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Innovate UK Smart Grants

Innovate UK Smart Grants are offered by Innovate UK, the government’s innovation agency. It offers funding of between £25k and £10m to support business projects at every stage from feasibility study to product prototyping. In the past it has also offered SME innovation loans.'Smart Grants' is the new name for Innovate UK's open programme.

Projects funded by Innovate UK 

Innovate UK runs a series of funding competitions via its Smart Grants programme, which are open to all UK businesses. The projects are relevant to dozens of commercial sectors, from digital manufacturing and energy systems through to marine transport and the creative industries.

You can view current funding competitions on the Innovate UK database and find our more about the scheme here.

Innovate UK Smart Grants criteria

Every funding competition has its own criteria, although your application has to prove that your proposals are:

  • Innovative
  • Commercially viable
  • Of wider benefit to society or the UK

Projects need to be realistic and show how they can open up or exploit significant growth markets. They will often be too risky to attract private sector investment.

How THP can help you

Although we do not prepare or assist with the grant applications themselves, we take over after the grant had been awarded and you need a Grant Audit to obtain release of the funds from Innovate. Please visit our dedicated page on Grant Audits by clicking here for more details.

In particular, we can:

  • Carry out the work you will need to validate expenditure for successful projects and prepare the compulsory reports to submit to Innovate UK.  These reports can only be prepared by qualified firms such as THP  and are essential to make your claim – and we can prepare and supply yours within a short timeframe. Please visit our dedicated page here to learn more about this special service.
  • Help you in combining Innovate UK funding with R&D tax reliefs

Businesses are often advised that combining Innovate UK funding with R&D tax reliefs is impossible. This isn’t strictly true – but to benefit from both takes planning. We can advise you on how to make the most of both grants and R&D tax breaks.

Get started!

If you need help in releasing your Innovate UK Smart Grant funding quickly, we suggest you get in touch now for an informal chat.

Innovate UK smart grants

Innovate UK in the United Kingdom’s innovation agency, offering funding to businesses for ground-breaking projects that would struggle to attract private sector investment.

Innovate UK funds work in almost all sectors. It runs a series of regular competitions via its Smart Grants programme, which allow businesses to apply for specific projects.

It has offered SME loans in the past. We suggest keeping an eye on the Innovate UK website for any future loan schemes.

Although we do not assist with the grant application itself, we can help you by quickly preparing the grant audit reports that allow you to draw down your Innovate UK Grants. We can also advise on how Innovate UK loans interact with R&D tax reliefs.

A dedicated Innovate UK Grants Team

THP is a cost effective choice when you need a compliant Grant Audit report that allows you to draw down funding.

It's because we a have a specialist Innovate UK Grants team. It's led by me Miles Girdlestone. Together we bring you many years of technical grant audit experience. We're also dab hands at complying with Innovate UK's audit rules. Our results speak for themselves - every report we have produced has allowed a different client to draw down their funds.

If you'd like to learn more about how we can help you with your Innovate UK grant audit please get in touch. We're ready to help you!

 

Andy Green
Andy Green
Client Director

"We are honest, telling clients what they need to hear, being creative & innovative, we challenge our clients"

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Miles Girdlestone
Miles Girdlestone
Client Director

"My commitment to my clients goes beyond numbers; I am dedicated to building long-lasting relationships based on trust, understanding, and mutual success"

Read Full Profile
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