1. technology and computing
2. technological innovation

Delivery Plan
Financial year 2013-14
[ Delivery Plan 2013–14 ]
How we support innovation
The Technology Strategy Board is the UK’s
innovation agency.
We help business on the innovation
journey with a range of tools, each
focused on helping to solve specific
innovation challenges.
We support businesses, from startups to large multi-nationals, and
work with a wide range of partners in
the public and private sectors to help
make the UK’s innovation system
work more effectively to support
future economic growth.
Most of our support is offered on
a competitive basis where we are
looking to help only the best ideas
with the most economic potential.
Our main innovation-support tools
are outlined, in alphabetical order:
Catalyst
Aims to accelerate early-stage
ideas more rapidly towards
commercialisation through different
phases of funding provided
within the same programme. The
Biomedical Catalyst supports SMEs
and academia to explore early-stage
commercial and technical potential
through to development prior to
commercialisation.
Catapults
A new network of physical centres
designed to advance innovation
in specific fields. Catapults enable
business to access the best research
and technical expertise, infrastructure
and equipment. Each centre
focuses on a field of technology or
technology application in which the
UK has particular academic and
business strength.
Collaborative R&D
Aims to help companies tackle
specific technical or societal
challenges by working collaboratively
to create new products, processes
and services. It encourages
knowledge exchange, supply
chain development and parallel
working on complex system
challenges. Collaborative R&D cofunds innovative projects involving
partnerships between businesses
and between business and
academia.
2
Demonstrators
Help to accelerate the introduction
of new products, systems and
services by enabling demonstration,
testing and validation in the real world
and on a large scale. We invest in
business-led demonstrator projects
through competitions in defined
priority areas.
Engagement events
Bringing businesses together with
each other and with researchers
to explore opportunities, form
collaborations and develop projects
is a powerful means of promoting
innovation. Such events include a
major annual innovation showcase
and forum, consortium-building
days linked to funding competitions,
and events enabling the project
participants we support to meet
with the investment community. We
also support a range of third-party
innovation events with similar aims.
European and international
activities
Support for businesses to access
EU programmes for R&D and
innovation, for example through
National Contact Points, experts who
can advise companies on how best
to apply to specific programmes.
We also support SME participation
in Eurostars and fund business
involvement in a number of other EU
programmes.
[ How we support innovation ]
Eurostars
Aims to help UK high-tech SMEs to
develop partnerships with SMEs and
knowledge and supply chain partners
elsewhere in Europe, to develop
their networks and to build up the
knowledge to participate in large EU
programmes.
Feasibility studies
Aim to help companies, either singly
or in collaboration with others, to
assess the potential of ideas in
specific thematic areas. Success
may position a project well to
enter larger programmes funding
collaborative R&D, such as those
supported by the Technology Strategy
Board and the EU.
Innovation and knowledge
centres
IKCs operate at an earlier stage
than Catapult centres. They offer a
shared space and entrepreneurial
environment in which researchers,
potential customers and professionals
from academia and business can
work side-by-side on commercial
applications of emerging technologies.
Innovation platforms
An innovation platform is an approach
that brings industry, academia and
government together to focus on a
specific challenge such as vehicle
emissions or disease diagnosis.
It is a long-term commitment to a
programme of support – using many
of the ‘tools’ described in this section.
Innovation Vouchers
Innovation Vouchers enable
innovative SMEs to engage with new
partners to access knowledge which
could help their business grow.
Knowledge transfer networks,
special interest groups and
_connect
These networks accelerate business
innovation by enabling people
to share knowledge, ideas and
opportunities within and between
specific sectors. The networks are
hosted on the Technology Strategy
Board’s online community site,
_connect, at
https://ktn.innovateuk.org
Knowledge transfer
partnerships
Aim to help improve the
competitiveness of a business by
drawing on the expertise in UK
universities, colleges and other
knowledge providers. Knowledge is
transferred through placement of a
recently qualified individual to work
on a challenging innovation project.
SBRI (Small Business
Research Initiative)
Provides business with public
sector procurement contracts to
research and develop new products
and services to address public sector
challenges. The business gets finance
to develop its ideas, and the public
sector gets more innovative ways of
meeting its needs. SBRI encourages
public sector organisations to take
the lead customer role, helping to
develop and de-risk innovative
solutions for which it is a potential future
purchaser.
Smart
Addresses the funding gap experienced
by many small and early-stage
companies. It provides pre-start-ups,
start-ups, micro businesses and
SMEs with grants to enable them to
assess potential markets and invest
in R&D and innovation. Three types of
support are available: proof of market,
proof of concept and demonstration
of prototype. The scheme, previously
called Grant for R&D, is open for
applications at any time.
Launchpad
Aims to support the development
and strengthening of clusters of hightech companies. Small and mediumsized companies enter competitions
to receive funding for innovative
projects in specified theme areas
and in specific geographical
locations and participate in a
structured programme of business
support and access to finance with
other organisations in and around
the cluster.
Missions
Entrepreneur missions, run in
conjunction with UKTI, involve a
group of innovative and often earlystage UK companies travelling to
countries strong in innovation and
enterprise, such as the US, to make
new connections and meet potential
collaborators, investors, suppliers
and customers.
[ Delivery Plan 2013–14 ] 3
[ Delivery Plan 2013–14 ]
4
[ The Technology Strategy Board: Some facts ]
The Technology Strategy
Board: Some facts
–We are the UK’s innovation
agency
–Our role is to accelerate
economic growth by stimulating
and supporting business-led
innovation
–We establish and implement
national technology strategies in
priority areas
–Our budget for the year 2013-14
is approximately £440m
–With partner and business
contributions we have invested
about £3bn in innovation
projects in our first six years
–We awarded over 60% of our
R&D investment to small and
medium-sized enterprises last
year
–In 2012-13 we ran more than 70
competitions for R&D funding
and offered grants to over 1,000
organisations. In 2013-14 we
plan to launch around 75 more
competitions across our priority
themes, committing almost
£300m
–Evidence so far shows that we
–Since launch in April 2009 we
can expect different returns
have run 124 SBRI competitions
(GVA) for different types of
with 40 public sector
support programme – £1 grant
organisations and over £100m of
showing a return from around
contracts have been issued
£3 for short-term feasibility
studies through to £9 for Smart
–In two years since the relaunch
awards. Business participants
of Smart, we have offered over
in some of the larger longer
930 grants, committing over
term programmes, such as low
£90m to SME R&D projects
carbon vehicles, estimate returns
of over 30 times.
–We are working with more than
4,900 companies and 150
research organisations, including
110 universities
–The seven new Catapult centres
will all be operational in 2013
–Our innovation networks have
over 60,000 members
–During 2012-13 we ran over 100
events and participated in many
more, engaging with thousands
of businesses face-to-face and
online
[ Delivery Plan 2013–14 ] 5
[ Delivery Plan 2013–14 ]
Contents
Foreword
8 Our strategy: Concept to
Commercialisation
10Delivery plan 2013-14: Summary
14Delivery plan 2013-14: Key
Actions
16Delivery plan 2013-14: Details
7
How we help business
Access to finance
Access to knowledge, skills, equipment
and partners
24
Access to lead customers
inking and leveraging government
L
support
25Engaging
Working with government
27
Investing in priority areas based
on potential
Thematic programmes
Sustainability
Identifying potential new areas
How we support our thematic areas
in priority areas
Challenge-led areas
Energy, Built environment, Food,
Transport, Health
Competence areas
High value manufacturing, Digital
economy, Space applications,
Resource efficiency
Enabling technologies
Advanced materials, Biosciences,
Electronics, sensors and photonics,
Information and communication,
technology
Emerging technologies and industries
Other opportunity areas
59Continuously
with our communities
26
6
30Investing
61
improving our
capability
Financial summary
[ Contents / Foreword ]
Foreword
The Technology Strategy Board is the
UK’s innovation agency.
We help to accelerate economic
growth by stimulating and supporting
business-led innovation. We do this
through a range of mechanisms
described in this document and
which, through competitive processes,
identify and support the ideas with
greatest potential.
Our work in priority areas and our
support for business innovation
are key parts of the Government’s
industrial strategy. We helped to
identify the ‘eight great technologies’
at the heart of the UK’s push for
growth, working closely with David
Willetts. We will continue to work
with businesses, academia and
government, to support innovation in
these areas.
We are setting up seven new Catapult
technology and innovation centres,
and all will be operational this year.
They will provide a powerful new force
for innovation in the UK.
Innovative small and medium-sized
businesses (SMEs) are a significant
driver of UK growth. Since relaunching
the programme, we have doubled
investment in Smart grants for
high-growth-potential SMEs and
are delivering new support such as
Innovation Vouchers and Launchpads.
Many other organisations support
SMEs, including the Intellectual
Property Office, GrowthAccelerator,
UK Trade and Investment, and UK
Commission for Employment and
Skills. We will work with them and
with the investment sector to ensure
the businesses we support get the
advice and access to finance they
need to help them to take their ideas
forward. The strong relationship we
enjoy with the research councils will
ensure our joint approach turns worldleading research into new products
and services for business and drives
economic growth.
We work on the national stage, but we
also know the importance of engaging
locally. We will continue to work
with the devolved administrations,
cities, the developing local enterprise
partnerships and other local bodies
to connect them to the national
innovation agenda. The Catapults
and the Launchpad competitions
targeted at business clusters are two
new programmes that will help us to
achieve that.
We will help and encourage
companies to gain access to the
funding and partnership activities
it will offer. We will also launch joint
programmes with the key emerging
economies of India and China and
take entrepreneur missions to Brazil
and the USA.
We passionately support the
Government’s goal to become a
better lead customer that stimulates
innovation through procurement. We
want to see SBRI (Small Business
Research Initiative) operating on a
much larger scale – as its equivalent
does in the US – and were pleased
to see the Government’s support for
this in the announcement of a five-fold
increase in the programme made in
the March 2013 Budget.
Everything we do is driven by the
desire to help UK business bring new
ideas and technologies to market and
support UK economic growth.
Our view extends far beyond the UK
to European and global opportunities.
The next 12 months will see the start of
Horizon 2020, the new EU programme Iain Gray
for research and innovation.
Chief Executive
[ Delivery Plan 2013–14 ] 7
[ Delivery Plan 2013–14 ]
Our Strategy: Concept to
commercialisation
In May 2011 we launched our four-year strategy,
Concept to Commercialisation.
This explained how we set out to
stimulate and encourage innovation
and drive economic growth.
–more product innovation is in turn
associated with higher overall
productivity in firms
The strategic direction we set
then remains equally valid now.
The economic situation is largely
unchanged and growth generation is
more of a priority than ever, both in
the UK and globally.
–productivity growth is the central
driver of overall economic growth.
Taking our strategy as the start point,
this delivery plan explains how we
plan to help UK business, what we
are doing in this financial year
and why.
So, innovation investment correlates
with higher productivity and
economic growth, and is core to
creating a competitive position in
rapidly changing global markets.
Summary
However, innovation involves risk,
and markets operate imperfectly.
There are financial and technical
risks in investing in early-stage
technologies and markets, and the
return on investment is uncertain.
Small companies can struggle to
raise funds and larger companies
can find it hard to justify early-stage
investment, tempted instead to wait
for the market to become clearer
and the uncertainties to reduce.
As a result, business investment
in innovation is often lower and
later than desirable for strong
economic growth, and opportunities
to capitalise on the UK’s excellent
research base and emerging global
markets may be missed.
The world faces major challenges,
not only from economic turmoil but
also from societal challenges such
as climate change and an ageing
population. These challenges are
creating global market opportunities
for novel solutions. The countries
that continue to invest in innovation
and can innovate most rapidly will
be most likely to benefit from these
shifts in markets.
In December 2011, the Department
for Business, Innovation and Skills
(BIS) published an economic paper
which concluded:
–across business, higher innovation
investment is associated with
higher levels of new product
innovation
8
(Economic paper number 15:
Innovation and Research Strategy
for Growth.)
Innovation can also disrupt existing
value chains and business models.
In complex systems and supply
chains, a ‘disruptive’ innovation
can mean that many partners,
suppliers and customers need to
adapt and innovate concurrently and
collaboratively, making it difficult to
capitalise on the opportunity. For
example, the move to the electrical
propulsion systems involved in
low carbon vehicles requires new
technologies and the formation of new
partnerships.
Some companies in the value chain,
focused on their day-to-day activities,
may not even see the opportunities
created by new technologies, or
technologies with potential to cross
over from one market to disrupt
another. Information flows imperfectly
in what is a complex and organic
innovation system; business may
need help to identify opportunities,
access information and knowledge
and respond to disruptive
developments.
Finally, government influences
markets – through how it chooses
to buy, how and where it chooses to
regulate or set standards, and how
it applies fiscal incentives. All too
often government action has been
taken without a view as to how it can
stimulate innovation and maximise the
potential benefit for UK industry.
It was to help tackle these types
of market failures and innovation
bottlenecks that the Technology
Strategy Board was set up.
[ Our Strategy: Concept to commercialisation ]
Our role is to help accelerate
economic growth through the
stimulation and support of businessled innovation. We are businessfocused and business-led; our
Governing Board and our staff
have strong experience of R&D and
innovation and the commercialisation
of technology.
We work across business,
academia and government, helping
companies take concepts through to
commercialisation. This means:
– tackling the barriers to innovation
– reducing risk
– promoting collaboration
–knowledge exchange
– open innovation
–creating a more effective innovation
environment, using our convening
power to make connections and to
bring different partners together.
Our strategy has five key
aims:
1 Accelerating the
journey from concept to
commercialisation
The journey of an idea from initial
concept to commercial reality is
not linear and has many possible
entry and exit points. Support
available to business is too often
fragmented and leaves gaps. We
will work with business and other
partners to support the innovation
journey, developing our tools and
programmes to ensure cohesive
and co-ordinated support, helping
business to commercialise new
products and services.
2 Connecting the
innovation-support
landscape
The UK system supporting
innovation has many different
bodies, organisations and
initiatives both public and private.
Considerable help and multiple
forms of support are available
but the innovation ecosystem
is fragmented and difficult for
business to navigate, particularly for
small and early-stage businesses.
We are broadening our role to build
mutually beneficial relationships
with other UK organisations, to
help join up all the players in the
innovation-support landscape and
create a more effective innovation
environment. We aim to increase
the ability of companies to access
multiple forms of support in the UK,
EU and internationally.
3 Turning government
action into business
opportunity
Governments can change
markets through better regulation,
standardisation, fiscal incentives
and procurement. We will work with
government to identify areas where
policy, standards, and regulation
can stimulate business innovation,
and will help unlock the potential
of government to act as a ‘lead
customer’, engaging with business
to find new solutions to public
sector challenges.
4 Investing in priority
theme areas based on
potential
We have to make choices,
prioritising investment in areas or
themes most likely to generate
sustainable UK economic growth.
