Tag Archive for: Innovation Grants

innovation grants

Securing Innovation Grants: The Ultimate Checklist

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Innovation grants can be an incredibly important source of income but at the application stage, nothing is guaranteed. If you’re looking at innovation grants for your business and keen to give yourself the best possible chance of success then this is the ultimate checklist to work through.

SPRK Capitals Innovation Grant Checklist

  • Make sure your application fits the scope. Certain innovation grants are designed to fund certain industries or types of projects or R&D. The first, essential step, towards securing the funding that you need is going to be making sure that your project – and application – fit the scope.
  • Get very clear on the project definition. Your business is unlikely to win any innovation grants for projects that are vague or poorly defined. That’s why it’s so essential to be clear about milestones, tasks, deliverables, resources and budgetary requirements, among many other aspects of the project definition.
  • Is your project actually innovative? As the name suggests, innovation grants are designed to fund innovation i.e. something that is both game changing and commercially viable. Are you taking risks and advancing the cutting edge?
  • Strong market awareness. Those who decide whether or not to award innovation grants will be looking to support projects where there is a clear understanding of the market opportunity that is being addressed by the innovation. This means showing that you have researched and understood the commercialisation opportunities in what you’re doing, as well as the role that your competitors have to play.
  • How will you make money from this innovation further down the line? Robust financial forecasts are an essential part of the process of successful applications for innovation grants. Letters of interest can also be really helpful. Overall, you’re looking to show how there is money to be made – and a clear route to commercialisation – for whatever it is that you’re innovating. Managing cash flow and driving change can be eased with additional funding options such as grant advance loans.
  • Showing project impacts. Your grant proposal will need to go into the detail of the impacts that your innovation project is going to achieve. That might be, for example, meeting government priorities or positively affecting the national economy through the revenues that you’ll be able to generate.
  • Who is working on the project? Identifying the project team is another key part of securing innovation grants – in fact, the people who are involved can be one of the most vital elements. This means covering all the human resources that the project is going to need, as well as identifying any external or expert support that will be required.
  • What happens to the intellectual property? From patents to copyright, protecting the intellectual property of the innovation is something you need to cover off in the application.
  • What are the costs involved? This is an incredibly important part of the application and needs to be detailed and precise. Do the costs come within the scope of the grant? Can you provide evidence that the project will deliver value for money?
  • What are the risks? Being able to identify and mitigate the risks of a project shows that you have a full understanding of where the project sits and how to give it the best possible chance of success.

Experts in Grants and Funding

If you’re applying for innovation grants, gathering your internal information to have an effective application is a must. At SPRK Capital, we pride ourselves on the ability of our trusted advisors. Furthermore, our grant advance funding options can support your company with access to capital to fund your innovation spend. Get in touch today and find out how we can help your business reach it’s goals.

grant funding

Is there a right time to apply for grant funding?

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Applying for grant funding can feel like a challenging process. However, receiving that funding can be transformative for a business and well worth the effort. There are lots of benefits to applying for grant funding, no matter what your industry or the type of business that you have. If you’re considering making an application then it’s going to be vital to make sure that you get the timing right.

 

Why apply for grant funding?

  • Accelerate project timeframes – If you’re successful in applying for grant funding this can provide you with vital resources that significantly speed up existing project timeframes. It could help to reduce the time to market for a product or service and put your enterprise ahead of the competition as a result. There are lots of obvious advantages to this, from increasing the commercial returns – and the speed at which they are accessible – to reducing financial risk. This funding also helps to improve business growth by allowing for more ambitious projections and plans without the need to give away any equity.
  • Access collaboration – The right grant funding will also open the door to collaborations that might be vital to delivery, whether that is with industry, academic or research partners. Collaborations can be beneficial for enterprises at any stage, especially as they tend to open up access to new technologies, expertise, processes and techniques.
  • Cover a broad spectrum of costs – Typically, grant funding can be used to cover a broad spectrum of costs, including staff costs at a rate of up to 70%. This can be essential cash flow, especially as it doesn’t come with the requirement to make repayments, pay interest or give away any equity in order to be able to access the funds.

 

What is the right time to apply for grant funding?

The main reason that it’s key to consider timing when it comes to grant funding is because the process of application can be months long. In fact, it usually takes around six months to apply for grant funding. So, if you’re looking at grant funding for your business it’s essential to factor in the time that it’s going to take to apply for the grant and to receive it into the business. Research, completing the application and waiting for a decision will all be part of this process. It’s also worth remembering that the timing of grant funding could also have an effect on how impactful your project is able to be. Getting your application in well in advance could mean that you receive grant funding at exactly the right moment to access beneficial factors in the external environment. It can also trigger connections with potential partners at exactly the right time and accelerate project growth.

Timing is as important for grant funding as ensuring that you pick a grant that is going to be the right fit. Give yourself plenty of time to complete the application process and time it so that the benefits will land at just the right moment to accelerate both the project and future growth.

 

Grant Advance Funding through SPRK Capital

SPRK Capital are a leading provider of R&D tax credit loans and grant funding loans in the UK. We support innovative SMEs by giving them access to their capital when they need it.

To find out more about how we can advance your grant funding to you, visit our ‘Grant Loans‘ page.

Woman learning about grant funding

What is Grant Funding?

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Grant funding is where an individual or organisation receives a sum of money from a third party, such as a foundation or a government. It can be made available for a variety of different reasons but always provides a form of cash flow that does not have to be repaid. There are lots of benefits to being able to obtain grant funding, from the financial income to the opportunities it opens up for collaboration.

The different types of grant funding

There are generally two types of grant funding available: capital grants and research and development grants. A capital grant is designed to cover the cost of specific items, such as equipment and buildings. The idea behind a capital grant is to enable more impactful projects to be created by taking away the pressure on capital expenditure. Research and development grants are slightly different in that the cash is provided for a specific purpose, aim or project. This type of grant is typically used to support high-risk technology projects that have a lot of growth potential.

What kind of funding is available?

Most grants are paid out in arrears, which means that expenses need to be paid for upfront and then recouped under the grant. The amount of the costs that a grant will cover usually depends on the grant. If it is a capital grant then this will usually be somewhere between 20% and 40% of project costs. For a research and development grant, it could be anywhere from 50% to 100%.

Find out what grants you can apply for by using our Opportunity Checker.

Why apply for grant funding?

There are lots of benefits to successful grant funding, including:

  • This is non-dilutive funding – This means that there is no requirement to give away equity in the business in order to obtain the funding. As a result, no control is lost.
  • Obtaining grant funding can boost what can be achieved by a project and also accelerate time to market – This is a huge advantage for any organisation looking to be first-to-market with a specific product or service.
  • Grants don’t involve any debt – So, there is no interest to consider and no requirement to make repayments either.
  • Grants can open the door to collaboration with expert partners – This can provide access to expertise and insights, as well as networks and technologies.
  • There is the potential to have a big impact – Grant amounts are typically between £50,000 and £4 million so the funding received can be truly transformative.
  • Grant funding can also make a project more attractive to investors, as it reduces risk.

How to apply for grant funding

Every funding body will have a different application process and it’s important to get familiar with this before starting an application. Especially vital will be the timelines involved – it can take six months from application to receiving grant funding so it’s essential to factor this into any plans that you have for the funding.

Grant funding is a potentially transformative source of income for any business, either to support capital or research and development costs.

Grant Advance Funding through SPRK Capital

SPRK Capital are a leading provider of R&D tax credit loans and grant funding loans in the UK. We support innovative SMEs by giving them access to their capital when they need it.

To find out more about how we can advance your grant funding to you, visit our ‘Grant Loans‘ page.