Notice

Competition Guidance: UK-India industrial waste challenge 2017

Updated 10 July 2017

This notice was withdrawn on 28 September 2018

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

1. Dates and deadlines

Competition opens	5 June 2017
Competition briefing event	3 July 2017 at 10:00am
Final date for UK registration	midday 11 October 2017
Submission of the full application including finance forms, appendices and Je-S forms	midday 18 October 2017
Decision to applicants	2 March 2018
Project start date	1 August 2018

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

2. Funding

There is up to £8 million of funding available from Innovate UK and the Research Councils, the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) and the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), for UK applicants. This is for research and development (R&D) projects that tackle the challenges described in the brief for this competition.

We expect projects to last between 30 months and 3 years.

2.1 Financial support - UK

This funding comes from the Newton Fund. Applicants must be able to demonstrate that there is a clear economic and societal benefit to India from their proposed project. This is in line with the Newton Fund forming part of the UK Government’s Official Development Assistance (ODA) budget.

Expected costs, grant and eligible costs

We expect total eligible project costs from all UK partners, combined, of approximately £2.35 million to £2.75 million per project. This means a grant to UK partners of no more than £2 million (with the grant limit capped at £2 million per project).

Capital usage/equipment: expenditure on equipment is eligible under this competition. All materials must be directly related and essential to the goals of the project. Equipment funded by and used on the project, which has a value greater than £1 at the project end, must be donated to India in compliance with ODA rules.

Innovate UK will support the project costs for successful UK industrial partners. Please read full details of what project costs are eligible for funding from Innovate UK.

The Research Councils will support the project costs for successful UK academic partners. Please check Section 5 of the BBSRC grants guide for eligible HEI/research council institute project costs.

Proportion of total eligible cost and grant per type of applicant

You may be eligible to receive different rates of funding. This depends on the type and size of your organisation and the activity that you are doing in the project. This should be in line with the Innovate UK funding rules.

Within a single project:

• the proportion of total eligible project costs borne by business applicants must be 50% or higher
• up to 50% of total eligible project costs is available to research participants. Research participants include research organisations, public sector organisations and charities (undertaking non-economic activity). If there is more than one research participant, this maximum will be shared between them

2.2 Financial support - India

Details of organisations eligible for grants-in-aid

• Indian-registered companies with Department of Scientific and Industrial Research (DSIR) recognition
• Government of India supported or recognised academic institution or research organisation / urban or other local bodies
• not-for-profit DSIR Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (SIRO) recognised R&D trusts/foundations/NGOs with DSIR recognition

Expected costs/grant and proportion of grant per type of applicant

There is no limit to the budget of an individual project, however:

• Indian industry: DBT will support industry to the extent of INR 1.50 crores per project with matched funding from the industry (please see below). There is no limit to the number of industry partners
• Indian academic institutions or research organisations/urban or other local bodies: DBT will support 100% of the budgeted costs. There is no limit on the costs of academic partners or research organisations in a project
• not-for-profit DSIR Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (SIRO) recognised R&D trusts/foundations/NGOs with DSIR recognition: DBT will support 100% of the budgeted costs. There is no limit on the costs of these partners in a project

Funding to Indian academic partners or research organisations

Eligible costs for funding from an Indian academic partner or research organisation are:

• capital expenditure (equipments)
• recurring costs (manpower, chemicals and consumables)
• travel (local travel, international travel, local hospitality, organisation of meetings)
• contingency
• overheads
• outsourcing
• sub-contracting to industry/company/SME

Funding to Indian industry

Funding will be provided as Grant-in-Aid to Indian industry. DBT’s contribution to the industry will follow the steps below:

• DBT’s support to Indian industry will be limited to 50% of the total cost of Industry and 50% of the contribution will mandatorily come from the industry
• DBT contribution to industry as grant-in-aid shall be limited to INR 1.50 crores per project

In the case of startups or companies which cannot contribute 50% of the project cost, they can be funded up to INR 25.0 lakhs as Grant-in-Aid for proof of concept. 80% can be Grant-in-Aid with the balance being company contribution.

The cost breakup for the DBT component of the proposal will be:

• capital costs to be limited to 30% of the DBT cost
• manpower costs to be limited to 30% of the DBT cost
• balance will cover consumables and travel costs
• overhead costs will not be permissible

Indian business can be subcontracted by the consortium partners. Those subcontractors do not need to comply with DSIR regulation.