We will develop our thematic
programme to focus on areas
which address global challenges
and market opportunities,
complemented and supported
by innovation in competences
and enabling technologies. We
will review opportunities for new
initiatives where there is potential for
UK commercial success.
5 Continuously improving
our capability
We will continue to develop our
business processes to be fast,
flexible, and focused on the needs
of the businesses we support,
and develop our benchmarks and
impact measures to ensure that
we remain highly effective and
deliver value for money. We will
support and develop our staff,
and ensure that our organisation
provides a positive and stimulating
environment where they can thrive
and work effectively together
Working with all our partners, we
are translating these aims into a
programme of action to accelerate
business innovation. In all we do,
we ask ourselves one question:
will it help UK business bring
new products and services
rapidly to market?
[ Delivery Plan 2013–14 ] 9
[ Delivery Plan 2013–14 ]
Delivery plan
2013-14: Summary
Our plan of action is directly linked to our
strategic aims.
Here we explain how, with a summary
of the main actions for 2013-14.
Accelerating the journey
between concept and
commercialisation
Since our establishment we have
been evolving and refining our
portfolio of tools and mechanisms
to stimulate business innovation. We
have progressively improved existing,
and added new, tools focusing
on tackling specific challenges
or targeting specific business
segments.
Following an announcement by the
Prime Minister in October 2010, we
have been working to establish seven
Catapults – world-leading centres of
innovation designed to accelerate
commercialisation in specific fields.
The first Catapult, in high value
manufacturing, opened in October
2011. During 2013-14 we will:
–ensure all the Catapults are
operational and will work with
the management teams to build
up the capability of the centres
and commission new facilities,
laboratories and initial flagship
projects
–communicate widely the
Catapults’ benefits and vision
and the value they add to
business and to different parts of
the innovation landscape
–further develop the international
profile of the Catapults to ensure
effective engagement in EU and
international activities to benefit
UK business wealth creation.
In April 2011, we introduced Smart,
which aims to fill the gap in seed
funding felt by small and early-stage
companies.
The scheme was significantly
oversubscribed and, having
doubled our funding from £20m
to £40m last year, we plan to
at least maintain this level of
funding.
In September 2012, we
introduced Innovation
Vouchers to help businesses
access external experts with the
knowledge needed to progress
an idea or to further support the
10
development of a new product or
service.
Innovation Vouchers provide an entry
point for businesses into the wider
support available from the Technology
Strategy Board and other partner
organisations.
To further enhance and clarify our
support for small business this year
we will:
–continue to develop and expand
Innovation Vouchers to help
companies engage with the
knowledge base
–work to develop the role of
government as a lead customer,
increasing the scale of SBRI in
line with the announcement in the
March 2013 Budget and working to
deploy it across government
–run at least three Launchpad
competitions to support SME
cluster development
–increase the pipeline of high-quality
Knowledge Transfer Partnerships
proposals to generate at least 800
active partnerships
–run three Missions, with UK Trade
and Investment (UKTI), to support
SMEs on overseas visits to find
collaborators, partners and funders
–work with the Economic and Social
Research Council, BIS and the
British Bankers’ Association to help
[ Summary ]
the Enterprise Research Centre
research the challenges SMEs
face in realising their growth
potential.
Engaging with the community and
communication are vital components
of innovation. New products and
services often arise from combining
new ideas with existing technologies,
so innovators have to be aware of
supply chains, knowledge sources
and markets.
Connecting individuals and ideas,
enabling knowledge flow and
partnerships, and highlighting
opportunity all play an important part.
To support this, over the coming year
we will:
–launch and implement a new
community engagement
strategy, defining how we will
work nationally on innovation
challenges whilst connecting and
convening locally with emerging
organisations such as local
enterprise partnerships (LEPs),
and defining the future structure
of networks supported by the
Technology Strategy Board
–improve our overall
communications and outreach,
developing a clear message of
who we are and how we can
help, improving our website and
enabling better signposting
–work with partner organisations
to use events strategically,
increasing our engagement
with and support for innovative
businesses and helping them
find new collaborations and
opportunities.
Connecting the
innovation-support
landscape
We only cover part of the overall
innovation journey. We support good
ideas and innovative companies
with funding and networking,
connecting companies to partners
and knowledge.
However, innovative companies
also need other forms of support.
These include advice on exporting,
mentoring, investment readiness
training, and help to access seed
and growth capital to progress
their ideas to commercial reality. To
fully support business innovation
we will help companies that we are
engaged with to better connect to the
innovation-support landscape.
The EU Horizon 2020 programme is
also a major source of new funding
and collaboration opportunities for
UK business and we will enhance
the support provided for companies
wishing to engage with it.
We also need to look beyond Europe
to help companies take advantage of
global markets. We will develop
deeper relations with a few priority
countries including India, Brazil and
China and work with UKTI and BIS to
identify innovation hotspots around
the world where, in specific thematic
areas, we can together help UK
business take best advantage of the
opportunities.
To achieve this we will:
–continue to develop our excellent
relationship with the research
base, for example by looking at
intelligent brokering that connects
companies facing challenges to
universities with potential solutions
–continue developing our strategic
partnerships so that businesses
are offered a more complete range
of support – for example export
advice from UKTI, coaching,
mentoring and training from
GrowthAccelerator, intellectual
property audit and advice from
the Intellectual Property Office and
links to skills support in conjunction
with the UK Commission for
Employment and Skills
–work closely with the new Business
Bank
–engage the venture capital,
business angel, corporate
venturing and lending communities
so that we connect companies
with good ideas to investors with
money
–implement changes that
enhance the support provided
for businesses engaging with
EU programmes to take best
advantage of Horizon 2020
–develop capability to engage
strategically with the European
Regional Development Fund
programme, specifically the new
programme starting in 2014
–develop deeper relations with
priority countries including India,
Brazil and China and work with
UKTI and BIS to identify innovation
hotspots around the world to help
UK business take best advantage
of the opportunities.
[ Delivery Plan 2013–14 ] 11
[ Delivery Plan 2013–14 ]
Turning government
action into business
opportunity
The actions of government
departments and agencies can
change markets and create
opportunities for innovative
businesses. We will work with
government to identify areas where
policy, procurement, standards, and
regulation can stimulate business
innovation.
We take account, in the individual
strategies for our thematic
programmes, of the opportunities
that regulations and standards can
deliver in stimulating innovation (see
page 27).
value through scale and through
providing better and more coordinated support to business.
In the area of government
procurement, we will continue to
promote the role of government
as lead customer – articulating
challenges, engaging with business
in seeking solutions, validating
prototypes and providing a route
to market for new products and
services.
We will:
–work with, and across,
government to champion the
role of government as a lead
customer
–increase the scale of SBRI in
Our innovation platforms bring
line with the announcement in
together the public and private sectors
the March 2013 Budget, issuing
around major societal challenges
£100m of new contracts
where government action drives
business opportunity, such as the
–work with the emerging NHS
market for low carbon vehicles and the
structure to help the development
introduction of more innovative ways
of their capability to support
to reduce the environmental footprint
the creation and absorption of
of buildings.
innovative solutions
We are increasingly being used
across government as an effective
partner, using our core expertise to
deliver programmes jointly with, and
on behalf of, a range of government
organisations such as the UK Space
Agency and the Office for Low
Emission Vehicles.
We will continue to act as an
innovation delivery partner for
government departments and other
organisations where we can add
12
–continue to develop the role of
our innovation platforms (see
page 28).
–work with the BIS sector teams
and industry in developing and
delivering the industrial strategy.
Investing in priority
areas based on
potential
Our portfolio of theme-based
activities focuses on three distinct
areas:
–those that address global
challenges and the resulting
market opportunities, such as the
built environment
–innovation in competences, such
as high value manufacturing,
that enable the translation of
technologies into products and
services
–specific enabling technologies
themselves, such as advanced
materials.
In each theme area we highlight
the opportunities for innovation
by publishing strategies, then
provide incentives through funding
programmes or other activities to help
business take up these opportunities.
In 2012-13 we published revisions
of the strategies for high value
manufacturing, energy and enabling
technologies and will publish
strategies for most of the other areas
during 2013-14.
During the year we plan to launch
about 75 competitions for R&D and
innovation across these themes,
committing almost £300m of funding.
Co-funding from our partners will add
to this, with the overall funding from
the public sector matched by the
private sector. For the rationale and
plans in each theme area, see pages
27 onwards.
[ Delivery Plan: Summary ]
Continuously
improving our
capability
To deliver the programmes of activities
outlined in this document we need to
be a highly capable organisation.
During the year we will:
–continue to develop our resources
and business processes to be fast,
flexible, and focused on the needs
of the businesses that we support
and continue to introduce an
integrated system providing easier
engagement for business and a
greater ability to easily extract and
analyse management information
This delivery plan forms a considered
and dynamic plan of action, based on
our strategy and using approaches
that we know work, to continue
building a powerful programme of
innovation support in the interests of
future UK economic growth.
This document shows plans as at the
start of the financial year 2013-14 and
these may change.
New developments will be
communicated through the
Technology Strategy Board website:
www.innovateuk.org and through the
_connect online networking platform.
Access the _connect site at
https://ktn.innovateuk.org
–ensure we effectively and
efficiently meet our customer,
stakeholder and organisational
needs, enhancing our capability
to effectively support business
enquiries
–develop our benchmarks and
impact measures to ensure that we
remain highly effective and deliver
value for money.
[ Delivery Plan 2013–14 ] 13
[ Delivery Plan 2013–14 ]
[ Key Actions ]
Delivery plan 2013-14:
Key Actions
page
18
19
Enhancing our support
for high-growth SMEs
We have introduced several SME-focused tools since the launch of our new
strategy, including Smart and Innovation Vouchers. We will develop and
expand these and make full use of existing tools such as Knowledge Transfer
Partnerships.
Realising
the strategic
vision of Catapult centres
All seven Catapults will be operational this year, with clearly defined and
resourced business plans.
23
Enhancing support for
companies accessing EU
programmes
In preparing for Horizon 2020, the new EU funding programme, we will develop a
more co-ordinated and coherent support package to ensure UK businesses gain
maximum benefit from the opportunities it presents.
23
EU and international
strategy
We are developing partnerships within Europe as well as with India, China and
Brazil to help companies develop international partnerships and supply chains.
We are working with partners including UKTI, BIS, the Science and Innovation
Network and the research councils.
23
24
25
Developing the role of
government as a lead
customer
e are working across government to help develop its potential as a lead
W
customer and, following the March 2013 Budget announcement, will work to
realise the five-fold scale-up of SBRI.
Helping businesses to
access other sources of
support
Many companies can benefit from advice on business growth, export
and intellectual property issues amongst others. We will develop strategic
partnerships to help connect companies to multiple forms of support.
Connecting and
convening in the new
innovation-support
landscape
We have been redeveloping our engagement strategy with business, academia
and local government, taking into account changes in the sub-national landscape
and looking at how we can develop our capability to connect and convene
around national challenges. We will publish and deploy it this year.
Thematic programmes
32
Energy
35
38
14
Built environment
Food
We will commit up to £35m to business-led projects and Missions, and up to
£10m to the Offshore Renewable Energy Catapult, with a focus on new energy
technologies that help solve the challenges of sustainability, security, and
affordability of supply and supporting the implementation of the Government’s
industrial strategies for nuclear, oil and gas, and offshore wind.
will commit up to £16m to business-led projects and up to £10m to the
We
Future Cities Catapult, with a focus on systems integration, users, delivering
designed performance, and supporting the implementation of the Government’s
Construction Industrial Strategy.
e will commit up to £14m to business-led projects, with a focus on engineering
W
solutions, integrated farming systems and measurement technologies and
supporting the implementation of the Government’s Industrial Strategy for
Agri-Tech.
Transport
We will commit up to £35m to business-led projects, studies and workshops and
up to £10m to the new Transport Systems Catapult, with a focus on integrated
transport systems, low carbon vehicles, rail systems, marine vessel efficiency,
aerospace and supporting the implementation of the Government’s strategies for
the automotive and aerospace industries, including the delivery of the Aerospace
Technology Institute.
43
Health
We will commit up to £68m to a range of activities including the Cell Therapy
Catapult and the Biomedical Catalyst, with a focus on better disease detection,
prevention and management; tailored treatments for disease; potential cures and
supporting the implementation of the Government’s Life Sciences Strategy.
45
High value
manufacturing
We will commit up to £63m to the High Value Manufacturing Catapult, collaborative
R&D competitions, Knowledge Transfer Partnerships, special interest groups,
and building links with China, with a focus on resource efficiency, manufacturing
systems, integration of new materials, manufacturing processes, and new
business models.
Helping high-growth SMEs We will work with the financial community to develop ways to help companies we
are engaged with access seed and capital funding – both public and private – to
access complementary
help them to grow.
financial support
21 40
48
Digital economy
We will commit up to £10m to the Connected Digital Economy Catapult and up
to £37m to 10 competitions, with a focus on exploiting data, new value models,
resilient and interoperable digital systems, linking services to customers, and
supporting the implementation of the Government’s Information Economy
Industrial Strategy.
Space applications
e will commit up to £10m to the Satellite Applications Catapult and up to £11m
W
to TechDemoSat and UKube, Knowledge Transfer Partnerships, special interest
groups and competitions, with a focus on satellite data and space-based satellite
systems, national and European space programmes, and demonstration.
50
52
Resource efficiency
e will commit up to £8m to competitions, special interest groups and Missions,
W
with a focus on substituting at-risk and high-environmental-impact materials,
closing the lifecycle loop, reducing material use, and reducing energy intensity on a
lifecycle basis.
Enabling technologies
We will commit up to £30m to support the collaboration and cross-fertilisation
of ideas between sectors and through identified technology challenges in areas
such as robotics and autonomous systems, advanced materials, biosciences,
electronics, sensors and photonics, and ICT.
54
57
Emerging technologies
e will commit up to £7m to special interest groups and an innovation and
W
knowledge centre in synthetic biology, with the focus on areas of disruptive
technology such as synthetic biology, energy-efficient computing, and energy
harvesting.
Continuously improving our capability
59Understanding
impact
and using evidence to
enhance delivery
e will build an impact evidence base and use this, along with evidence from
W
innovation research and our own management information systems, to develop
our strategic toolset, articulate arguments that influence policy and support
investment decisions.
59
Developing our systems We will further improve competition, grants, monitoring and claims processes
59
Enhancing business
processes
e will continue to develop robust processes that ensure scalability,
W
reproducibility, and performance improvement.
60
Professionalising
customer support
e will develop our business support team and systems to provide more effective
W
service to the growing number of business enquiries we receive.
within an integrated system.
[ Delivery Plan 2013–14 ] 15
[ Delivery Plan 2013–14 ]
Delivery plan
2013-14: Details
As the UK’s innovation agency, everything we do is
focused on helping UK business bring new products,
services and processes more rapidly to market.
