Collaborative R&D: Creative Catalyst

18 December 2024

Innovate UK, part of UK Research and Innovation, will invest up to £2 million in collaborative innovation projects.

The aim of this CR&D competition is to advance the development of collaboration with innovators in the creative industries. Innovate UK are looking for products and tools across the creative supply chain which benefit and strengthen the UK creative economy.

In applying to this competition, you are entering into a competitive process. This competition has a funding limit, so they may not be able to fund all the proposed projects. It may be the case that your project scores highly but they are still unable to fund it.

The deadline to apply to this competition is the 29th January, 11am.

Find the full information, guidelines, how to apply and eligibility criteria here. 

Your project must:

• have a grant funding request between £150,000 and £200,000
• last between six and nine months
• carry out all of its project work in the UK
• intend to exploit the results from or in the UK
• start by 1 July 2025
• end by 31 March 2026

Projects must always start on the first of the month, even if this is a non-working day. You must not start your project until your Grant Offer Letter has been approved by Innovate UK. Any delays within Project Setup may mean we need to delay your project start date.

You must only include eligible project costs in your application. See our overview of eligible project costs. For specific guidance, see the eligibility section in this competition.

Lead organisation

To lead a project your organisation must:

• be a UK registered micro or small business
• collaborate with other UK registered organisations
• fall within one of the creative industries subsectors
• involve at least one grant claiming business from outside the Greater London area

More information on the different types of organisation can be found in our Funding rules.

Academic institutions and research and technology organisations (RTOs) cannot lead or work alone, as collaboration with a business is a requirement in this competition.

Project team

The project team must have a least one grant claiming business outside of the Greater London area. The Greater London area is defined as being inside the boundary shown on this map.

To collaborate with the lead, your organisation must be one of the following UK registered:

• micro, small, or medium sized business; large businesses can make up your consortium but will not receive grant funding
• academic institution
• charity
• not for profit
• public sector organisation
• community interest company (CIC)
• research and technology organisation (RTO)

Each partner organisation must be invited into the Innovation Funding Service (IFS) by the lead to collaborate on a project. Once partners have accepted the invitation, they will be asked to login or to create an account in IFS. They are responsible for entering their own project costs and completing their Project Impact questions in the application.

To be an eligible collaboration, the lead and at least one other organisation must apply for funding when entering their costs into the application.

Non-funded partners

Your project can include non-UK partners, including partners based in the EU, who bring their own funding. Non-UK partners are permitted to carry out project work from within their home countries and exploit results overseas. Their costs will count towards the total eligible project costs.