All releases will be milestone based. First release shall be made on signing of the agreement and will be 30% of DBT contribution. All further releases will be subject to satisfactory monitoring report by the technical and financial expert teams.

The fund release will be made by DBT to industry after signing of Memorandum of Association.

2.3 Official Development Assistance

All submitted applications will be checked for ODA compliance by the Innovate UK Newton Fund team. Please read about ODA compliance for Newton Fund projects.

If a project is deemed by Innovate UK and BBSRC to be non-compliant with ODA, Innovate UK and BBSRC reserve the right not to assess the application.

3. Requirements and eligibility

3.1 Overall

If your research and development project is collaborative and focuses on industrial research, you may apply into this competition provided that your project consortium as a whole meets all eligibility criteria.

Projects must focus on industrial research. This means planned research or critical investigation to gain new knowledge and skills. This should be for the purpose of product development, processes or services that lead to an improvement in existing/new products, processes or services. Work packages that include elements of experimental development (as per Innovate UK funding rules) will be considered within projects that largely target industrial research.

Projects

Each application must include as a minimum:

• one UK business (eligible for Innovate UK funding)
• one UK higher education institution or Research Council Institute (eligible for BBSRC/EPSRC funding)
• one Indian academic institution or research organisation (eligible for DBT funding)

The project consortium must be led by:

• either a business or a research organisation (including but not limited to a higher education institution or research council institute) in the UK
• an academic institution or research organisation in India

Preference will be given to project consortiums that also include an Indian business partner or an Indian urban or other local government bodies (depending on the area of scope). This person would be the end user of the proposed solution. This is not mandatory.

Indian industry will only be eligible for Grant-in Aid where they are a sub-contractor to an Indian academic institution or research organisation. The academic institution or research organisation should include the industry costs within their budget, to the limits mentioned above.

In each project consortium:

• on the Indian side, there is no limit to the number of academic partners, research organisations or industry partners you can include, who meet DBT’s eligibility criteria
• on the UK side, there is no limit to the number of project partners you can include, who meet Innovate UK and BBSRC/EPSRC eligiblity

We expect projects to last between 30 months and 3 years.

3.2 Applicants from the UK

Only UK-registered businesses, research organisations, public sector organisations and charities are eligible to apply.

3.3 Applicants from India

Eligible Indian applicants are:

• Indian-registered companies with DSIR recognition
• Government of India-supported/Government of India-recognised academic institutions or research organisation
• not-for-profit DSIR/SIRO recognised R&D trusts/foundations/NGOs with DSIR recognition

Please note the following:

Industry partners:

• should be an Indian Company registered under the Companies Act 2013 and in which 51% (or more) of the ownership is held by Indian citizens
• companies must have in-house R&D unit recognised by DSIR, or should have applied for the same, at the time of application submission. First release of grant will be made only after obtaining DSIR recognition
• industry partners subcontracted by research organisations or academic partners do not need to comply with DSIR recognition

Academic/research partners:

• public and/or private universities and research organisations having a well-established research support system, for basic or applied research
• registration/recognition/accreditation/certification from a Government of India body will be mandatory

Ineligible organisations:

• companies headquartered and owned outside India and their subsidiaries in India, or vice versa, are not eligible to receive funding from DBT under this programme
• research centres and academic organisations headquartered and owned outside India and their subsidiaries in India, or vice versa, are not eligible to receive funding from DBT under this programme

3.4 Other project requirements

Collaboration:

• projects must be truly collaborative, containing partners from both the UK and India and must demonstrate equivalent effort from UK and Indian partners
• projects must clearly detail the role and objectives to be carried out by each of the partners
• applications must demonstrate that all partners contributing to the project have agreed on IP rights and the commercialisation plan, as part of the final grant agreement process. An up-to-date working draft of your Collaboration Agreement must be provided as Appendix E as part of your application. Your successful consortium must put in place a final Collaboration Agreement. This should be signed by all project partners, as part of the conditions of taking up the grant offer
• applications must demonstrate the joint India-UK project consortium’s expertise and capacity to manage the proposed project in their respective countries

Commercialisation:

• this competition is not about funding basic research, but rather about translating existing research into innovative market-based solutions
• projects must be innovative and market-driven, leading to the proposed development of a new product, service or process, leading ultimately to commercialisation
• projects must demonstrate clear commercial goals and associated commercialisation strategies

Start and end dates:

Projects must have identical start and end dates for both UK and Indian applicants. The funders reserve the right to withdraw the grant if these dates are not kept to.