The journey an idea takes from
the initial concept to being
commercialised and generating
income is often uneven and indirect
and never the same for any two
ideas or businesses.
To get an idea from light-bulb
moment to a product on a shelf,
a service delivering benefit,
or an efficient and effective
process, requires determination,
perseverance, desire and passion.
There are many challenges
and obstacles to overcome on
the journey from concept to
commercialisation and not all ideas
will stay the course.
Our current four-year strategy Concept
to Commercialisation, published in
2011, explains our focus on:
–ensuring that our tools and
programmes offer the best
possible support at appropriate
stages of the journey
This delivery plan sets out where
we will focus our attention and
activities and explains to businesses,
academia and government what
they can expect to see over the next
12 months by way of competitions,
the support we will provide and the
changes we plan to introduce.
–working with other partners to
connect businesses to appropriate
forms of support
–using government levers such as
procurement
–focusing our support on areas
where the UK has particular
strengths and can take advantage
of large global markets
–ensuring the support we provide
is delivered and can be accessed
in the most efficient and effective
ways.
Our tools and mechanisms
to support business
innovation
Smart
Collaborative
R&d
16
Missions
Innovation
vouchers
Launchpad
Innovation &
knowledge
centres
_connect
[ The Details / How we help business ]
How we help business
The journey from concept to
commercialisation, whether
involving a start-up or large
multinational company, requires
access to finance, skills, knowledge,
equipment and partners and,
ultimately, customers.
Our role is to smooth the journey
and provide help along the way
either through the support we offer
or by connecting to the support
provided by others.
We work with businesses of all
sizes and aim to meet their differing
needs and requirements. SMEs
will be a major source of the UK’s
future economic growth. Part of
our strategy is to offer a package
of support for SMEs that will help
them access finance, partners, lead
customers and knowledge and
skills. Large companies also drive
growth, and the support we provide
can make a strategic impact on the
business as well as help to develop
their supply chains, which are an
important source of SME innovation.
We have at our disposal a range of
tools to support businesses on their
innovation journey.
We are working to ensure that it
is clear to businesses when they
are planning ahead which of our
support tools might be best suited
to meet their specific needs. As they
make the journey from concept to
commercialisation, we need to help
them more efficiently and effectively
select the right support they need at
a point when they most need it.
We need to ensure that the tools can
be accessed easily and that, where
possible, we add value to a business
through the contacts we have with
them, whether their application is
successful or not – for example in
producing a business plan as part of
the application process.
We have developed existing tools
such as collaborative research
and development funding, refining
this into a highly effective tool that
supports the exchange of knowledge
from academia to business, and
encourages innovation in, and
development of, supply chains.
We have added new tools such
as Launchpad, Smart, Innovation
Vouchers and Catapults, and have
worked on enhancing support for
smaller businesses in particular.
Applying to a scheme such as
Innovation Vouchers or Smart is
often the first contact an early-stage
business has with us. We will work to
offer ongoing engagement following
the initial contact, providing holistic
support on the innovation journey.
We provide support that is open
to any idea – such as Smart and
Knowledge Transfer Partnerships
– and support focused on specific
priority themes and challenges – such
as collaborative R&D and SBRI.
Details of the support provided
through our thematic programmes
starts on page 27.
[ Delivery Plan 2013–14 ] 17
[ Delivery Plan 2013–14 ]
Access to finance
One of the key issues a business
faces when developing an idea is how
to best finance that development.
Often it is from family or friends or a
loan from a bank. Sometimes it can be
through support from government or
the private equity market, where there
is a higher level of risk.
Private sector finance is at a premium
in the current economic climate. This
in turn leads to reduced investment
in innovation, which often comes too
late, if at all. There is a well-recognised
seed funding gap for start-ups and
early-stage companies as well as for
small enterprises that want to invest
in their own development and growth.
The British Business Bank, announced
by Secretary of State Vince Cable
in September 2012, reflects the
importance that the Government is
placing on giving business better
access to finance.
To help overcome the challenges
faced by companies in accessing
finance, the Technology Strategy
Board provides a range of support
to reduce risk and help companies
fund innovative projects (see front of
document for overview). In addition
to our own support, we are linking to
that provided by the private sector
to help companies raise further
finance, including finance to match
our financial support for projects or
to help fund the business through the
commercialisation phase, beyond
where we can provide support.
Access to finance from the
Technology Strategy Board
We offer SMEs financial support for
ideas through competitive
application:
–Smart: providing small grants
aimed at filling the gap in seed
funding felt by small and earlystage companies
– E
urostars: helping businesses
internationalise through
collaboration with EU companies
and partners and as a first step into
larger EU programmes.
During 2012-13, we doubled the
funding for Smart to meet the high
demand from small businesses and
to support more of the excellent
proposals received. We have
developed our understanding of the
needs of smaller businesses and
will look at how we can better target
our support to different segments of
businesses – recognising that the term
SME covers a wide range of different
businesses with different needs. In
the Smart programme, around 70% of
recipients are micro-companies (with
fewer than 10 employees) and over
half are younger than five years old.
Our financial support is also focused
around specific technologies, markets,
challenges and clusters and includes:
– feasibilit
y studies: providing
a small level of funding to test out
the feasibility of an idea before
accessing larger grants such as
through the collaborative R&D
competitions
– collaborative
research
& development: co-funding
innovative projects which involve
partnerships between businesses,
18
and between business and
academia, to help tackle specific
technical or societal challenges
by working collaboratively to
create new products, processes
and services
– S
BRI: providing business with
public sector procurement
contracts to research and
develop new products and
services, addressing public
sector challenges and connecting
the public sector as a ‘lead
customer’ with innovative
companies
– L
aunchpad: offering small
grants linked to other forms of
support within a geographical
business cluster, such as
coaching and mentoring and
access to finance, to help the
company grow.
We ran our first Launchpad
competition in 2011 to support the
growing cluster of digital companies
based in Tech City in East London.
The competition attracted more
than 200 applications from SMEs
to work in the digital space in
Shoreditch, London, and our funding
of £1.25m drew in an additional
£1.5m of private sector funding for
13 projects.
Three further Launchpad
competitions were launched in 201213. The Harwell Space Launchpad
encourages engagement with space
sector expertise and facilities on the
Harwell campus, including those
of the European Space Agency,
the Science & Technology Facilities
Council, RAL Space and the Satellite
Applications Catapult.
The Materials and Manufacturing
North West Launchpad is focused
[ Access to Finance ]
on the cluster of materials and
manufacturing companies around
Daresbury and Runcorn Heath,
and the Creative and Digital Clyde
Launchpad seeks to stimulate
the cluster of creative and digital
businesses in Glasgow.
We see the Launchpad model
as a good way of supporting the
development and strengthening
of existing clusters of high-tech
companies in specific priority
technology fields, and plan to
run further competitions in digital
and creative, cyber security,
and advanced engineering and
manufacturing clusters across
different parts of the UK.
Accessing financial support
from others
Financial support from the Technology
Strategy Board, such as through
the Smart scheme, will only take an
idea so far on its journey towards
commercialisation because of
European state aid rules and the
higher levels of funding often required
the closer to market the idea gets.
Companies sometimes need help in
finding the funding to match that on
offer from the Technology Strategy
Board or to scale up the idea once the
project is complete. We therefore need
to help businesses access private
funding such as from the venture
capital and business angel markets.
We have found that these private
sector investors see companies that
have been awarded Technology
Strategy Board funding as good
investment prospects, carrying less
risk because their ideas have been
independently assessed and they have
the backing of non-dilutive government
funding.
Building on the experience of the
Tech City Launchpad, where we
helped companies gain the funding
to match our grant offer, we will
consider processes and mechanisms
for supporting companies engaged
across all of our relevant programmes.
This will include engaging with:
–established sources of equity,
particularly business angels,
venture capital and corporate
venturing
–established sources of credit,
particularly banks
–new forms of ‘alternative finance’,
particularly crowdfunding and
asset-based finance
–public and private sector
mechanisms to support investment
readiness and business growth,
particularly GrowthAccelerator and
the new Business Bank.
One way we will encourage this
engagement is through making
information about the businesses
we support more readily available to
providers of funding, by enhancing
the accessibility of our management
information through a searchable
database.
Another way will be to use our support
for regional or sector-based events
– for example VentureFest – to bring
together businesses we support and
potential investors and providers of
business support services.
Throughout 2012-13, we have referred
eligible SMEs receiving Smart awards
to the GrowthAccelerator programme
in order to encourage them to take
up the offer of business coaching
to help them to realise their growth
ambitions. We have also helped to
publicise a number of new accelerator
programmes to attract innovative
businesses to these forms of financial
and business support.
In 2013, we have begun a pilot
programme for SMEs to provide
them with specialist business and
investment readiness training. We
will work towards making delivery
of access to finance and business
growth support a standard part of
our toolset so that businesses we
support in our programmes that need
assistance are identified and engaged
(directly or indirectly) with a relevant
provider.
We also want to ensure that, where
possible, we add value for all
applicants, whether their application
is successful or not. Evidence shows
[ Delivery Plan 2013–14 ] 19
[ Delivery Plan 2013–14 ]
that companies often struggle to
articulate their value proposition and
define the business model through
which they will access markets and
capture customer value. This may
also exacerbate the problem of finding
suitable external investment.
To add value to all applicants, we
will work to improve our application
process so that their initial contact
with us will help them not only to
define their innovation project but will
also encourage them to articulate
their value proposition and develop
a credible business plan for its
commercialisation.
When put together with business
coaching and other support, our
processes will encourage the
development of core business
capabilities required to realise the
value of innovation, gain access
funding to achieve this and therefore
facilitate the delivery of growth.
Accessing finance from
abroad
Europe represents the world’s largest
international market with almost
500 million people generating €12tr
in economic activity. It is a bigger
trading area than the US and Japan
combined.
As well as being a significant market
opportunity, it also represents a
significant opportunity in terms of
funding for R&D and innovation and
for building networks. UK business
does not, however, access EU
programmes at the same levels as
competitor countries and is therefore
not taking maximum advantage of
the opportunities that exist in terms
of funding and the building of new
networks – often seen as more
important than the funding.
We need to ensure that more UK
businesses take advantage of the
opportunities under the new Horizon
2020 programme when it starts at the
beginning of 2014. We have reviewed
the support available with BIS and will
put in place a more co-ordinated and
coherent support package to increase
UK business participation.
Targets
– R
un at least three Launchpad
competitions to support SMEs
within clusters.
– P
rovide at least £40m for the Smart
programme to support SMEs to
develop their ideas.
– W
ork with the Government to
realise the five-fold scale-up of
SBRI to enable government to
act more effectively as a lead
customer for more innovative
businesses.
– P
osition our funding as a ‘badge
of quality’ to help SMEs raise their
profiles and access finance more
easily, and support companies
who want to use their award to
raise equity.
– D
evelop mechanisms to leverage
access to finance and other forms
of business support, connecting
businesses with identified needs
and providers of support.
– D
eliver a functional ‘searchable
database’ to give greater visibility
to the private equity community of
the projects we are supporting and
those seeking additional finance.
We will provide support for the key
areas of Horizon 2020, including the
new societal challenge areas, where
the UK has good opportunities. We will – Track and evaluate impact
such as: the conversion of
maximise the potential of the national
the companies we refer to
contact points – individuals providing
GrowthAccelerator for support,
expert advice about EU programmes
the amount of funding raised
to potential applicants – and
following Launchpads, and the
organisations such as the Enterprise
showcasing of activities or use of
Europe Networks.
searchable databases.
– Implement the findings of the joint
review with BIS, enhancing UK
support for businesses engaging
with EU programmes to maximise
the benefit of Horizon 2020.
20
[ Access to Finance / Access to Knowledge, skills, equpment and partners ]
Access to knowledge, skills,
equipment and partners
Businesses can sometimes lack the
internal capability to deliver a new
product, process or service. This is
increasingly true as products and
services become ever more complex,
requiring a much more multidisciplinary
approach. A single company will often
find it difficult to maintain the skills,
knowledge and equipment necessary
to support the introduction of a new
product or service. They therefore
need to work with a range of different
partners.
The Technology Strategy Board helps
businesses access skills, equipment
and partners. These include through
the Catapult centres, Knowledge
Transfer Partnerships, and the new
national Innovation Voucher scheme,
which provides small amounts
of funding to help SMEs access
knowledge from external experts.
Catapults
Catapults are centres of excellence
that bridge the gap between business,
academia, research and government.
They are a powerful new element in
the UK economy, helping businesses
develop relevant and exciting
ideas in receptive and invigorating
environments.
By promoting collaboration and
knowledge exchange, many
progressive businesses and
organisations will be able to build
new partnerships with reduced risks.
Companies in a wide range of markets
will see the Catapults as an invaluable
resource to develop their businesses.
Since the intention to set up the
Catapult centres was announced by
the Prime Minister in October 2010,
we have been working to establish
seven Catapults.
Successful implementation of the
Catapult programme is strategically
important and we will ensure that
the centres are operating effectively
and new ones come on stream as
planned. We will work to ensure that
the Catapults are developed as an
integrated part of the overall support
that we provide and have a clear role in
the innovation landscape in the UK. To
Catapult Location
achieve this we will ensure that
– High Value Seven partner
the Catapult vision and opportunities
Manufacturing centres around
are communicated effectively to
the country
both business and other
stakeholders.
– Cell Therapy Guy’s Hospital, London
Targets
– D
eliver the strategic vision of the
Catapults as a network of elite
technology and innovation centres
supporting UK business to develop
long-term sustainable growth, and a
key element of our integrated toolkit.
This includes SME engagement,
outreach events and initiatives, and
building links to other UK
innovation centres.
– C
ontinue to build the Catapult
centres to meet business plan
targets, completing the recruitment
of leadership teams and boards
and finalising long-term strategic
goals, long-term business plans and
performance metrics.
– C
ommunicate widely the benefits
and vision and the value they add
to different parts of the innovation
landscape, raising the profile of the
Catapult network to help promote
UK business engagement.
– F
urther develop the international
profile of the Catapults to ensure
effective involvement in key EU and
global research, development and
innovation activities to benefit UK
business wealth creation.
– Offshore Renewable HQ in Glasgow
Energy
For 2013-14 the Catapults
programme moves from
– Satellite Applications Harwell Science & Innovation an intensive delivery phase into
an operational phase, with
Campus, Oxfordshire
the aim of having all seven
– Connected Digital London
centres operational in 2013.
Economy
– Future Cities London
– Transport To be announced
Systems
[ Delivery Plan 2013–14 ] 21
[ Delivery Plan 2013–14 ]
Knowledge Transfer
Partnerships
Knowledge Transfer Partnerships
(KTPs) aim to help improve the
competitiveness of a business by
drawing on the expertise in UK
universities, colleges and other
knowledge providers. Knowledge is
usually transferred through a recently
qualified individual specifically
employed to work on a challenging
innovation project.
