Innovators have until June 19 to compete for Launchpad grant funding
Innovate UK has opened a Launchpad competition to offer up to £1.5 million in grant funding for ‘New Innovators.’
This competition opened on 7th May and will close at 11am on 19th June.
Innovate UK, Coventry City Council, Warwickshire County Council, and the West Midlands Combined Authority are working in partnership on a Launchpad to grow innovation in Coventry and Warwickshire’s immersive and creative technology cluster.
Business growth is at the heart of the Launchpad that aims to significantly advance innovation in developing and applying technologies in immersive and creative industries in priority markets.
The Coventry and Warwickshire region is renowned for its cluster in video game development, which creates highly skilled, productive jobs and opportunities. Over 1,000 high-quality games with internationally recognised intellectual property have been created in the West Midlands.
The area includes a globally significant cluster of video game developers known in Warwick, Leamington Spa and Southam which employs 15% of the UK’s games development talent and is recognised by trade body UKIE as the largest cluster outside Greater London.
Micro and small companies that haven’t received Innovate UK grants before can now apply through the New Innovators competition for funding and business support. The funding is a Minimal Financial Assistance (MFA) grant of between £25,000 and £50,000. The grant is to cover 100% of the project costs. Innovate UK will aim to pay 70% within a month of project start.
Under the immersive and creative industries Launchpad, new innovators can seek funding for projects developing and applying technologies including one or more of the following themes: Media technologies, including digital and mixed media; immersive technologies, including augmented and virtual reality; game engine and virtual production, including 3D environments, simulations and data visualisations; motion capture, including performance capture and gesture, and facial recognition
Projects can be targeted at one or more of these sectors: creative industries, video game development, screen sector. Healthcare, education, future mobility, manufacturing, retail and tourism, leisure and sport
The competition comes from Innovate UK's Launchpad that has a total budget of up to £7.5 million. The partners recently awarded the first £1.8 million of this budget. After this New Innovators competition, additional funding opportunities are planned for the Autumn.
For more information and competition links: please visit https://iuk.ktn-uk.org/programme/launchpads/