4. Finding partners

Innovate UK and the Knowledge Transfer Network (KTN) are holding an optional briefing and partnering workshop on 12 July 2017.

In the UK: If you want help to find a project partner, contact the Knowledge Transfer Network or the Enterprise Europe Network.

Queries from Indian organisations can be sent to the Department of Biotechnology’s Dr Shailja Gupta shailja.dbt@nic.in and Dr Sanjay Kalia sanjay.kalia@nic.in.

5. Competition process

5.1 Assessment

All submitted applications are checked for completeness and reviewed against the competition eligibility criteria, scope and ODA criteria.

Only those applications which have met all these criteria will be sent for assessment. You will be notified if your application is not going for assessment with a full explanation as to why. All funding partners reserve the right to declare applications as out of scope and/or not ODA compliant.

Following assessment in India and the UK, as detailed in sections 5.2 and 5.3, the funding partners will use a portfolio approach to select applications for funding. This is to make sure that the strategic criteria described in the competition brief is met for all projects to be funded under this competition.

Independent assessors in both countries will review the application form and appendices along with associated supporting documentation (where appropriate).

Applications that are assessed will be ranked in descending order. Applications are reviewed against the competition strategy, to build a portfolio of projects that:

• demonstrate sufficient innovation, potential return on investment and degree of technical risk
• demonstrate value for money, include the potential impact of the project relative to its cost, and the cost of other projects under consideration
• demonstrate true collaboration amongst UK and Indian project partners

Innovate UK will not share UK applicants’ personal data with the Government of India’s Department of Biotechnology.

5.2 Assessment process in the UK

Each application is assessed by up to 5 independent expert assessors against the same set of gateway and criteria questions. Each assessor completes and submits a score-sheet with comments for each application they assess. A report is then compiled to identify ranked order of all applications.

All applications will be evaluated according to the standard assessment process, full details of which are available in the general guidance for applicants.

Innovate UK will not share UK applicant’s personal data with the Government of India’s Department of Biotechnology.

5.3 Assessment process in India

All applications will be evaluated through the Department of Biotechnology’s standard peer review/committee based evaluation procedure. Each application is assessed by independent expert assessors against the same set of gateway and criteria questions.

Each assessor completes and submits a score-sheet with comments for each application they assess. A report is then compiled to identify ranked order of all applications. Scored assessment criterion will be the same as used for UK applicants. However, further detail may be requested for clarification.

5.4 Joint review and decision-making process

Following the independent evaluations in India and the UK, a joint review committee will be held. The committee will consist of representatives from the Indian and UK funding agencies. They will identify the final list of successful applicants.

All funding organisations reserve the right to apply a portfolio approach across projects in different challenge areas. This is subject to applications reaching the required quality threshold. The final decisions on joint approvals in the call will be made at that time.

The decision to offer financial support and the conditions under which the support will be given is a prerogative of each country’s funding agencies. These agencies will independently analyse requests for funding in line with the operating policies of each institution.

Innovate UK and DBT will communicate the final decision in writing (by email or letter) to all the UKPL and IPL applicants respectively.

6. How to apply

Before you apply into this competition, it is important to understand the whole application process. The information contained in this guidance is specific to this competition. In addition, please read Innovate UK’s general guidance for applicants to help you submit a good application. It gives generalised information on:

• funding rules
• project costs
• state aid
• how to submit your application
• categories of research and development
• participation in a project

6.1 Applicants from the UK

Register: There is a registration button at the top of every page. Once you have registered, you will receive an email acknowledgement of 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 (FTP site) along with a unique application number and form.

If you wish to apply for funding for more than one project, register once and then request additional application forms by emailing Innovate UK’s customer support service support@innovateuk.gov.uk. You will then be able to make separate submissions by completing a unique application form for each separate project, ensuring the appropriate application form is uploaded to the site under the correct application number.

Repeat or duplicate applications for the same project will be ineligible and not assessed.

Once you have received your unique username and password, you can sign into the secure website to access the finance forms for this competition. Only UK finance forms named ’UK Project Finance Form.xls’ will be accepted into this competition. Previous versions of the project finance form will be ineligible.