During 2012-13, 279 new KTPs
were approved to start; we piloted
competitions for theme-based KTPs,
and we added the Medical Research
Council as a new sponsor. All the
research councils now co-fund KTPs,
as do the devolved administrations and
some government departments. During
2013-14, we will introduce at least one
new sponsor to enable more projects
to be funded.
Innovation Vouchers
Innovation Vouchers help SMEs
access knowledge from external
providers such as universities and
colleges, research and technology
organisations, design advisers and
intellectual property advisers. The new
national Innovation Voucher scheme
was launched in September 2012 and
helps to stimulate businesses to bring
in new knowledge, enhancing their
ability to develop innovative products
and services.
We have also brought together for the
first time in one place details of the
other innovation voucher schemes
available to business in the UK.
22
Targets
– Increase the pipeline of high-quality
KTP proposals to generate at least
800 active partnerships.
– A
dd at least one new KTP
sponsor, to increase the number of
businesses benefitting.
– C
ontinue to develop and expand
Innovation Vouchers to help
companies engage with knowledge
suppliers.
Knowledge transfer
networks, special interest
groups and _connect
Knowledge transfer networks, special
interest groups and _connect help
businesses to find partners and access
knowledge.
These theme-based networks
accelerate business innovation by
enabling people to share knowledge,
ideas and opportunities within and
between specific sectors. The networks
are hosted on the Technology Strategy
Board’s online community, _connect,
at https://ktn.innovateuk.org
We have been growing the
membership of _connect, with over
60,000 members now participating in
the networks or special interest groups
that it hosts. ‘ConnectMe’ functionality
has been developed to help create
partnerships by matching people with
similar innovation and technology
interests.
Building international
partnerships
It is estimated that 90% of R&D and
innovation is conducted outside the
UK, and many major and lead-marketshaping companies are of non-UK
origin. It is therefore important that
the Technology Strategy Board is
active in helping companies access
knowledge and build partnerships with
organisations outside the UK as well as
in leveraging funding and learning from
others.
The new EU Horizon 2020 programme
is not only an opportunity to access
funding but is also a means to develop
new relationships with EU companies;
businesses consistently tell us that this
is the biggest benefit to participation in
EU programmes. By supporting more
businesses to access EU programmes
we hope to build more cross-border
partnerships.
We also need to look beyond Europe
to help companies take advantage
of global markets. We will develop
deeper relations with a few priority
countries including India, Brazil and
China and work with UKTI and BIS to
identify innovation hotspots around
the world where we will work together
in specific thematic areas to help UK
business take best advantage of the
opportunities.
We will develop the role the Catapult
centres play on the international
stage to ensure they achieve global
recognition and support the needs of
UK business through building strong
international links. We will work with
[ Access to Knowledge, skills, equpment and partners / Access to Lead customers ]
Access to lead customers
Research Councils UK (RCUK) to
build on investments they have already
made in specific countries where they
align with our priorities and to develop
joint programmes.
In 2012, we supported, with UKTI,
the second Clean and Cool Mission
to the US focused on clean energy
technologies, and the Future Health
Mission to Boston. Early in 2013, we
supported our first mission outside
of the US with the Web Mission to
India. We will run further Missions to
help small companies build up global
partnerships.
Targets
–Develop activities with India, Brazil
and China and identify innovation
hotspots to prioritise international
engagement in specific thematic
areas.
–Develop a programme with India,
including consortia-forming
workshops and a collaborative R&D
competition working jointly with
the Indian Department of Science
and Technology and the Global
Innovation and Technology Alliance.
–Run the first Mission to China
enabling UK SMEs to collaborate
on sustainable manufacturing
processes, with a follow-on
collaborative R&D competition to be
run jointly with the Chinese Ministry
of Science & Technology.
–Run the first Clean & Cool Mission
to Brazil, enabling UK SMEs to
take advantage of the immense
opportunities in the sustainability
sector and run a Clean & Cool
Mission to Colorado looking at clean
energy.
–Develop the role the Catapult
centres play on the international
stage and work with RCUK in the
development of joint activities.
The UK government is the largest
single purchaser in the UK but little of
that purchasing power is directed at
supporting innovation and economic
growth. How the public sector
behaves towards its suppliers can
do much to foster innovation. The
potential is widely recognised, but
there are major cultural and process
issues to overcome.
We continue to see this as an
area where great impact could be
achieved. We have been working
to move the agenda forward, away
from the simplistic focus on the
procurement function and towards
a more sophisticated view of the
systems and processes around
government engaging as a lead
customer.
To act as an effective lead customer
requires the ability to:
–identify un-met needs and areas
where innovation is necessary and
where engagement with industry
could lead to better solutions
–engage with industry in the
articulation of these needs and
support the development process
through specification, verification
and validation
–provide a route to market,
deploying the resulting solutions.
Mechanisms such as innovation
platforms and SBRI cover the second
of the above requirements, but,
without the first and last, it is hard to
build a pipeline of challenges or to
ensure deployment of solutions. To
make SBRI comparable to its sister
scheme in the US demands a much
more ambitious approach.
The Government acknowledged this
in the March 2013 Budget with the
announcement of a five-fold scale-up
of the programme which should help
establish a more systemic approach.
We will continue to develop this
theme and look to take a role as
delivery partner with organisations
such as the NHS.
Government agreed in the response
to Lord Heseltine’s Review that
there should be a single source of
expertise for innovation procurement
and that the Technology Strategy
Board is uniquely placed to fulfil
that role.
SBRI
SBRI helps government act as
a lead customer and work with
innovative SMEs. The business gets
finance to develop its ideas, working
with a potential purchaser, and the
public sector gets more innovative
ways of meeting its needs. In 201213, we continued the programme’s
expansion, achieving growth in the
number of competitions but, more
importantly, increasing support and
financial commitment. Since April
2009, over £100m of contracts have
been issued to businesses.
SBRI continues to represent a
significant opportunity both to
support innovative businesses to
develop new products and services
and for central government and the
wider public sector to stimulate and
have access to novel solutions to the
challenges they face. During 201314 we will work with the Government
to deploy the five-fold increase in
scale and longer term sustainability
of SBRI.
Target
–Work with, and across,
government to champion the role
of government as a lead customer.
–Increase the scale of SBRI in
line with the March 2013 Budget
announcement, with £100m of
new contracts issued.
[ Delivery Plan 2013–14 ] 23
[ Delivery Plan 2013–14 ]
Linking and leveraging government support
The public sector support system
– GrowthAccelerator: ensuring
has many useful components but for
companies get appropriate
businesses it can be complex and
mentoring and coaching support to
difficult to navigate. Many partner
facilitate growth
organisations have an important role to
play in the innovation journey, and the
– the devolved administrations of
Technology Strategy Board, as the UK’s
Scotland, Wales and Northern
innovation agency, is in a position to
Ireland and local enterprise
help businesses to leverage the multiple
partnerships in England: creating
forms of government support available.
the links between the national and
the local
We will work to develop strategic
relationships that enable us to improve
– the UK Commission for
the support infrastructure and to deliver
Employment and Skills: better
multiple forms of support to companies
aligning skills provision to support
we are working with.
innovative companies
We will continue to work with a number
of partner organisations where we feel
there are the biggest opportunities to
provide coherent support for the benefit
of UK business:
– the
research councils and the Higher
Education Funding Council for
England: working closely with the
research base. We have a strong
and well-developed relationship
with the research councils and the
Higher Education Funding Council
for England, including some aligned
activity and joint programmes. There
is opportunity to improve and look
at more structural alignment driven
by our strategy and a more systemic
approach to our toolset. We are also
looking at how we provide brokerage
between business and academia
–Nesta: working to understand the
evidence base around innovation
support and supporting its activities
on prizes
– UKTI:
better connecting companies
with UKTI support for exporting
– the Intellectual Property Office:
linking companies with intellectual
property support provided by the
IPO and others
24
– the
British Standards Institution:
supporting the development of
standards, particularly in emerging
areas of technology
– the
Design Council: helping
businesses understand how
design can play a key part in the
development of their business.
We recognise the importance of
local business engagement and
of understanding how our support
can be best accessed locally and
the impact it can achieve. The
review by Lord Heseltine, No Stone
Unturned, published in October 2012,
emphasised the importance of that
engagement.
We continue to develop strong links
and grow activity with the devolved
administrations, focusing on priority
areas where we see mutual benefit.
The local enterprise partnerships
(LEPs) and the GrowthAccelerator
scheme are two new structures and
activities in place where we need to
create effective engagement to ensure
we are achieving maximum benefit
for business. LEPs, although still at an
early stage, should be well-placed to
help raise awareness of, and signpost
local businesses to, our programmes.
While the majority of our interventions
have historically not had a particular
geographic focus, it is also evident
that they can have an important
impact at a local level. The
introduction of Catapult centres and
the greater use of Launchpads in
support of specific clusters bring
more of a local dimension to our
work.
Targets
– Implement
a programme of
joint activities with key strategic
partners that leverages public
sector support and provides
multiple forms of support to help
innovative companies to grow.
– Work
with key partners such as
research councils and funding
councils to improve national
co-ordination of strategies and
investments for business/university
collaboration and broaden
research base engagement
including strengthening our
relationships with key research
base groups/alliances.
– Look
at how we more effectively
use intelligent brokering to help
businesses work with the research
base.
– Strengthen
innovation
engagement locally including with
the LEPs and with the devolved
administrations.
[ Linking and leveraging government support/ Engaging with our communities ]
Engaging with our communities
An important aspect of our work is
engaging a wide range of organisations
– business, academia, government,
investors and business support
intermediaries. We need to both listen
and learn from what the community is
telling us and broadcast our messages
effectively to the community so they are
aware of the opportunities that exist and
the latest developments happening in
their areas.
We also need to enable businesses to
engage more easily with each other and
with the knowledge base, to identify
and pursue innovative wealth-creating
opportunities.
We have a number of outreach and
connectivity channels such as the 15
knowledge transfer networks (KTNs) that
enable people to share knowledge, ideas
and opportunities within and between
sectors. Much of this is online, on our
virtual network platform _connect, where
people with ideas and resources come
together.
We also have innovation platforms,
special interest groups, national contact
points and the Catapults, all providing
different ways of engaging with our
communities – through challenges,
markets and technologies, sectors or
locally.
We need to enhance our capability
for fast, flexible and effective UK-wide
engagement on our key thematic
priorities (challenges, markets and
technologies) and more widely, drawing
on the most effective use of the wide
range of channels currently or potentially
available – international, national and
local.
The support we provide operates within
a complex environment of networks
operated by organisations such as trade
associations and professional groups as
well as other publically funded activities
and bodies such as GrowthAccelerator,
Enterprise Europe Network and the
Northern Innovation Forum.
Communications also play an important
role. Dialogue enables us to understand
business priorities and innovationsupport needs, to discuss technology
directions and opportunities for growth,
explain the support and help available,
and facilitate the collaboration that
enables faster development of new
ideas, products and services.
Events are a key tool – helping our
target companies to receive and share
information and to begin and deepen
collaborations. Innovate UK brought
together the best of the Technology
Strategy Board’s annual Innovate and
UKTI’s TechWorld events – creating the
UK’s leading multi-sector innovation and
trade networking event for business and
academia.
We also participated in many other
existing regional and national events run
by third parties, for example reaching out
to SMEs through events for early-stage
companies and investors, and working
with science parks and incubators. We
will continue to develop our concept of a
national network of innovation events.
The Technology Strategy Board website
at www.innovateuk.org is the main
way of communicating with all our
audiences and a main delivery channel
for our programmes. This year, we will
continue to work on our online presence
to provide the clarity, support and
inspiration for business that is required to
fulfil our objectives.
We also need to ensure we are reaching
as wide an audience as possible so that
businesses across the UK understand
the support that is available from
the Technology Strategy Board. We
will therefore do more to ensure UK
businesses are aware of the Technology
Strategy Board and the support we can
provide to help them to innovate.
Targets
–Publish, communicate and implement
the community engagement strategy
by March 2014, embracing all
aspects of Technology Strategy
Board engagement with the broader
business community and promoting
enhanced cross-community
networking.
–Identify the contribution to be made
by existing or potential sub-national
organisations and/or networks
and how they may be adapted to
contribute to the delivery of the
Technology Strategy Board’s mission.
–Consistent with overall strategy,
decide the way ahead for the network
of KTNs, with consequent contractual
changes for individual KTNs in place
by March 2014.
–Deliver regional innovation events
through the VentureFest concept.
–Further improve the clarity of our
website and support our online
presence with signposting and
intelligent brokerage for corporate,
SME and research-base connections.
Deliver an outreach strategy in
which web content, _connect, direct
communication and the events
programme work together.
–Work with other agencies to raise
our profile amongst SMEs and
small business groups, so that the
opportunities we offer are more clearly
and widely appreciated.
[ Delivery Plan 2013–14 ] 25
[ Delivery Plan 2013–14 ]
Working with government
We work with government
departments, both centrally and in
the devolved administrations, helping
them to develop policy and strategies
and to identify where business
innovation is needed and how it can
be best stimulated.
We work closely with BIS in a range
of areas, including the development
and now implementation of
the Government’s Innovation
and Research Strategy and the
development of its industrial strategy
and sector strategies. We will continue
to provide input to the strategies and
support their implementation.
We also act as an effective, proactive
and trusted delivery partner to
government organisations, helping
them to maximise the impact of their
support for innovation.
We have in place a service level
agreement with the UK Space Agency
(UKSA) as its delivery partner for
telecoms, navigation and integrated
projects funded through the European
Space Agency, running activities such
as the Space for Growth collaborative
research and development
competition.
We are also the delivery partner for
the innovation work of the Department
for Transport and the Office for
Low Emission Vehicles. Other
partnerships included working with
BIS and Birmingham City Council
on the delivery of the Advanced
Manufacturing Supply Chain
Initiative, and participating in the NHS
innovation and procurement review.
During 2013-14 we will further
develop such relationships,
including supporting the emerging
NHS structure and working with
organisations such as the Department
for Energy and Climate Change
(DECC) and the MoD Defence
Science and Technology Laboratory
(DSTL).
26
Targets
–Work closely with BIS on the
development and implementation
of the overall industrial strategy and
individual sector strategies and the
continuing implementation of the
Innovation and Research Strategy.
–Develop and embed established
relationships with government
departments, in particular the NHS,
DECC and DSTL.
[ Working with government/ Thematic programmes ]
Investing in priority areas based on potential
Thematic programmes
Our thematic programme focuses
on:
– S
ocietal challenges:
that are driven by the demands
of society and the resulting
market opportunities
– C
ross-cutting
competences: that enable the
translation of technologies into
products and services
– E
nabling technologies:
technologies providing
underpinning capability
–Emerging technologies:
high-potential technologies just
emerging from the research
base.
challenges
We have identified five potential
markets where innovation is led by
societal challenge:
–
–
–
–
–
energy
healthcare
built environment
food
transport.
