The TSB will be giving grants of 75% of project costs (maximum cost £33,000) up to a maximum grant of £25,000 for feasibility studies lasting up to 3 months, it is expected that each project will culminate in a short report and, where relevant, a demonstrator. Projects will also present their achievements at a public ‘Collaboration Nation’ event to be held in autumn 2011.

This call is open to micro and small businesses only, either individually or in collaboration. For information the definition of these is:
- micro business - fewer than 10 staff, and a turnover or balance sheet less than €2m (approx £1.7m)
- small business - fewer than 50 staff, and a turnover or balance sheet less than €10m (approx £8.4m)

For the main call applications are being accepted in the following areas:

Advanced Materials

Development and application of advanced materials for:

• Secure, clean and affordable energy supply, distribution and use – both fixed and mobile sources – in the energy, transport and construction industries
• Sustainability in relation to transport, construction and the ‘reduce, reuse and recycle’ agenda, including packaging and materials for carbon capture
• High value markets, including technologies for healthcare and the creative industries.

Biosciences

• Genomics – the use of genomics technologies by UK businesses and the development of novel tools and technologies to better access or gain value from genomic information
• Industrial biotechnology – development of renewable feedstocks (not resulting in the diversion of food away from the animal or human food chain) and biological processes for the production of materials, chemicals or energy.
• Agriculture and food – development of technologies which enable improvements in food quality, nutritional content, safety, authenticity or traceability or the production of novel or functional foods.

Electronics, Photonics and Electrical Systems

Preference will be given to proposals that have deliverables such as demonstrators, mock-ups or prototypes in the following key areas:

• Control systems and power engineering – reducing electricity consumption in the built environment, or addressing electricity consumption in industrial processes or transport
• Plastics and printed electronics – developing a sustainable base for wealth creation in the industry
• Data and image acquisition – developing systems based on sensing and imaging capabilities
• Communications – contributing to the cost-effective development and deployment of next-generation access, or the development of local high frequency wireless networks
• Systems design and integration – embedded systems, robotics and autonomous systems, specification, and verification and testing of computing system designs, including industrial lasers.

High Value Manufacturing

• Designing and developing innovative products or systems that offer improved performance, functionality, reliability, service life and reduced environmental impact
• Developing production technologies that can create high value through novel processes, advanced product manufacture, resource efficiency or greater product customisation, or that create greater environmental sustainability through efficient disposal, recycling or re-manufacture
• Developing service solutions that complement product offerings by adding value before, during or after manufacture
• Value systems associated with the provision of a lifetime service around the manufactured product or manufacturing process

Information and Communications Technology

Radically new software-based technologies or approaches to enable:

• reliable and continuous sensing in challenging physical environments
• intelligent, autonomous or autonomic machine reasoning and behaviour
• computers to take account of user requirements, preferences, values and processes
• complex ICT systems to be engineered rapidly, cost-effectively and reliably to be fit-for-purpose, ie, safe, secure and resilient.

Nanotechnology

Development and integration of the added functionality offered by nanoscale technologies for:

• Living with environmental change – technologies for water supply and use; monitoring of physical structures and waste streams; secure, clean and affordable energy supply, distribution and use; new technologies to address the reduce, re-use, recycle agenda
• Living with an ageing and growing population – applying nanoscale technologies to healthcare, including drug delivery and discovery; diagnostics and imaging; prevention, diagnosis, treatment and management of disease and implants; surface cleanliness; food packaging and storage
• Living in an intelligent, connected, modern world – technologies for safety and security systems; intelligent transport systems; increased user interaction with products; and next generation computing and entertainment systems.

For the additional calls applications are being accepted in

Digital Services

Using data sources in the public domain, and in particular, public data:

• Complementing public sector provision of services to citizens
• Emergence of the ‘Internet of Things’ – a network of ‘things’ such as objects, environments, vehicles, and clothing that are embedded with sensors, processing or actuators and with the ability to communicate, network, and produce information
• Sectors and application areas presenting complex challenges to the adoption and use of cloud-based computing.

Space

• Satellite Telecommunications
• Sensing
• Position, Navigation and Timing
• Robotics and Exploration
• Access to Space

Responsible Development of Nanoscale technology

Development of innovative products or processes which can have applications for Environmental Health and Safety aspects of nanoscale technologies that also address EHS-specific lifecycle issues.

For more information see the TSB site.

We expect competition for these grants to be high, any businesses looking for help with applications should contact us directly

Most grants do not fund the full cost of a particular project or activity, the part the grant doesn’t cover is the matched or match funding. Matched funding is not matching the grant £1 for £1 (or dollar: dollar in the US) it will be a percentage or the total project or activity you are applying for the grant for. For example many arts grants in the UK will fund 90% of a project, the applicant has to put at least 10% matched funding towards the project and maybe more. In some cases the matched can be significantly higher, for example the English development grant under the Grant for Research and Development funds 35-40% of the costs, the applicant has to find 60-65% of the project costs.

It is important therefore to understand before you make the grant application how much you have to contribute, or else you may get a little shock!

There is one further thing to consider about matched funding, some grant schemes require the matched funding to be available in cash (or be generated by a business activities for a business grant), some will however allow an in-kind contribution for example in the time of people involved in the project. Knowing which is allowable for a particular grant scheme is vital so that you do not waste your time in making applications that will be rejected for not having the necessary matched funding.

The overall aim is to demystify and explain what certain things mean and what grant scheme administrators will be looking for. At first sight some may seem patronising, if you find that the case then move to the next post. All of the issues covered here have been problem demonstrated in applications assessed by the author whilst running grant schemes for the government for 10 years.

This website does have a UK focus but the generic information presented could be used to improve grant submissions made in other countries.

Please note we do not provide funding, this is an advice site only. Please use the forums for discussion about grants