All appendices must conform to the guidance for this specific competition. Appendices which do not follow this guidance will result in ineligible applications that will not be sent for assessment.

Submit your documents: Each project consortium should nominate a UK project lead to act as the lead applicant and register for the competition. Your UK Project Lead should upload the following to the secure FTP site:

• your application form with your unique application number for this competition
• appendices A to D as pdf documents, labelled with your application number
• UK project finance forms for every non-academic UK partner in your project
• Je-S submission pdf output document for every UK academic partner in your project, if any

The UK and Indian Project Leads for each application should ensure that they provide the application form and all additional documentation required by both countries. If an application does not include all documentation, it will be deemed ineligible and will not be sent for assessment.

Scope check: Only applications that meet the eligibility criteria, scope of the competition and ODA criteria will be sent for assessment. If an application is only received in one country, your application will not be sent for assessment. You will be notified if your application is not going for assessment with a full explanation as to why. All funding partners reserve the right to declare applications as out of scope and/or not ODA compliant.

Assessment: Once the competition submission deadline is reached, your application will be sent for assessment in the UK and India.

Notification: Both India and UK Project Leads will be notified of the outcome of your application on the date stated in the timeline.

Feedback: Innovate UK will give feedback to successful and unsuccessful UK applicants approximately 4 weeks after you have been notified of the decision. The UK Project Lead can access 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 to the rest of the project consortium. No additional feedback can be provided by Innovate UK and there will be no further discussion on the application.

The Indian Project Lead will submit the joint application directly to the Department of Biotechnology, Government of India. This will involve the disclosure of any personal data and commercially confidential information on the UK and Indian project partners that is contained in the application form. It is the responsibility of the UK project partners to satisfy themselves of the security of that personal data and confidential information. Innovate UK is not responsible for the disclosure of that information by any other organisation.

6.2 Applicants from India

There is no separate application form for Indian project partners. However, the Indian Project Lead must submit a copy of the completed, collaborative application form to DBT by the competition deadline, as follows:

An electronic copy must be sent to both: Dr Shailja Gupta at shailja.dbt@nic.in, and Dr Sanjay Kalia at sanjay.kalia@nic.in.

A hard copy must be sent to: Dr. Sanjay Kalia Scientist-D Room No. 814, 8th Floor, block-2 CGO Complex, Lodhi Road New Delhi-110003 India.

The form should be submitted by the Indian project lead only. It should not be submitted by the UK project lead or any UK project partner.

6.3 Ineligible/rejected applications

Applications that will be deemed ineligible and not put forward for assessment will include:

• applications that do not meet the stated competition eligibility criteria as set out in this document and on the competition webpage, including scope and ODA compliance
• applications that are not in the prescribed template. Hand-written applications will not be accepted
• applications submitted via email will not be accepted, they must be submitted as per Innovate UK’s standard process only
• applications that are not also submitted in electronic and hard copy to the Department of Biotechnology in India
• applications that are submitted after the deadline for submissions, as stated in this document
• applications submitted to the incorrect organisation or using the incorrect application form for the competition

7. 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: The business proposition (4 questions)
• section 2: Project details (4 questions)
• section 3: Funding and added value (2 questions)
• 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 your responsibility to ensure that you do not upload a blank or incomplete application form. Please note:

• 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 rejected
• 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 and graphics cannot be included in the application form. Please check your completed application form in print layout: any text that can’t be seen in this view or when the form is printed will not be assessed
• 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

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 5 or 6 digit number after the dash).
Application details
Project title	Enter the full title of the project.
Theme	Please select from the drop down list.
Research category	Please select from the drop down list.
Project timescales	Enter the estimated start date and its planned duration. These are indicative at this stage and are not guaranteed.
UK Project Lead (UKPL) 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 consortium.
UKPL 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 consortium.
Indian Project Lead (IPL) 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 DBT (the Indian funding agency) and the project consortium.
IPL organisation contact details	Enter the full name, postcode, email address and telephone number of the main point of contact between DBT and the project consortium.
Have any of the project partners previously received Newton funding?	Please select Yes/No. If yes is selected, please confirm which project partner has previously received Newton funding or is in the process of receiving Newton funding, from which Delivery Partner and under which Newton Fund activity.