It is always difficult to predict the
future of markets and what products
and services will be required, but
since these are driven by societal
need, they are almost certain to
grow and will require innovative
solutions to meet demand. They are
also all areas where the markets are
influenced by government action, so
we can specify aspects of the future
products and services.
Competences
Underpinning the challenge-led
areas and markets, and linking them
to the technologies we support, are
the competences:
– h
igh value manufacturing: by
linking technologies to markets and
by focusing on high value aspects,
UK businesses can differentiate
themselves from the global
competition
– d
igital economy: with the increasing
digitisation of markets, digital
services are an opportunity for the
UK to compete globally
– r esource efficiency: it is necessary
to find a way to use the Earth’s
resources efficiently in ways that
do not compromise the planet’s
ecosystems while providing a high
standard of living for the population
– s pace: space applications are a
focus area where future markets
can drive innovation in technology.
Enabling technologies
The areas on which we focus, and
which are an important link to the
knowledge base, are:
–
–
–
–
advanced materials
biosciences
electronics, sensors and photonics
information and communication
technologies.
Single developments in any one of
these may unlock several market
opportunities across multiple sectors.
Emerging technologies
and industries
This area of our work identifies highpotential technologies just emerging
from the research base and helps to
accelerate their commercialisation.
It includes areas such as synthetic
biology, energy-efficient computing
and energy harvesting.
Investment criteria
In making investments, we apply four
key criteria:
– is there a large (global) market
opportunity?
– does the UK have the capability
to develop and exploit the
technology?
– is the idea ‘ready’ – is the timing
right?
– can the Technology Strategy Board
make a difference?
Thematic strategies
Over the last couple of years we
have been reworking our strategies
for our thematic focus areas. Within
each area, we analyse available data
and consult with industry, academia
and government to ensure we have
identified how innovation support
could make a difference, and we then
plan our investments and activities for
the greatest impact. So far we have
published updated strategies for high
value manufacturing, energy, and the
enabling technologies (advanced
materials; biosciences; electronics,
sensors and photonics, and ICT).
We are working to ensure that these
strategies align with and complement
the BIS industrial strategies as they are
developed.
Target
–To publish revised strategies in
2013-14 for the built environment,
digital, food, healthcare, transport,
creative industries and emerging
technologies and industries.
We work to ensure that our portfolio
reflects synergies between these
areas.
[ Delivery Plan 2013–14 ] 27
[ Delivery Plan 2013–14 ]
Sustainability
Sustainability underpins everything
we do. The effective use of
resources, energy and social
capital is a pre-requisite for longterm economic success. Those
businesses that can manage these
successfully are likely to have the
most staying power. The challenge
is to introduce the ‘triple bottom line’
of environmental, social and financial
sustainability from the start.
Many of our programmes have a
clear theme of environmental or
resource sustainability as a driver of
innovation, and about two-thirds of
projects we fund have a sustainability
objective.
In 2012-13 we rolled out the use
of the Sustainable Economy
Framework, together with Forum for
the Future, and will continue to use
that framework to help in refreshing
our strategies and evaluating
potential new areas of investment
under development.
Target
–In 2013-14, roll out the Horizons
tool for companies to use in
shaping their own strategies and
identifying new opportunities for
innovation.
Identifying potential new
areas
Innovation platforms
It is not possible to invest in every
good idea from business or the
science base. We have to be
selective, identifying significant new
business opportunities for the UK
and, where appropriate, turning
them into robustly argued and
coherent programmes.
An innovation platform is an
approach which uses government
action to stimulate innovation. For
each innovation platform we bring
business, academia and government
together to focus on a specific
societal challenge, such as vehicle
emissions or disease diagnosis,
and identify the opportunities for
innovation.
We evaluate the potential of new
ideas and look for global markets
with more than £1bn potential,
where UK business and science
strengths can provide long-term
competitive advantage.
We identify emerging technologies
with high potential and societal
challenges where government action
creates a market opportunity.
How we support our
thematic areas
We support our thematic areas with
the most appropriate response to
the needs of the challenge, market
or technology area. The main
ways in which we provide support
are innovation platforms, largescale demonstrators, thematic
competitions and support through
community engagement.
We then offer the necessary
support to develop new solutions,
products and services to address
the challenge and, at the same time,
build UK economic growth.
We have five innovation platforms:
–Low carbon vehicles:
established 2007
–Assisted living:
established 2007
–Low impact buildings:
established 2008
–Sustainable agriculture
and food: established 2009
–Stratified medicine:
established 2010 (and
incorporating the detection and
identification of infectious agents).
The earlier platforms in particular
have already made significant
impact. In low carbon vehicles
we have leveraged over £200m
of innovation investment and run
Europe’s largest real-life trial of ultralow carbon vehicles.
28
[ Thematic Programmes ]
The Low Impact Buildings Innovation
Platform has galvanised the sector
with the Retrofit for the Future
programme for social housing,
underpinned by the targets set
by government in the Code for
Sustainable Homes. In 2012-13,
the Assisted Living Innovation
Platform launched dallas, a largescale demonstrator programme for
independent living products and
services.
Evaluating whether to set up an
innovation platform involves defining
the magnitude and scope of a
particular challenge, establishing
that a range of new technology
solutions are needed to resolve it,
understanding the impact on the
future market of government action,
and ensuring that the UK is wellplaced to develop and commercialise
the necessary solutions, and that
a Technology Strategy Board
programme would add value.
Over the next year, we will evaluate
the case for, or against, establishing
an innovation platform in personal
security. Although any programme we
launched would be clearly focused,
the scope of the study will be very
broad, encompassing all aspects
of the safety and security of the
individual, in order to identify the
areas where our action could have
most impact.
Target
–In 2013-14 we will carry out
mid-term reviews of the Assisted
Living Innovation Platform and the
Low Impact Buildings Innovation
Platform and assess the potential
for establishing an innovation
platform in personal security.
Large-scale demonstrators
Thematic competitions
Large-scale demonstrators bring
partners together to validate ideas,
overcome barriers and move new
products closer to wider application.
We have enabled effective
demonstrators in areas such as
low carbon vehicles, retrofitting of
buildings, and digital products, and in
2012-13 developed a major four-year
programme within the Assisted Living
Innovation Platform: dallas (delivering
assisted living lifestyles at scale).
Thematic competitions – competitions
for R&D and innovation funding
focused on a specific theme or
area of challenge, technology or
application – form the bulk of our
funding programmes.
dallas involves thinking beyond
traditional health and social care to
consider new ideas to improve the way
people live. By summer 2015, 169,000
people across the UK will benefit
from new products, systems, and
redesigned services, to transform their
choices as they age. Four communities
are now in full swing, showing how
innovative technologies and services
can be used to promote wellbeing and
provide top-quality health and care –
enabling people to live independently
and to expect a better future.
During 2012-13 we ran more than
70 thematic competitions for R&D
and innovation funding using
a number of our tools, whether
collaborative R&D, feasibility studies,
SBRI, demonstrators or Launchpad
competitions.
The details of competitions planned
for 2013-14, and the anticipated
funding commitments, are shown in
the following sections.
In December 2012, we announced
that Glasgow had won the competition
to host the £24m Future Cities
Demonstrator. We are also supporting
smaller demonstrator projects
totalling £9m in Bristol, London and
Peterborough and plan to follow up the
feasibility studies carried out with 30
cities.
In 2013-14 we will be launching new
demonstrators in energy and transport.
Targets
–Launch a £10m demonstrator in
energy that draws together the UK
supply chain and reduces CO2
emissions through affordable and
secure sources of supply.
–Launch transport demonstrators
in light rail, integrated mobility and
autonomous vehicles.
[ Delivery Plan 2013–14 ] 29
* Note that the figures quoted in this illustration are indicative only, subject to change over the spending
period, and represent budgets under Technology Strategy Board control only. Updated April 2013.
[ Delivery Plan 2013–14 ]
30
[ Investing in priority areas ]
Anticipated in-year expenditure
in 2014-15, by priority area*
[ Delivery Plan 2013–14 ] 31
[ Delivery Plan 2013–14 ]
Challenge-led areas: Energy
Energy underpins almost every aspect
of our day-to-day lives. We have
learnt to take energy for granted as
a commodity that will always be able
to meet our increasing demands.
However, global legislation and
domestic energy policies are now
making us appreciate the complexity
and value of energy in a way we have
not before. We therefore believe UK
domestic policy and legal requirements
offer real opportunities for UK business
to develop innovative new products and
services.
In 2011, the energy supply industry in
the UK contributed approximately 4% of
GDP (£60bn), 10% of total investment,
and 52% of industrial investment,
directly employing around 173,000
people and more indirectly (source UK
Energy In Brief 2011, DECC).
We are aiming to help UK industry
profit from the changes the world will
have to make to address the ‘trilemma’
of energy security, affordability and
sustainability.
Against this background and within the
sustainability framework developed with
Forum for the Future, our response is to
focus our strategy on three overarching
strategic opportunities where we
believe UK business can really make a
difference and generate wealth:
–reduce CO2 emissions through
affordable and secure sources of
supply
–integrate future demand and energy
supply into a flexible, secure and
resilient energy system
–reduce emissions at point of use.
32
The barriers to innovation
Focusing our investments
The future energy system will
need to be flexible, resilient and
affordable to integrate the changing
mix of energy supply and demand
technologies. There are a number
of key challenges to overcome
but they also offer businesses an
opportunity:
Against our three overarching
strategic opportunities, we have
analysed how – when the policy
landscape, global market and UK
capability are all taken into account
– we can make a difference and
stimulate innovation leading to UK
wealth creation. We have prioritised
our work under each opportunity.
–cost: new energy technologies
are often costly to implement
and need to be competitive with
existing provision in terms of
reducing the cost of operation
–supply chains: new
technologies need capable
supply chains which take time to
form
–skills: a skilled workforce is
needed with an understanding
of how to implement new
technologies
–infrastructure: innovation
needs a capable infrastructure to
manage, transmit and distribute
new energy technologies, both in
terms of supply but also on the
demand side
– s
table policy: to invest in new
infrastructure, new generating
capacity, new supply chains
and new skills, industry needs
certainty regarding regulation,
planning and capacity targets.
–Reduce CO2 emissions
through affordable and secure
sources of supply
Reduce the cost of energy from
offshore renewables; develop
technologies for new civil nuclear
build programmes, and work with
the research base to pull through
next-generation photovoltaics,
bioenergy and carbon abatement
technologies.
–Integrate future demand and
energy supply into a flexible,
secure and resilient energy
system
Integrate intermittent supply,
storage and new demand
technologies (such as electric
vehicles and heat pumps) into
a resilient energy system; pilot
innovations within the UK oil and
gas industry, and ensure fuel
systems for current and future
demand-side applications are
secure and sustainable.
–Reduce emissions at point of
use
Find novel ways of using and
capturing CO2 at point of energy
use and develop new energy
systems for demand-side
applications.
[ Challenge-led areas: Energy ]
Energy action plan 2013-14
Challenge
Action
Timing & Budget
–Offshore Renewable Energy Catapult: Provide a world-class
centre of expertise to support the rapid commercialisation of cuttingedge technologies that address the key challenges to innovation in
offshore renewables with the potential to have a global impact
Catapult
Q1-Q4
Up to £10m
– O
ffshore energy: Cost reduction and the development of a UK
supply chain. Address cost reduction and innovation in offshore
infrastructure, and create collaborations between the UK’s excellent
offshore engineering industry and those companies developing novel
devices and supply-chain technologies
Collaborative R&D
competition
Q3
Up to £7m
–Nuclear: Ensure UK SMEs are able to offer innovative solutions to
the business needs of tier 1 suppliers in the civil nuclear new build
supply chain. In particular, this activity aims to establish business
collaborations across a UK-led supply chain in key areas such
as construction, manufacturing, materials, sensors, robotics and
decommissioning
Feasibility studies and
collaborative R&D
competitions
Q4
Up to £7m
– U
K energy supply chain at scale: Demonstrating an energy
innovation system at scale is expensive and requires collaboration
across the supply chain. This programme will establish a large-scale
demonstrator that draws together the UK supply chain and addresses
the priority of reducing CO2 emissions through affordable and secure
sources of supply
Large-scale
demonstrator
competition
Q4
Up to £10m
–Alternative energy vectors: Ensure a systems approach to
addressing key market barriers for the adoption of hydrogen as an
alternative energy vector, namely storage (on vehicle and stationary)
handling, logistics, and safety issues
Collaborative R&D
competition
Q2
Up to £5m
–Community energy systems: Establish collaborations between
businesses working in energy supply and energy demand at the
community scale. Collaboration will be vital as community-scale
innovations will be highly distributed within the energy system with the
potential to significantly disrupt business models and the security and
resilience of energy networks
Feasibility studies and
collaborative R&D
competition
Q3
Up to £3m
–Emerging energy technologies: The challenges of integrating
emerging technology options into practical systems that deliver
practical benefits to the infrastructure owner, user and final consumer
are not yet receiving the attention and innovation support they require.
We will test the feasibility of emerging technologies such as energy
storage within the broader energy system
Feasibility studies
competition
Q1
Up to £2m
–Photovoltaics European engagement: The UK is developing
significant capability in dye-sensitised and organic solar cells,
particularly within supply chains. This Europe-funded ERANET activity
will connect pan-European expertise and supply chains to further
develop UK innovation in this area
European ERANET
competition
Q1
Up to £1m
continued over page…
[ Delivery Plan 2013–14 ] 33
[ Delivery Plan 2013–14 ]
Energy action plan 2013-14
Challenge
–Bioenergy: Encourage and de-risk the development of novel
processes for the extraction of energy and/or fuels from biomass
sources (joint with high value manufacturing programme), supporting
the development of UK bioenergy solutions through European
collaboration
–Clean & Cool Mission: To understand how the US approaches
innovation in this area and how UK companies can benefit from
international collaboration, partnership and financing, we will take a
small cohort of UK SMEs to one of the US’s leading clean-energy
clusters in Colorado. The Mission will visit companies and facilities
and take part in a number of events including the prestigious Industry
Growth Forum
Budgets shown refer to funding commitments in the year, which may be spent over several years.
34
Action
Timing & Budget
EU competition
Q1
Up to £500k
Mission
Q3
Up to £200k
[ Challenge-led areas: Energy / Built environment ]
Challenge-led areas: Built environment
The UK construction industry is a large
part of the economy:
–annual output in 2011 was
£107bn (over 90% from
buildings)
–7.6% of UK GVA
–employs approximately two
million people
–a third of all UK construction is
procured by the public sector.
Within the UK, some of the largest
environmental impacts are from
buildings. Around 45% of total
UK carbon emissions come from
buildings – domestic buildings 27%
and non-domestic 18%.
The UK has demanding targets,
backed up by policy and legislation,
to reduce carbon emissions by 80%
by 2050, which will require a revolution
in the design, construction, operation
and refurbishment of all buildings.
