakdown has been provided
  • any work package breakdowns have been described and justified adequately

As described in the scope, all applications that reach the interview stage will be asked to provide independent assurance in relation to their compliance with state aid rules. You should demonstrate here that you have investigated it fully. Illustrate how you plan to remain compliant through the lifetime of the assets.

Question 10. Funding from the Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund

How does funding from the Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund add value?

• explain why this project could not take place without government financial support
• show, using evidence, why Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund investment is either required for the project to be able to proceed, or would allow you to undertake the project differently (sooner, more quickly, on a larger scale and so on). Examples of evidence might include a cost analysis of alternative options or information showing an inability to raise funds through private sources
• explain what contribution you are requesting from government for each work package. Justify why this specific amount of funding is needed
• detail how the funding required enables the project to proceed quickly and at scale
• give a clear description of the co-funding from industry and any direct follow-on funding from industry
• demonstrate the return on investment for the partners involved in the project, as well as the UK tax payer
• detail the financial benefits inside and outside of the consortium should the project go ahead. How is this going to make a difference to the UK economy? How will it ensure the delivery of further vaccines manufacturing investments into the UK?

Applicants may be asked for additional financial information relating to their bid or organisation, which could about the project or specific to consortium members. The requirement for additional financial information will vary across applications. It will depend upon the nature of the application, and the specific argument for support around which the applicant has structured the application.

In a separate appendix named ‘AppendixQ10-(application number)’ you can submit up to 2 pages of supporting evidence in pdf format.

7.4 Other funding from public sector bodies

If you have included one or more entries in column 7 of the finance summary table (on the following page), please provide:

• the names of the bodies
• the name of the programme or scheme from which the funds are provided
• the fund amounts

8. Finance summary

This table lists the total eligible project costs by organisation. Please note that only certain project costs are eligible for grant funding under UK State Aid rules. See our project costs guidance for information on eligible project costs and how to complete the project finance form.

Column 1 Organisation name	Provide the full names of the lead organisation followed by any other organisations in the project consortium (organisation names as noted in Companies House).
Column 2 Organisation registration number	Organisations should provide the Company Registration Number (as noted in Companies House). Universities/HEIs should enter their RC number/charitable status/legal entity registration number.
Column 3 Enterprise category	Select your enterprise category. SME definition is based on the EU definition Medium sized: Headcount less than 250: Turnover less than 50 million euros or balance sheet total less than 43 million euros Small: Headcount less than 50: Turnover less than 10 million euros or balance sheet total less than 10 million euros Micro: Headcount less than 10: Turnover less than 2 million euros or balance sheet total less than 2 million euros
Column 4 Postcode where the majority of work will be done	Provide the postcode where the majority of work will take place for each organisation participating in the project.
Column 5 Contribution to the project by each organisation (£)	List the total contribution to be made to the project by each organisation. Where a university is claiming grant funding, the contribution should be £0.
Column 6 Funding sought from Innovate UK	Enter the funding sought from Innovate UK for each contributing organisation for this competition.
Column 7 Other funding from public sector bodies	Include any funding applied for separately for the project from any other public sector bodies and not as part of this competition. Funding from other public sector bodies might include other applications to research councils, other government departments, devolved administrations, other public sector organisations and some charities. The purpose of this column is to provide Innovate UK with information on the total public funding for the project.
Column 8 Total (£)	The total cost of the project for each contributor. This is the sum of columns 5, 6 and 7 and will be entered automatically.
Bottom row Total (£)	The total of each column will be entered automatically.

Please ensure that you click out of each cell after entering your figures.

9. Finance form

Each non-academic organisation in your project must provide a project finance form using the template project finance form, which is available on the FTP site. This must be submitted in Microsoft Excel format with the application form by the lead applicant. Each finance form provides a detailed breakdown on each organisation’s total eligible project costs. Please ensure that all total figures listed in your finance summary table match those stated in the ‘Form status’ tab within the project finance form.

10. Project appendices

You can only include appendices in support of questions 1, 3, 5, 7 and 10 as described in the guidance for those questions. Submission of any additional appendices/documentation not described in this document will result in your application being judged as ineligible and not sent for assessment. Applications submitted with incorrect appendices, with regard to content or naming convention, will be ineligible and not sent for assessment.

In order that assessors can open and read the appendices, each appendix must:

• conform to the maximum length specifications stated for each question
• be submitted in pdf
• be legible at 100% zoom
• display prominently the ‘application number’ as in the filename of the application form, for example ‘AppendixQ2-(application number eg.123456)’

Please do not submit appendices longer than the specified lengths. Assessors are instructed to only read appendices to the lengths specified in the guidance.