7.1 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 application for the benefit of Innovate UK staff and assessors only. It will not be used for any public dissemination. It should cover, in brief:

• need or challenge. The business need, technological challenge or market opportunity to be addressed
• approach and innovation. The approach to be taken and how this will improve on current state-of-the-art
• outcomes. The difference the project will make to the competitiveness and productivity of the partners involved

7.2 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.

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

7.3 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

8. Competition questions

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

8.1 Section 1: The business proposition

Question 1: What is the business opportunity that this project addresses?

Describe how your proposal will exploit existing research in order to create new products, services or processes relevant to the challenge area/s (i.e. technical scope) of this call.

Outline the business opportunity and what the project consortium needs to do to successfully address it within the preferred timeframe and cost.

Describe the nature of the problems or issues facing you and/or your potential customers. How will the intended outputs of the project respond to these problems and issues?

In a separate appendix named ‘AppendixA-(application number)’ you can submit in pdf format up to 5 A4 pages to include graphics describing the nature of the problem, market dynamics and/or exploitation plans.

Question 2: What is the size of the market opportunity that this project might open up?

Describe the size of the market opportunities that this project might open up, including details of:

• current nature of the specific markets at which the project is targeted (is it characterised by price competition amongst commoditised suppliers? Is it dominated by a single leading firm?)
• the dynamics of the market including measuring its current size, actual and predicted growth rates
• the projected market share for the project outcome, with justification in the light of any potential competitors
• the potential to create value-added for the UK and/or India

Describe and clearly measure the return on investment that the project could achieve. Provide relevant source data references.

Where possible provide evidence for your statements about the target market for project outcomes. Outline your strategy for developing market share.

For highly innovative projects (see question 6) where the market may be unexplored, explain:

• what the route to market could or might be
• what its size might be
• how the project will explore the market potential

Question 3: How will the results of the project be exploited and disseminated?

List or describe the potential exploitable outputs of the project such as:

• products or services
• processes
• applications

Then describe how these outputs will be exploited including, where applicable:

• the route to market
• protection of intellectual property rights
• reconfiguration of the value system
• changes to business models and business processes
• other methods of exploitation and protection

Where helpful to the exchange of best practice, and not damaging to commercial interests, the results from this work should be made public on a voluntary basis. A plan for the distribution of generic outputs from the funded project should be included.

Research organisations who are involved in a project and funded for undertaking non-economic activity should provide evidence of plans to distribute their project outputs over a reasonable timescale. The requirement for dissemination of research results is to secure wider benefit from the higher level of public support given to research organisations. For further information, please see the Innovate UK funding rules.

Question 4: Why is the project eligible for Official Development Assistance funding? What benefits are the project expected to deliver to those inside and outside of the consortium, and over what timescale?

To be eligible for a Newton Fund grant, applicants must clearly explain and give evidence for why and how their project fits within eligibility for Official Development Assistance.

A project should demonstrate high industrial relevance and commercial potential. It should also demonstrate that it will have a positive impact upon the economic development and social welfare of India, beyond primary commercial interests. Proposals that do not demonstrate how they aim to further sustainable development (and thereby contribute to a reduction in poverty), or improve the welfare of India’s population, will be considered ineligible.

Benefits to those outside the consortium and to consortium participants should be considered and you should make a clear distinction between. All applications must clearly demonstrate that wider socio-economic benefits will accrue outside of the consortium in the Newton partner country in a short- to-medium timeframe. You should clearly elaborate what those benefits are and to whom.

Read further information on Official Development Assistance and compliance.

8.2 Section 2: Project details

Question 5: What technical approach will be adopted and how will the project be managed?

Provide an overview of the technical approach including the main objectives of the work. Describe the main areas of work together with their resource and management requirements.

In evaluating this the assessors will consider these questions:

• is the technical approach and methodology appropriate to the needs of the project? Are the innovative steps achievable through the proposed approach?
• is the project plan sufficient in comparison to the complexity of the project? For example, is there enough detail to understand the tasks involved and the resources required?
• is the timing of key milestones realistic?
• is there demonstration of sufficient resource commitment and capability to undertake the project?
• are clear management reporting lines identified?

Describe rival technologies and alternative R&D strategies and describe why your proposed approach will offer a better outcome.

You must provide a milestone-based project plan for the project. Please submit it using Appendix B, not in the space provided to answer this question. For detailed guidance on what to include in the plan, please see Section 3.3.