In domestic retrofit alone there is
estimated to be a £200bn new market
over the next 40 years.
The barriers to innovation
These include the following factors:
–globally and in the UK, construction
has a strong subcontracting
culture. The market is dominated
by a few large organisations,
with a very large number of very
small players who do most of the
individual tasks on site. This means
that information, and innovation,
spreads slowly
–contracting practice limits novel
approaches or technologies due
to concerns over product and
professional liability
–both the industry and the consumer
are conservative and risk-averse.
Focusing our investment
There are three overarching principles
that influence all our activities:
–systems integration: encouraging
whole-building approaches at every
stage, and extending that approach
to neighbourhoods and cities
– accounting for the interactions
The goal is to enable built environment
between buildings and users:
providers and their clients to recognise
making sure that the importance of
the business opportunities and the
user behaviour is recognised and
innovation requirements in delivering
the user is at the centre of design
the carbon reductions required by
and innovation
2050, whilst preparing for future
climate resilience.
–realising the designed
The Low Impact Buildings Innovation
Platform was set up in 2008 to support
UK industry in supplying the growing
market for low-impact domestic and
non-domestic new-build and retrofit
buildings. A rapidly emerging driver for
innovation is the need to lift the focus
from individual buildings to groups of
buildings, and ultimately cities.
performance in practice:
obtaining building or sub-system
performance evaluations from all
projects where it is practical.
With these principles in mind and
following consultation with business,
government and the knowledge base,
the Low Impact Buildings Innovation
Platform is focusing on six challenges
where we can effectively support
innovation.
1 Design for future climate
change: We need to be able to
design buildings that meet the
performance targets, are resilient to
climate change, and which people
want to live and work in. This requires
whole new building designs, not
piecemeal adoption of bolt-on
technologies.
2 Design and decision tools:
We cannot currently predict how a
building design will actually perform
when built, or how the usage
patterns of occupiers will influence
performance, and consequently
it is difficult to effectively integrate
new low-impact technologies into
buildings.
3 Build process: We need to be
able to build low-impact buildings fast,
at volume, cost-effectively and with
very low levels of defect. The existing
supply chain and build process need
to be re-thought to be able to deliver.
4 Management and operation
of buildings: We can design and
construct low-impact buildings, but
unless we can create systems that
enable the users to operate the
building in a way that both meets their
needs and is environmentally efficient,
the benefits of the design will be lost.
5 Materials and components
for sustainable buildings: There
are still challenges in the materials
and components that we use in
construction. Many solutions fail in the
market because they do not perform
well enough, they are not costeffective, or are not ‘buildable’.
6 Integrating with sustainable
infrastructure: As part of extending
the focus to buildings in context,
we need to ensure that low-impact
buildings integrate seamlessly with
other aspects of infrastructure to
deliver more effective and more
sustainable cities.
[ Delivery Plan 2013–14 ] 35
[ Delivery Plan 2013–14 ]
Future cities
The barriers to innovation
Focusing our investment
Cities are vital to the future global
economy. In 2008, for the first time
in human history, more people
lived in urban areas than rural. By
2050, more than 70% of the global
population will live in cities.
Barriers to innovation include:
We have involved many groups
in understanding the challenges
of future cities, including nine of
the UK’s largest cities, more than
50 companies and 25 innovation
groups. Areas for focus include:
Cities are more economically
productive and have a lower
environmental footprint per head
than the country average. But cities
are also struggling with climate
change, changes in population
and demographics, congestion,
healthcare and pressure on key
resources.
–no individual company has all
the skills necessary to deliver
the requirements of cities in the
future. Even the largest ones
find it difficult to build broad
enough collaborations to meet
the challenge. This is a particular
problem for smaller innovative
companies
–developing integrated systems
that add significant value to cities
To succeed in the future, city
governments have to deliver
economic activity, quality of life and
a lower environmental footprint. This
cannot be done by optimising the
separate components of the
city infrastructure. Innovation in
integrated and city-wide solutions is
required.
–there is nowhere for city
governments, business and the
knowledge base to collaborate to
develop new integrated solutions
–exploiting the social and
behavioural science knowledge
base.
The potential market is large. Over
£6.5tr will be invested globally in city
infrastructure over the next 10-15
years, and the accessible market for
integrated city systems is estimated
to be £200bn a year by 2030.
The UK already has considerable
strengths. World-leading companies
in project management, engineering,
architecture, finance, legal services
and insurance make the UK a
key centre for large infrastructure
projects. The UK’s world-class
science and research base provides
a talent pool for UK and global firms.
The Technology Strategy Board
already has programmes in areas
important to cities such as energy
generation and supply, transport, the
digital economy and healthcare. We
will be working to pull these together
with our low impact buildings work to
enable solutions.
36
–most innovation is in specific city
subsystems with very little work
on integration by business or
academics
–there is a lack of facilities for
demonstration and validation at
scale and in use
–current activities do not take
account of the role of people in
cities. The social and behavioural
sciences are not sufficiently
involved.
–demonstration of integrated citywide systems at scale and in use
–bringing together city
government, business and the
knowledge base in collaborations
These will be delivered through the
Future Cities Catapult and the Future
Cities Demonstrator.
[ Challenge-led areas: Built environment ]
Built environment action plan 2013-14
Challenge: Low impact buildings
Action
Timing & Budget
–Management and operation: Ensuring that buildings can be
operated efficiently; reducing energy use and costs
Competition format
TBD following
consultation
Q3
Up to £3m
ow-carbon non-domestic new buildings: Enabling business to
– L
deliver Government targets of zero-carbon non-domestic buildings
from 2019
Competition format
TBD following
consultation
Q4
Up to £4m
– B
uildings better connected: Enabling business opportunities
from delivery of a decentralised infrastructure fit for the future in
small clusters of buildings or major urban expansions through interconnected heating, cooling and power systems at a building and
community scale
Collaborative R&D
competition
Q4
Up to £4.5m
–Future Cities Catapult: Provide a world-class centre of expertise in
future cities to support the rapid commercialisation of cutting-edge
technologies with the potential to have a global impact. The Catapult
will create and demonstrate integrated city-wide systems, bringing
together city governments, business and the knowledge base
Catapult
Q1–Q4
Up to £10m
–Developing strategies for future cities: Build on work undertaken in
Competition format
TBD following
consultation
Q1
Up to £5m
Challenge: Future cities
future cities demonstrator feasibility studies; enabling groups of cities
to work together to build integration strategies in collaboration with
business
Budgets shown refer to funding commitments in the year, which may be spent over several years.
[ Delivery Plan 2013–14 ] 37
[ Delivery Plan 2013–14 ]
Challenge-led areas: Food
The UK’s food supply chain is worth
some £85bn and employs more than
3.5 million people, with recognised
centres of excellence across the
agrifood supply chain. Food and
soft drink manufacturing is the
UK’s largest manufacturing sector,
contributing GVA estimated at over
£20bn.
Global population will increase from
7bn today to over 9bn by 2050, and
the UK population is forecast to
increase from around 61m to 70m
over the next 20 years. Increased
wealth will create demand for a more
varied, high-quality diet requiring
additional resources to produce.
The World Bank estimates that
global production of cereal needs
to increase by 50% and meat
production by 85% by 2030. Global
climate and environmental change
will also place increasing pressure
on food production. Food security is
becoming a serious concern, and we
need to develop ways to deliver more
food from the available land without
long-term environmental damage.
The barriers to innovation
Barriers to innovation include:
–a fragmented supply chain with
many small players with low
capacity for innovation and the
slow spread of ideas
–skill shortages
–conservatism, particularly among
many small and medium-sized
primary food producers
–insufficient applied research on
the key challenges identified in the
strategic research and innovation
agenda
–slow uptake of ideas from other
areas of industry and from the
knowledge base.
38
Focusing our investment
Our programme seeks to increase
the productivity of crops and animals
and, simultaneously, decrease the
environmental impact of the industry.
It will focus on four interlinked areas:
1 Crop productivity
Within the scope of productivity
we are looking at two areas. Crop
protection: solutions to threats
posed to UK cereal and horticulture
output by withdrawal of plant
protection products (including
pesticides, herbicides and
fungicides) under EU legislation
and by climate change including
water stresses. Crop nutrition and
management: mechanisms and
technologies for providing crops
with nutrients without current levels
of loss to the atmosphere and
water.
2Sustainable livestock
production (including
aquaculture)
Development of livestock
production solutions that are
environmentally and commercially
sustainable and meet regulatory
requirements.
3Waste reduction and
management
Farm storage and food
processing: a whole-chain
approach to waste reduction,
from innovative technologies
for pre and post-farm-gate
storage to farm-scale waste
management facilities, post-gate
food processing and packaging
for retail and food distribution.
4Greenhouse gas reduction
technologies and
methodologies
By far the biggest sources of
greenhouse gas in agriculture
are nitrous oxide from microbial
transformation of nitrogen
fertilisers in soil and methane
from enteric fermentation in
livestock.
[ Challenge-led areas: Food ]
Food action plan 2013-14
Challenge
Action
Timing & Budget
–Engineering solutions and precision agriculture technologies:
Enhance resource-use efficiency in the arable, livestock and food
processing environments using advanced engineering and precision
agriculture across the agrifood supply chain
Collaborative R&D
competition
Q2
Up to £8m
plus £5m
co-funding
–Integrated farming systems: Economic geographic and climatic
pressures have led to a high degree of specialisation within UK
agriculture. This competition will stimulate the development of a more
efficient and integrated approach to food production, with closer cooperation between sub-sectors
Competition format
TBD following
consultation
Q4
Up to £6m
plus £3.75m
co-funding
–Circular agricultural economy: Investigate the opportunity for
utilisation of co-products from plant and animal production and
processing across the whole agrifood system
Study
Q3
Up to £100k
–Feeding the Future: Innovation Requirements for Primary Food
Production in the UK to 2030. An industry-wide report to outline what
innovation is needed in the industry to be published in May 2013
Study
Q1
Up to £100k
Budgets shown refer to funding commitments in the year, which may be spent over several years.
[ Delivery Plan 2013–14 ] 39
[ Delivery Plan 2013–14 ]
Challenge-led areas: Transport
The way that we use transport today
is unsustainable in terms of energy
use, impact, efficiency and costeffectiveness. Together with growing
demand, this requires a major
transformation in performance to
deliver a sustainable transport system.
Our specific objective is to help UK
industry profit from developments
that improve vehicle efficiency and
reduce emissions and also improve
transport effectiveness and efficiency.
The UK has a strong transport industry
especially in the aerospace, road, rail
and marine sectors as well as newer
capabilities in intelligent transport
systems. Transport is important
to the UK economy as it provides
employment for over 1.3 million
people and nearly £40bn of GVA.
It also provides a great challenge
as it currently generates about 25%
of UK carbon emissions. Growth in
transport is also leading to increased
congestion which is set to cost the
economy £22bn by 2025. UK business
can make a significant difference and
generate wealth by:
–reducing carbon and other
environmentally harmful emissions
from all vehicles and increasing
their efficiency
–supporting the acceleration of new
vehicle technologies in line with
national priorities
–improving the efficiency and
cost-effectiveness of the transport
system
–integrating different energy sources
into transport systems and vehicles
–developing a longer-term strategy
towards sustainability of transport
to include the overall system and
vehicles.
40
To benefit from these opportunities,
the key players will need to continue to
engage with the UK supply chain as well
as the growing SME base to develop
and commercialise new technologies.
The barriers to innovation
The barriers to innovation include:
–short-term demands on particular
forms of transport can divert
businesses and academics
from addressing the longer-term
opportunities of integration
–automotive manufacturing supply
chains need to be re-engineered
to provide the components for new
electric, hybrid and fuel cell vehicles
–in the marine sector there is a need to
share capabilities between the major
shipbuilders, the leisure sector and
their supply chains
–in aerospace, the long-term nature
of investments in new aircraft can
generate specific challenges to
innovation
–in rail, innovation is hampered by
the relative lack of processes and
capabilities in clients and the supply
chain to collaboratively bridge the gap
between research and procurement
–innovation can be hampered by the
lack of facilities for demonstration and
validation at scale and in real-world
situations.
Focusing our investment
There are great gains to be made if
we can enable industry to consider
transport systems as a whole. We
need to develop a forum where
the issues and opportunities can
be discussed and reviewed by the
many parties involved. We continue
with our delivery of the Transport
Systems Catapult centre, which will
be operational in 2013, where these
ideas can be pursued and tested.
On the roads, new emission
regulations will require new
technologies and a new automotive
supply base. We have been
supporting the development of lowcarbon road vehicle technologies
for over five years; we need to take
these closer to production, while
continuing to develop technologies
which reduce carbon emissions.
This year we will focus on
cost reduction and capability
demonstration so that new
technologies can move rapidly into
production.
We will work closely with the
Automotive Council to identify
key needs across its five strategic
technologies, and will explore how
relevant developments in fuel cells
and hydrogen that we support can
be integrated with our low carbon
vehicle programme.
The mainline rail sector is
strengthening its capabilities and
resourcing of innovation and has
published its 30-year vision in
the Rail Technical Strategy. We
will continue to work with the
industry to better understand the
opportunities and the developments
needed, building on analysis of
UK capabilities. To broaden our
[ Challenge-led areas: Transport ]
support and engagement with rail
businesses we will work with UK Tram
and the Enabling Innovation Team to
demonstrate UK capabilities relevant
to light rail markets.
We will continue to work with the UK
marine industry to identify specific
areas for intervention following the
outputs of last year’s vessel efficiency
competition, to build UK capabilities
in key areas to support the national
Marine Growth Strategy. We will
maintain our presence on the EU
Marine Industry Leadership Council’s
Technology and Innovation Group,
and the marine science group of the
Department for the Environment, Food
and Rural Affairs (Defra). Additionally,
to build on the success of the EU
Marine Technologies (MARTEC)
activity, we will seek to develop a
longer-term engagement with Europe
to position the UK in future maritime
activity. There is an immediate need
to respond to the challenge of moving
to low-sulphur fuels and improving
vessel efficiency.
In aerospace, the medium-term focus
is on improving manufacturing systems
to increase capacity and deliver
innovative technologies to aircraft
programmes. We will continue to
work with the industry, in particular
to understand the implications of the
update of the UK Aerospace Technology
Strategy (UKATS) roadmaps and the
outputs of the Aerospace Growth
Partnership activities including the newly
established UK Centre for
Aerodynamics and the planned
Aerospace Technology Institute.
