If you are eligible to receive a grant offer, you will be asked to set up your project.
Watch our project setup for successful applicants demonstration on YouTube.
You will be notified by email on the date published for this competition. Notifications may be sent any time up to 5pm.
You must follow the unique link embedded in your email notification. This takes you to your Innovation Funding Service (IFS) Set Up portal, where we gather the information to set up your project.
Watch our video on what steps there are before a project starts on YouTube.
During the project set up you will be assigned a delivery executive who will guide you through the whole project set up process.
Providing details
Following your email notification, you will need to provide the following within five days (including weekends and bank holidays):
- the name and contact details of your project manager and project finance lead
- a finance contact for all partners
- a copy of your bank details
Agreement and plan
You will need to provide the following within 30 days (including weekends and bank holidays):
- a collaboration agreement
- an exploitation plan
Completing your project set up
You will have 90 days (including weekends and bank holidays) to complete all of your project set up. Within this time, you will also be required to submit:
- project location
- any answers to financial queries we have requested
- any requested documentation to support your project such as a spend profile
You may be required to supply documents sooner if the competition has a ‘date projects must start by’. Failure to do this could result in your funding being withdrawn.
Your funding offer may be withdrawn if project setup is not completed within this or an alternative timeframe as advised by Innovate UK.
Business bank account
In order for us to process your claims, you must make sure you have a valid UK business bank account. It can take several weeks for a new account to be created, if required. We recommend starting this process as early as possible to avoid any delays to your project start date.
If Innovate UK has not paid grant payments to you before, we will request your bank details. We may also require proof of your bank details as a copy of a redacted bank statement in a PDF format.
Bank account eligibility
The bank account which grant is to be paid into must:
- be a business account in the same name as the organisation listed in IFS
- be from a UK bank regulated by the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA)
- have a cheque and credit clearing facility
Online accounts are eligible as long as they meet the above criteria.
If your bank provider does not have a clearing facility, we can accept it if there are no sanctions, and it is authorised by the PRA and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority.
Innovate UK will accept most banking societies apart from:
- Viva Wallet
- Intesa Sanpaolo
- Equals Money UK Limited
- Modulr FS Limited
Checking you bank account eligibility
If you have any doubts that your bank account will not meet Innovate UK’s funding criteria, you can use the sort code checker. If you input the sort code and find a tick next to the ‘BACS Direct Credit payments can be sent to this sort code’, this will give you an indication that the bank account you hold is acceptable.
If you need further information, please contact our customer support service on 0300 321 4357 or email: support@iuk.ukri.org
Collaboration agreement
If your project is a collaboration, you will be asked to provide a collaboration agreement. The agreement will need to be signed by all collaborative partners in the project.
Example agreements can be found in the Lambert toolkit.
Once you have submitted all documentation
We will review your total eligible project costs to check that they meet our funding criteria. Each organisation may be asked to provide further information on the detail in your submitted finances.
Financial viability checks are made on all business partner organisations.
Offer letter
You must not start any project activities until you are in receipt of a signed and approved grant offer letter from Innovate UK. Any work carried out before you are in receipt of a signed grant offer letter is not eligible for funding.
Monitoring officer
You will be assigned a monitoring officer who will work with you throughout your project. They will help you make sure your project complies with our terms and conditions and report to Innovate UK on its progress. They are not responsible for the project management of your project.
Watch our video on how successful projects are monitored on YouTube.
Claims and auditing
Costs are only eligible if they are incurred and paid between the project start and end dates. Claims may be subject to an independent audit. You must submit an independent accountant’s report (IAR) with your final claim.
Any partners with individual total eligible project costs above £50,000 must provide evidence with an IAR.
We will not award you funding in any future competition if you have:
- failed to exploit a previously funded project
- an overdue IAR
- failed to comply with grant terms and conditions
As standard, funding should be claimed quarterly in arrears. Once audits and reports are complete and approved, the claims are released.
All participants must provide evidence to support each claim made.
Claims must be paid into an account in the name you have applied to be able to receive grant payments.
Watch our video on how successful applicants receive their funding on YouTube.
Promoting your project
We may choose to promote your project as part of our communications. If you have any queries about public relations or media coverage email: pressoffice@iuk.ukri.org
Support for small and medium-sized enterprises from Innovate UK Business Growth
If you receive an award, you will be contacted about working with an innovation and growth specialist at Innovate UK Business Growth. This service forms part of our funded offer to you.
These specialists focus on growing innovative businesses and ensuring that projects contribute to their growth. Working one-to-one, they can help you to identify your best strategy and harness world-class resources to grow and achieve scale.