In a separate appendix named ’AppendixB-(application number)’ you must submit in pdf format up to 5 pages to include, for example, a Gantt chart, risk analysis table, project management structure and/or details of evidence for innovation.

Academic and business applications may submit an additional 2 A4 sides for additional assessment information particularly for academics, such as the Pathways to Impact and Research Excellence.

Question 6: What is innovative about this project?

Identify the extent to which the project is innovative both commercially and technically.

In evaluating this section assessors will consider these questions:

• does it push boundaries over and beyond current leading-edge world science and technology?
• is it looking to apply existing technologies in new areas?

Highlight and explain the timeliness and novelty of the research aspects of the project in an industrial and/or academic context.

Describe any evidence you have to back up your belief that the intended work is innovative. This could include the results of patent searches, competitor analyses and literature surveys. If applicable, you should also outline your own background intellectual property rights, as related to the project.

You may additionally consider:

• what is current best practice?
• what are the current limitations to innovation and how will the project overcome them? This is an opportunity to elaborate on the shortcomings that exist in the proposed area of innovation and how your project can overcome these shortcomings. Current limitations could include: high cost, sub-optimal performance, lack of attention to specific market opportunities (poor suitability to high-or-low-end markets), size, compatibility, nonconformance to standards
• diagrams and tables could be included in Appendix B to help describe the innovation. What is the patent situation, including background patents and the potential for new patents? Are there any obligations to other agencies which have supported any part of the innovation development?
• which standards relate to the developed product? Will the proposed product meet current and/or emerging standards?

Question 7: What are the risks (technical, commercial and environmental) to project success? What is the project’s risk management strategy?

The funding partners recognise that projects of this type are inherently risky, but we look for assurance that the projects we fund have adequate arrangements for managing this risk. Focus, therefore, on the arrangements for managing and mitigating risk as follows:

• identify the main risks and uncertainties of the project and provide a detailed risk analysis for the project content and approach. Include the technical, commercial, managerial and environmental risks as well as other uncertainties (for example ethical issues) associated with the project. The main risks should then be rated as high/medium/low (H/M/L)
• state how the project would avoid these main risks. You should tackle all significant and relevant risks and their mitigation
• identify vital project management tools and mechanisms that will be used to help minimise operational risk and promote a successful project outcome. This should include arrangements for managing the project consortium and its partners

Question 8: Do the project consortium have the right skills, experience and access to facilities to deliver the identified benefits?

Describe the track record of the project consortium members (comprising both UK and India partners) in undertaking and exploiting the results of research and development projects. This should highlight your capability to develop and exploit the technology. Assessors will look for evidence that this is a true consortium and collaboration, with work balanced across partners.

In evaluating this, the assessors will consider whether:

• the project consortium has the right available mix of skills and experience to deliver the project successfully and each member has a clear role
• the project consortium’s formation objectives are clear and if it would have been formed without investment from this competition

Is there evidence of additional benefit from the collaboration? For example, increased knowledge transfer. If the consortium is greater than the sum of its parts; how will the organisations achieve more working together than if they were working individually?

In a separate appendix named ’AppendixC-(application number)’ you must provide details of the specific expertise and track record of each project partner and each subcontractor. You should use half an A4 page for each partner and contractor.

Academic collaborators may wish to refer to their research standing.

8.3 Section 3: Funding and added value

(10 points per question = 20 points in total)

Question 9: What is the financial commitment required for the project?

Detail the estimated project cost making clear the level of contribution from any project participants and the level of funding required from the funding partners. This information should be provided in the financial summary tables in the application form.

If a project partner is not proposing to claim a grant, then it must still show its costs in the finance summary table and describe them in the answer to this question. This is so that the assessors can evaluate the whole project. The detailed finance forms will not be required for UK partners not requesting grant.

Supporting information and explanation for project costs should be provided in this section of the form. It must be consistent with the category of research and development being undertaken within each work package. Please see the general guidance for further details on funding rules.

Important: If the project spans more than one type of funding (for example, because significant work packages are in both fundamental and industrial research), you must describe and justify the breakdown of costs between them within the answer to this question.

In evaluating this the assessors will consider the following questions:

• is the budget realistic for the scale and complexity of the project?
• does the financial support required from Innovate UK fit within the limits set by the specific competition?
• is a financial commitment from other sources demonstrated for the balance of the project costs?
• has a realistic budget breakdown been provided?
• have any work package breakdowns been described and justified adequately?