Transport action plan 2013-14
Challenge
Action
Timing & Budget
–Transport Systems Catapult: Provide a world-class centre of
expertise in transport systems to support the rapid commercialisation
of cutting-edge technologies with the potential to have a global impact
Catapult
Q2-Q4
Up to £10m
– A
erospace III: Further accelerate innovation in the aerospace supply
chain to ensure the UK is positioned to support future aerospace
programmes
Collaborative R&D
competition
Q1
Up to £5m
– Integrated Delivery Programme 10: Development of advanced
technologies to support the low carbon vehicles agenda and the
growth of SMEs and enhanced opportunities within the UK supply
chain
Collaborative R&D
competition
Q2
Up to £10m and
significant
co-funding
– N
iche vehicle research and development: Support UK SMEs
engaged in the ‘high-value’ niche vehicle sector, developing and
extending their networks, working with larger and more established
automotive supply chain partners. Managed by the Niche Vehicle
Network
Collaborative R&D
competition
Q2
Up to £1m
– Optimising vessel passage through enhanced human/machine
interface: Operational costs and fuel efficiency (and therefore
reduced emissions) can be aided by advanced information
Collaborative R&D
competition
Q3
Up to £3m
– M
aritime technologies (MARTEC): Support UK businesses to take
their technologies to a new market and help them work in new Europewide collaborations
EU competition
Q2
Up to £1m
continued over page…
[ Delivery Plan 2013–14 ] 41
[ Delivery Plan 2013–14 ]
Transport action plan 2013-14
Challenge
Action
– L
ight rail demonstrator: Challenge the UK rail sector to act as an
intelligent lead customer to accelerate deployment of innovative rail
solutions and enable global market access
SBRI competition
Q3
Up to £3m
– T
ransport systems and integrated mobility demonstrators:
Real-world demonstration of multimodal integrated transport will
allow vehicle manufacturers and systems developers to trial and
prove out new technologies – helping overcome barriers
Feasibility studies
Collaborative R&D
competition
Q1
Up to £1m
Q4
Up to £2m
– M
otorsport cluster development: Broaden and create new
business opportunities for UK motorsport to collaborate with other
adjacent vehicle sectors. Driving new technology development,
affording unique engineering consultancy services and commercial
growth
Launchpad
competition
Q2
Up to £1m
– V
ehicle to grid: Electrification of the mass vehicle fleet is a major
infrastructure challenge. Investigate gaps and market failures in this
key area for the successful deployment of electric vehicles
Feasibility studies
competition
Q3
Up to £1m
– U
nderstanding global supply chain in rail: Study to understand
the routes to global rail markets and gain industry support for an
innovation strategy to address opportunities
Study and workshops
Q2
Up to £200k
– Strategic roadmapping and economic analysis of integrated
transport: Roadmapping, capability and gap analysis of and review
of economics of integrated transport solutions
Study and workshops
Q1&2
Up to £500k
– T
owards autonomous transport: Real world demonstration of
autonomous systems will allow vehicle manufacturers and systems
developers to trial and prove out new technologies – helping
overcome barriers
Feasibility studies
Collaborative R&D
competition
Q1
Up to £2m
Q4
Up to £5m
– Integrated mobility special interest group (SIG): Enabling
sustainable economic growth through the movement of people and
goods by instilling intelligence into transportation, increasing the
UK’s capabilities and competiveness in this area.
Special interest group
Q1
Up to £100k
Budgets shown refer to funding commitments in the year, which may be spent over several years.
42
Timing & Budget
[ Challenge-led areas: Transport / Health ]
Challenge-led areas: Health
Healthcare providers are facing
greater challenges from a growing,
ageing population and an increasing
burden of disease. The Organisation
for Economic Co-operation and
Development (OECD) countries spent
over $4.6tr in 2008 on healthcare, and,
for many, this has been increasing as a
proportion of GDP.
The barriers to innovation
The barriers to innovation are:
–innovation in medicines and
healthcare technology must be
carried out within a regulatory
environment designed to protect
patients, meaning the development
timelines are longer when compared
to some other technology sectors
and the risks and costs can deter
investment in innovative solutions
–the conservative nature of patient
care can limit the adoption of new
technologies as can the fragmented
nature of procurement
–the pace of technology innovation
is outstripping the ability of users
to adapt to the way healthcare is
delivered.
Focusing our investment
Current healthcare models are facing
greater challenges, both physically and
financially, in providing for a growing,
ageing population with an increasing
burden of disease. For companies to
devise solutions to these challenges,
they must recognise the drivers behind
the healthcare challenges and look at
models of:
–disease prevention and proactive
management of chronic disease
–earlier and better detection and
diagnosis of disease leading to
marked improvements in patient
outcomes
–highly effective treatments that
are tailored to patients’ needs
and either modify the underlying
disease or offer potential cures that
deliver improved patient outcomes
in increasingly efficient and costeffective ways.
We are addressing these challenges
through the following activities:
–Assisted Living Innovation Platform:
helping businesses to deliver
products, systems and services to
We must ensure that innovators are
help people live independently for
working towards users’ needs and
longer – how they want and where
think about how adoption of technology
they want
will require changes in patient care
pathways, or the way that services are
–Stratified Medicine Innovation
accessed.
Platform: supporting companies to
create cost-effective solutions for
delivering the right treatment to the
right patient at the right time
–regenerative medicine and cell
therapy programme: helping UK
businesses take advantage of the
next generation of treatments to
deliver long-term relief or cures for
diseases
–the Biomedical Catalyst, in partnership
with the Medical Research Council: to
cover the three challenges in a more
holistic way, allowing a more open
approach to innovation to bridge
academic and commercial activities
in therapeutic development, medical
devices, diagnostics and e-health/mhealth solutions.
Our Detection and Identification of
Infectious Agents Innovation Platform
enabled companies to address the need
to reduce mortality, morbidity and the
economic burden of infectious diseases.
Given the platform’s strong synergies
with the Stratified Medicines Innovation
Platform, we have rolled the humanhealth-related activities into the Stratified
Medicines Innovation Platform.
Alongside the new activities we are
launching this year, we will be working
with the evolving dallas programme to
capture and share its outputs and will
explore its longer-term legacy for the
Assisted Living Innovation Platform. The
‘long-term care revolution’ will continue
and we will identify what the next phase
of our activity should be to help create
and develop new and exciting services
and systems that will be fit for long-term
care in the 21st century.
Managing and understanding data
is a critical piece of the jigsaw puzzle
that enables stratified medicine and
supports assisted living. Measuring
health outcomes is a crucial component
of understanding which treatments
and services work. The benefits touch
on all areas of preventing illness, early
diagnosis and better treatments but
also provide companies with a better
understanding of what impact they
are having in delivering more efficient
and effective health systems. This
convergence brings together our
health and digital areas to develop
a programme to explore how digital
technologies enable healthcare.
[ Delivery Plan 2013–14 ] 43
[ Delivery Plan 2013–14 ]
Health action plan 2013-14
Challenge
Action
–Cell Therapy Catapult: Providing a world-class centre of expertise
in cell therapy to support the rapid commercialisation of cutting-edge
technologies with the potential to have a global impact
Catapult
Q1-Q4
Up to £12m
–Regenerative medicine and cell therapy: Addressing commercial
challenges in developing next-generation therapies
Collaborative R&D
competition
Q4
Up to £8m
–Ambient assisted living call 6 and 7: Enabling UK business
to exploit EU opportunities in the development and application of
assisted living technologies
EU competitions
Q1
Up to £1m
Q4
Up to £1m
–Biomedical Catalyst: Bridging the ‘valley of death’ for healthcare
solutions with a particular focus on SMEs
Ongoing Catalyst
competition
Q1-Q4
Up to £30m
–Stratified medicine in vitro imaging: Enabling earlier and better
diagnosis and treatment of disease through in vitro diagnostic
technology to support patient stratification
Collaborative R&D
competition
Q2
Up to £5m
–Stratified medicine: Developing solutions for patient stratification
within selected therapeutic areas
Collaborative R&D
competition
Q2
Up to £7m
–Digital technologies for health: Enabling companies to understand
what impact they could have to help deliver more efficient and
effective health systems and to connect with providers. We may
consider areas such as: early diagnosis, prevention and better
treatments. Joint programme with digital economy team and shown in
both areas
Collaborative R&D
competition
Q4
Up to £5m
–Health knowledge exchange: Connecting new entrants and
existing businesses with opportunities in the health sector
Special interest groups
Q1-Q4
Up to £1m
Budgets shown refer to funding commitments in the year, which may be spent over several years.
44
Timing & Budget
[ Challenge-led areas: Health / Competence areas: High value manufacturing ]
Competence areas: High value manufacturing
Our high value manufacturing
programme aims to grow the
contribution of manufacturing
to UK GDP by investing in
innovation that will maintain or
improve its competitiveness and
the commercialisation of new
manufacturing technologies.
Manufacturing contributes £6.7tr
to the global economy and the
UK is a major player; in terms of
manufacturing GVA it is in the world’s
top 10. Manufacturing makes up 10%
of UK GVA and 54% of UK exports,
and directly employs over 2.5 million
people.
Despite the decline from the 1970s,
when manufacturing was 25% of
UK GDP, we rank second globally
in aerospace, the UK-based auto
industry exported a record-breaking
84% of production in 2011, and
our chemical and pharmaceutical
industries add £20m per day to the
balance of trade.
As well as these strong industry
positions and world-leading
capabilities, there are emerging
technologies where the UK is
scientifically strong and has the
potential to make a global impact
through manufacturing. These
include composite materials,
plastic electronics and industrial
biotechnology.
The Institute for Manufacturing’s
Future Landscape Study, published in
February 2012, identified 22 national
competencies, which, if effectively
developed and/or grown over the
coming years, will ensure that the
UK is well-positioned to grow its
manufacturing base significantly.
The barriers to innovation
Focusing our investment
Manufacturing innovation requires
new knowledge to generate
entirely new products, processes
or services, or new technology to
improve existing processes. This
often involves bringing together
more than one novel technology
and components of separate
supply chains to secure future
competitive manufacture and
through-life service. Very few
enterprises can address these
challenges alone.
The five strategic themes where
there is strong potential for
innovation to make a difference
across multiple sectors and
generate wealth for UK plc are:
– resource efficiency
– manufacturing systems
–integration of new materials with
manufacturing technologies
– manufacturing processes
Manufacturing new products or
adopting new processes requires
demonstration at commercial
scale, which is often expensive
and risky.
This so-called ‘valley of death’ –
where many innovations fail – is a
significant barrier to manufacturing
innovation. Small and mediumsized enterprises are important for
economic growth, and it can be
difficult for them to connect with
global players who offer routes to
market. We will help to address
this challenge.
– manufacturing business models.
To tackle the challenges and exploit
the opportunities for innovation
in these areas, businesses will
need to develop within some of
the 22 national competencies.
Our programmes will set out to
support industry in developing
these competencies, through
feasibility studies, collaborative
R&D competitions, and, where
appropriate, special interest
groups.
The High Value Manufacturing
Catapult, which opened for
business in October 2011,
will continue its development
to provide a transforming
resource for innovation and rapid
commercialisation.
We incorporated these competencies,
grouped under five strategic themes,
into our High Value Manufacturing
Strategy, published in May 2012,
which forms the framework for our
delivery plans in the area to at least
2015, including those of the High
Value Manufacturing Catapult.
[ Delivery Plan 2013–14 ] 45
[ Delivery Plan 2013–14 ]
High value manufacturing action plan 2013-14
Challenge
Action
–High Value Manufacturing Catapult: Provide a world-class
centre of expertise in high value manufacturing to support the rapid
commercialisation of cutting-edge technologies with the potential to
have a global impact
Catapult
Q1-Q4
Up to £35m
–Bioenergy ERANET: Encourage and de-risk the development
of novel processes for the extraction of energy and/or fuels from
biomass sources (joint programme with energy area) and/or using
biocatalysed processes
EU competition
Q1
Up to £500k
–Bioenergy Sustaining the Future (BESTF) ERANET: Enable
commercial availability of advanced bioenergy at large scale by 2020,
aiming at production costs which allow competitiveness with fossil
fuels at the prevailing economic and regulatory market conditions
and to contribute to advanced biofuels covering up to 4% of EU
transportation energy needs by 2020
EU competition
Q3
Up to £1.5m
–Driving cross-sector collaboration in formulation technologies:
Encourage the transfer of world-class formulation technologies
between the many sectors (from coatings to food and
pharmaceuticals) that use these
Feasibility studies and
collaborative R&D
competition
Q1
Up to £5m
–Industrial biotechnology ERANET: Encourage and de-risk the
development of industrial biotechnology processes for the production
of chemical intermediates, exploiting the strengths of other European
players in the process
EU competition
Q4
Up to £1m
–Industrial biotechnology catalyst: Encourage and de-risk the
development of industrial biotechnology processes for the production
of chemical intermediates.
Feasibility studies and
collaborative R&D
competition
Q2
Up to £2.5m
–Industrial Biotechnology Special Interest Group: Continue to
encourage and support the transfer of industrial biotechnologies from
the science base and biotech SMEs into the chemical industry over
the next two years
Special interest group
Q1-Q4
Up to £600k
–Materials Chemistry Special Interest Group: Enhance UK
capability to develop and commercialise novel materials to meet future
requirements across multiple sectors by building on the success of
the North West’s Knowledge Centre for Materials Chemistry nationally
Special interest group
Q1-Q4
Up to £750k
–Towards zero prototypes: Develop and extend the use of novel
modelling and simulation technologies to target zero physical
prototyping across multiple sectors
Feasibility studies and
collaborative R&D
competition
Q3
Up to £3.5m
–Intelligent systems and embedded electronics: Integrate new
materials with manufacturing technologies through application of
intelligent systems and embedded electronics
Feasibility studies and
collaborative R&D
competition
Q3
Up to £2.5m
46
Timing & Budget
[ Competence areas: High value manufacturing ]
High value manufacturing action plan 2013-14
Challenge
Action
Timing & Budget
–Nutrition for life: Develop manufacturing technologies that enhance
nutrition for life, building on success of earlier programme. Joint
programme with enabling technologies team and shown in both areas
Feasibility studies and
collaborative R&D
competition
Q1
Up to £3m
–Additive manufacturing: Inspire new freedoms in additive layer
manufacturing, helping to maintain UK’s leading position
Knowledge Transfer
Partnerships
competition
Q3
Up to £500k
–Mission to China and joint collaborative R&D competition
with MOST: Mission to enhance the sustainability of manufacturing
processes, and facilitate access of UK SMEs to Chinese market
opportunities. Followed by joint collaborative R&D competition with the
Chinese Ministry of Science & Technology (MOST)
Mission and
collaborative R&D
competition
Q4
Up to £2m
(matched by
MOST)
–Material and weight efficiency: Drive material and weight-efficient
technologies across sectors
Collaborative R&D
competition
Q4
Up to £5m
Budgets shown refer to funding commitments in the year, which may be spent over several years.
[ Delivery Plan 2013–14 ] 47
[ Delivery Plan 2013–14 ]
Competence areas: Digital economy
Our digital programme addresses
the adoption and exploitation
of information technologies by
businesses. The internet, computing
and mobile communications have
a transformative effect on how
businesses succeed throughout the
economy. By innovating in the UK,
and establishing new ways to use this
technology in all business sectors of
the economy, we have the opportunity
to position UK companies to grow and
to succeed on a global stage.