Find out more about UK eligible project costs.

Please note: For collaborations involving UK research organisations, the costs of PhD research students are no longer eligible to be included in project costs. This is in line with current research council guidelines. Please refer to the guidance via the above link for further details.

Make sure that all vital finance project points that you wish the assessors to consider, are included in the main body of your application form, or in the relevant appendix. These are the main documents used within the assessment process.

Question 10: How does financial support from Innovate UK and its funding collaborators add value?

The project should demonstrate the contribution of the participants from both countries on an equal base, and the project must be equally significant to both UK and Indian participants.

The project should have an obvious advantage and added value resulting from the technological cooperation between the participants from the 2 countries (such as increased knowledge base, commercial leads, access to R&D infrastructure)

On the UK-India project level you will need to provide evidence that:

• successful delivery of your project will increase the total amount of money the project consortium spends on research and development in UK and India
• UK and Indian funding would allow you to undertake the project differently (for example, quicker, on a larger scale) and why this would be beneficial to India and the UK

On a UK-side you will need to provide evidence for:

• why Innovate UK funding is required for the project to be able to proceed or
• how Innovate UK funding would allow you to undertake the project differently (for example, quicker, on a larger scale) and why this would be beneficial to India and the UK

9. Finance summary

This table lists the total eligible project costs by contributor. 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 finance forms.

Column 1 Organisation name	Please provide the full names of the (lead) organisations (both UK and India on separate rows) and any participants in the project consortium (organisation names as noted in Companies House/CIN) on separate rows below.
Column 2 Organisation registration number	UK partner: Companies should provide the Company Registration Number (as noted in Companies House). UK Research Organisations should enter their RC number/Charitable status/legal entity registration number etc. Indian partner: Companies should provide the Corporate Identity Number (CIN) issued by the Ministry of Corporate Affairs.
Column 3 Enterprise category	UK partner: 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 Indian partner: Please select your Enterprise Category: Large / Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) As per Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Development (MSMED) Act, 2006, MSMEs are classified in two categories: 1. Manufacturing Enterprises: The enterprises engaged in the manufacturing or production of goods relating to any industry specified in the first schedule to the Industries (Development and Regulation) Companies Act, 1951 or those employing plant and machinery in the process of value addition to the final product which have a distinct name, character or use. The Manufacturing Enterprise are defined in terms of investment in plant and machinery. 2. Service Enterprises: The enterprises engaged in providing or rendering of services and are defined in terms of investment in equipment. Manufacturing sector Investment in plant and machinery (enterprise) Up to INR 2.5 million (micro) Between INR 2.5 million to INR 50 million (small) Between INR 50 million to INR 100 million (medium) Service sector Investment in equipment (enterprise) Up to INR 1 million (micro) Between INR 1 million to INR 20 million (small) Between INR 20 million to INR 50 million (medium)
Column 4 Postcode where the majority of work will be done	Provide the postcode of each organisation participating in the project.
Column 5 Contribution to the project by each organisation (£)/(INR)	Please list the total contribution to be made to the project by each organisation. For the UK partners, all applicant figures in cols 5 to 9 must be in pounds at the stated exchange rate. For Indian partners, all figures in cols 5-9 must be in Indian Rupees (INR) at the stated exchange rate.
Column 6 Funding sought from Innovate UK and RCUK value in (£)/(INR)	Please enter the funding sought from Innovate UK and BBSRC for each UK participant organisation in the consortium for this competition. See Column 5 above.
Column 7 Funding sought from DBT (India) value in (£)/(INR)	Please enter the funding sought from Innovate UK and BBSRC for each UK participant organisation in the consortium for this competition. See Column 5 above.
Column 8 Other funding from public sector bodies (£)/(INR)	Please include any funding for the project from any other public sector bodies which has been applied for separately, 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 DBT, Innovate UK and BBSRC with information on the total public funding for the project. See Column 5 above.
Column 9 Total (£)/(INR)	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 (£)/(INR)	The total of each column will be entered automatically.

10. Finance form

10.1 Finace form for the UK

Each non-academic contributor 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 with the application form by the lead applicant. Each finance form provides a detailed breakdown on each contributor’s total eligible project costs listed in your finance summary table.

10.2 Finance form for India

Each Indian contributor in your project must provide a Budget Proforma using the template provided on the FTP site. Indian industry partners must use Budget Format Industry Partner. Indian academic partners must use Budget Format Academic Partner. These budget proformas must be submitted to DBT only, alongside the collaborative application form.

11. Project appendices

You can include appendices to support your responses to the application questions as described in the guidance for those questions. Any additional appendices submitted will not be sent for assessment.

Applications submitted with incorrect appendices will be ineligible and the applications will not be sent for assessment.

Questions 1, 5 and 8 have appendices attached. You should also submit 2 further mandatory appendices:

1. Appendix D to demonstrate how the project, as a whole, complies with the ODA criteria](http://www.newtonfund.ac.uk/about/what-is-oda). If your project is not compliant with the ODA criteria, it cannot be funded. You should use a maximum of 2 sides of A4.
2. Appendix E should provide an up-to-date working draft of your Collaboration Agreement (CA), to be signed by all consortium members in India and the UK. If successful in this competition, the final Collaboration Agreement is to be signed by all consortium members in India and the UK before the grant is confirmed. Please see the Lambert Toolkit, the example Collaboration Agreement template and guidance notes provided in the public area of the FTP site for example formats. Do note that UK and Indian partners are free to develop alternative formats for their CA, as long as they include clauses on IP management, dispute resolution and governing law.

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/magnification
• display prominently the ‘application number’ as in the filename of the application form.

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

11.1 Project plan

Innovate UK application form/process

As part of Appendix B, you must submit a mandatory project plan. For UK partners, if your application is successful in the competition, a more detailed project plan will be required by Innovate UK, which will be used to monitor project progress.

The project plan should consist of:

1. A chronological schedule of project activities presented in graphical form (such as a Gantt chart on one page). You should clearly indicate the estimated time required for the completion of each main task in addition to milestones. Specific participant assignments for each task should be identified in the project plan even if this information was provided elsewhere. Task assignments for subcontractors and consultants should be separately identified and described with location of work.

2. A Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) detailing the planned time commitment for each task, covering the same project duration (see example in Table 1).

Table 1: Example work breakdown structure and estimated effort

Task	Title	Task description	Start date	End date	Effort days
1000	Phase 1
1100	Project management
1110	Project management and support	Plan and monitor project activities and progress. Implement and monitor subcontracts. Monthly and quarterly reports			70 participant A
1120	Meetings	Kick off meeting Quarterly review meetings			10 each
1200	High-level system requirements and design
1210	System requirements and design	Overall system requirement specifications Overall system conceptual architecture and design System components definition			60 participant A 20 participant B
1300	Data plan
1310	Date planning, acquisition and preparation	Data planning Data acquisition Data preparation and processing			20 participant A 20 participant C
1320	Model data integration	Ingregrate data into models Test models and analyse outputs			40 participant A 40 participant C
1400	Model identification and definition
1410	Application crop model implementation	Model identification development and testing			60 participant A 60 participant C
1420	Integrated intelligent model implementation	Integrated intelligent model implementation			80 participant A 10 participant B
1430	Product generation model implementation	Model identification, development and testing			40 participant A 10 participant B
1500	Harware and software identification and acquisition
1510	Sensors	Identify and purchase sensors Install, test and maintain sensors			10 participant A 40 participant C
1520	Software acquistion	Software development and testing			10 participant B
1600	Commercialisation requirements				20 participant A 20 participant D
					XX Participant A YY Participant B ZZ Participant C AA Participant D

12. Additional information

12.1 Exchange rate

For the purposes of this competition. The stated exchange rate UK £ to Indian Rupees is:
1 GBP = 83 INR

Note: this indicative exchange rate must be used in any calculations by applicants at all times during the competition process

12.2 Contact information

India

Department of Biotechnology

Dr. Shailja V. Gupta Director Department of Biotechnology Room No. 811, 8th Floor, block-2 CGO Complex, Lodhi Road New Delhi-110003 Email: shailja.dbt@nic.in

Dr. Sanjay Kalia Scientist-D Department of Biotechnology Room No. 814, 8th Floor, block-2 CGO Complex, Lodhi Road New Delhi-110003 Email: sanjay.kalia@nic.in

UK

Innovate UK Customer support services Innovate UK Polaris House North Star Avenue Swindon SN2 1FL Wiltshire

Competition helpline: 0300 321 4357 (Mon-Fri, 9am-5:30pm Email: support@innovateuk.gov.uk