The barriers to innovation
Focusing our investment
The pace of change in informationhandling technology creates many
risks:
We are concentrating on four
challenges:
–there are risks to businesses
adopting the technology, because
they require business models
and supply chains to be entirely
rethought. Moving an established
business onto radically new and
uncertain foundations requires
confidence, and it may also
need cooperation between many
organisations to effect the change
–there are risks to users and
customers, because the free flow
of data can invade privacy and
personal security and because
unequal access to technology can
lead to unequal access to services
and commerce
–there are risks to new businesses
entering the market. Whilst the low
need for set-up capital encourages
experimentation and an abundance
of micro businesses with which
the UK internet sector is blessed,
growing these businesses to a
critical scale requires support not
only for their innovative ideas, but
also for the companies themselves.
However, the risk to those that do not
engage with this new technology is
far greater. There is a chance they
will watch the digital economy pass
them by, whilst their competitors
find new ways to take value from the
marketplace, critically undermining
incumbent ways of working.
Our programme aims to help UK
companies to experiment and
build their confidence in digitallyenabled business, developing new
technologies and new ways to exploit
them, and re-establishing a profitable
route to their digitally-empowered
customers.
48
–data: creating and exploiting
a supply of clean, structured,
accessible and usable data
–value: new ways to manage
ownership, trading and commerce
–systems: helping established
businesses to set up interoperable
and resilient digital systems
–places and people: linking
services to their customers, in their
context ‘here and now’.
For each of these, we will link digital
expertise to the market needs, in one
or more sectors where the issue is
high on the innovation agenda. We
will therefore frequently target the
creative industries, where the impact
of digital technologies on value and
the user experience continues to be
keenly felt.
We will also partner with those
working across a much broader
sweep of the progressively digitising
economy, both in sectors dealing with
information assets, such as education
or finance, and those grounded in
the physical world, such as health,
transport, energy or retail, developing
digital expertise for use within these
sectors and helping to transfer it
between them.
To complement this thematically
targeted activity, we will also
direct support into the ‘innovation
climate’ of the digital innovators
themselves. We will connect
small and micro businesses with
strategically significant ideas, to
resources, investment, knowledge
and partnerships. We will then help
them link to one another, to establish
technical ecosystems to supply their
capabilities into the commercial
marketplace.
[ Competence areas: Digital economy ]
Digital economy action plan 2013-14
Challenge
Action
Timing & Budget
–Connected Digital Economy Catapult: Provide a world-class
centre of expertise in the digital economy, to support the rapid
commercialisation of cutting-edge technologies with the potential to
have a global impact
Catapult
Q1-Q4
Up to £10m
–Systems – new digital media business systems: Developing
visual effects capabilities and work processes to allow audiences to
be reached across multiple platforms
Feasibility studies and
collaborative R&D
competition
Q2
Up to £15m
–Value – frictionless commerce: Making it easier for traders and
their customers to establish a relationship online
Collaborative R&D
competition
Q2
Up to £2.5m
–Value – valuing and pricing digital assets: Developing ways to
agree value and price
Collaborative R&D
competition
Q4
Up to £2.5m
–Data – uses of environmental data: Enabling the commercial
exploitation of the rich UK collection of environmental data to provide
practical decision support tools for industry - joint programme with
resource efficiency team and shown in both areas
Feasibility studies
competition
Q2
Up to £1m
–Data – establishing clean data supply: Continuation of the
LinkedGov project
Procurement
Q2
Up to £1m
–Data – digital technologies for health: Enabling companies to
understand what impact they could have to help deliver more efficient
and effective health systems and to connect with the providers. We
may consider the following areas: early diagnosis, prevention and
better treatments. Joint programme with health and shown in both
areas
Collaborative R&D
competition
Q4
Up to £1m
–Places & people – enterprise and employee information
systems: Helping businesses to establish secure, resilient and
reliable connections with their staff working remotely
Collaborative R&D
competition
Q4
Up to £4m
–Places & people – location-based services: Helping businesses
to engage with their customers in their ‘here and now’ context
Collaborative R&D
competition
Q4
Up to £4m
–Places & people – local media systems: Developing a
marketplace for information and services of local interest
Collaborative R&D
competition
Q3
Up to £1.5m
–IC tomorrow: Developing innovation for small digital businesses
through a programme of small business support contests
IC tomorrow
Q1-Q4
Up to £3m
–Supporting and developing clusters: Developing innovation
for small digital businesses through two Launchpad competitions:
Creative North-West and Cyber South-West
Launchpad
competitions
Q2
Up to £500k
Q3
Up to £500k
Budgets shown refer to funding commitments in the year, which may be spent over several years.
[ Delivery Plan 2013–14 ] 49
[ Delivery Plan 2013–14 ]
Competence areas: Space applications
The UK’s space capability is
world class. We have advanced
manufacturing capabilities, worldleading satellite operators and
one of the world’s largest satellite
broadcasters, as well as a global
services sector delivering systems
integration and software to support
new space applications.
The UK Space Innovation and Growth
Strategy (IGS) set ambitious targets
for the UK to grow its global market
share from 6% to 10% by 2030 and to
create 100,000 new high-value jobs.
The worldwide space market was worth
£160bn in 2008 and is forecast to grow
to £400bn in 2030.
In the UK, the space sector has grown
9% per year on average over the last
decade and continued to deliver similar
levels of growth in the last sector review
up to 2011. The IGS recommendations
are currently under review as part of a
‘restack’ exercise and the output from
this exercise, due mid-2013, will be
factored into our delivery actions.
In the last four years, the creation
of the UK Space Agency, and the
presence and growth of the European
Space Agency (ESA) facility at Harwell
have also contributed to a dynamic
environment in which the UK space
industry can flourish.
Top-level developments have
included an increased funding of
space through the ESA, to a total of
£1.2bn. Of this, 37% (around £180m)
of the ‘optional’ element (programmes
of interest to only some member states
which are able to decide on their own
level of funding) of this is managed
by the Technology Strategy Board on
behalf of the UK Space Agency, in
the areas of integrated applications,
telecommunications (ARTES) and
satellite navigation (EGEP).
50
The UK is the single largest contributor
in Europe to telecommunications
and integrated applications and the
second largest to the ESA navigation
programme. These subscriptions are
managed independently to this delivery
plan under the leadership of the UK
Space Agency but the same principles
and objectives set out by the Technology
Strategy Board are applied.
The barriers to innovation
The two sectors within the space
industry – upstream, such as satellites
and supporting infrastructure, and
downstream, such as data users,
receiver terminal manufacturers and enduse data applications developers – face
different barriers.
We aim to help business address four
key barriers facing the UK space industry
that will enable it:
–to demonstrate the value and
efficiency of using space data
–to reduce risk by demonstrating
that new space-based solutions
are feasible and robust, in order to
leverage investment, attract new
players and open new markets
–to tackle long lead times for
the provision of new spacecraft
components and services
–to get new applications and products
to market quickly.
Focusing our investment
Our space programme aims to support
innovation in new applications using
satellite data and space-based satellite
systems. During 2013, we will see the
opening of the Satellite Applications
Catapult, a transforming resource that
will drive economic growth through
new commercial space activities and
productivity and efficiency gains in other
market sectors. It will give UK industry
the end-to-end infrastructure needed to
link innovative ideas from existing space
sector players with new collaborators
from outside the sector.
Our space programme also aims to
connect existing space companies with
other innovators to drive growth across
the economy. It has six key areas of
activity:
–R&D and innovation programmes
in conjunction with the UK Space
Agency for both national and ESA
programmes
–the Satellite Applications Catapult
centre
–investment in open innovation to
accelerate commercialisation of
R&D, guided by the National Space
Technology Strategy and roadmaps.
–promotion of business opportunities
for the UK space industry within other
growth sectors, focusing on satellitebased applications and services
–technology demonstration
opportunities both in-orbit and
terrestrially for new applications,
services, components, systems,
and instruments
–Space Special Interest Group to
represent the interests of SMEs and
non-space players and to facilitate
the delivery of the National Space
Technology Strategy and
roadmaps.
[ Competence areas: Space applications ]
Space applications action plan 2013-14
Challenge
Action
Timing & Budget
–Satellite Applications Catapult: Provide a world-class centre
of satellite applications, to support the rapid commercialisation of
cutting-edge technologies with the potential to have a global impact.
Helping UK business develop new satellite-based products and
services and stimulate growth across the UK economy
Catapult
Q1-Q4
Up to £10m
–Solutions from space: Development of cross-cutting themes
utilising satellite applications and services in new markets and
addressing identified government needs. This challenge will mainly
be addressed through co-funding in other parts of the thematic
programmes
Feasibility studies
competition
SBRI competition and
co-funding with other
thematic programmes
Q2
Up to £1m
–Space foundations: A joint competition with the UK Space Agency
to deliver flagship activities under the National Space Technology
Programme
Collaborative R&D
competition
Q2
Up to £2m
(with additional
co-funding)
–In-orbit validation: Demonstrate innovative satellite payloads and
services by developing the TechDemoSat and UKube models into
a long-term regular programme in partnership with the UK Space
Agency and the Satellite Applications Catapult centre
Procurement
Q1-Q4
Up to £3m
(with additional
co-funding)
–Entry to the space sector: A portfolio of activities to attract new
players and start-ups to the space sector and foster cluster activity
around Harwell and other centres of excellence
Feasibility studies
Launchpad
competition
Innovation Vouchers
Q2-Q4
£1m
–Partnering for European Space Agency: Ensuring UK businesses
are well positioned to engage and succeed with the ESA
Feasibility studies and
workshops
Q2
Up to £1m
–Knowledge transfer in space: Encourage more space industry
Knowledge Transfer Partnership projects and knowledge exchange
through the Space Special Interest Group
Knowledge Transfer
Partnerships
special interest group
Q4
Up to £1m
Q2-Q4
Up to £2m
Budgets shown refer to funding commitments in the year, which may be spent over several years.
[ Delivery Plan 2013–14 ] 51
[ Delivery Plan 2013–14 ]
Competence areas: Resource efficiency
The driver for this programme is a
major societal challenge: how to
provide a high standard of living for
our population while making use of
the Earth’s resources in ways which
do not profoundly compromise
the ecosystems that support life
on the planet. The World Business
Council for Sustainable Development
estimates that by 2050 the world will
need a four-to-ten-fold increase in
resource efficiency, with significant
improvements needed already by
2020.
The barriers to innovation
Focusing our investment
The UK economy is still predominantly
linear in terms of its use of resources.
Meeting the societal challenge with
which we are faced will require a
marked increase in the circularity
with which we use resources of all
kinds. The nature of the innovations
required will span not only new
design approaches, technologies and
business models but will also require
approaches operating at a systems
level across multiple value chains.
There are four broad approaches
to extending the productive use of
resources and reducing their
environmental impact:
Resource efficiency measures could
add $2.9tr to the global economy
by 2030, with returns on investment
of over 10%. Across the European
Union, the opportunity is £220bn£400bn a year. We estimate the UK
market opportunity to be in the range
£50-75bn a year. A transition to a more
resource-efficient economy will also
provide a wide range of opportunities
for new businesses and create many
new jobs.
The barriers to innovation in resource
efficiency are:
Global resource extraction and use
has grown substantially over the last
century, driven both by a growing
population and increases in per
capita usage. At the same time, the
availability and accessibility of a
broad set of resources – minerals and
metals, biomass, food and water – is
subject to increasing constraints.
This has resulted in price inflation and
volatility for a wide range of resources.
For a subset of these, the risk to
business extends further, namely in
that the supply of key materials might
at times be substantially constrained
or even interrupted. Many of these
‘critical raw materials’ are important for
the production of consumer items and
for technologies supporting a lowcarbon economy.
52
–poor links between people
developing new approaches to
resource efficiency and the markets
that need them
–weak information flow along supply
chains
–lack of understanding and
exploitation of life-cycle thinking
–lack of visibility of projected
resource crunches, especially for
smaller players
–poor understanding of the
importance of system-level
thinking and the way that choice of
materials and resources used can
affect the overall efficiency of the
product throughout its life.
–substitute at-risk or highenvironmental-impact materials
–close the life-cycle loop to allow
multiple product lives from the
same material resource
–reduce the amount of material
necessary to deliver consumer
benefit
–reduce energy intensity on a lifecycle basis.
Our programmes in this area promote
these strategies and ensure that
life-cycle thinking is at the heart of
projects. Our programme has a focus
on promoting the design-led and
system-level changes necessary to
deliver markedly increased circularity
in the use of resources to deliver
customer benefits in different product
areas and industry sectors.
Because resource efficiency only
produces real benefits in the
context of a particular market or
application, the programme is
divided into application activities
delivered in co-operation with other
themes in the Technology Strategy
Board programme, and tools and
techniques delivered through specific
resource efficiency programmes.
[ Competence areas: Resource efficiency ]
Resource efficiency action plan 2013-14
Challenge
Action
Timing & Budget
–Circular economy – rethinking product design: Enabling greater
collaboration between designers, product designers and service
companies to enable key materials to be re-used productively, rather
than disposed of at end of life. This competition will be developed and
delivered with support from the Design Special Interest Group run by
the Creative Industries KTN
Feasibility studies
competition
Q1
Up to £1.5m
–Circular economy – building the supply chains: Developing new
supply chains that can increase the productive re-use of materials
in the economy; building on work in the circular economy feasibility
studies
Collaborative R&D
competition
Q3
Up to £5m
–Materials Security Special Interest Group: Build the UK
community and influence development of EU programmes which will
be investing in high value and critical raw materials
Special interest group
Q1
Up to £100K
–Environmental data: Enabling the commercial exploitation of the
rich UK collection of environmental data to provide practical decision
support tools for industry – joint programme with digital economy and
shown in both areas
Feasibility studies
competition
Q2
Up to £1.5m
–Clean and Cool Mission to Brazil: Enabling SMEs in the UK clean
technology sector to undertake an entrepreneur mission with a focus
on customer, partner and supplier opportunities in one of the world’s
quickest-growing economies with substantial ambition for sustainable
development
Mission
Q1
Up to £200k
Budgets shown refer to funding commitments in the year, which may be spent over several years.
[ Delivery Plan 2013–14 ] 53
[ Delivery Plan 2013–14 ]
Enabling technologies
Our enabling technologies programme –information and
runs in parallel with our challengecommunication technology
led activities because we recognise
enables process, product
that technological developments can
and service innovation
inspire innovation across a range of
across all sectors, leading to
market sectors, generating wealth
increased competitiveness
for the UK and meeting societal
and sustainability. The UK
challenges.
ICT sector comprises over
116,000 companies with
We focus on four large and
revenues of more than £137bn
multidisciplinary areas.
and contributes £66bn to UK
GVA. Our programme seeks
–advanced materials underpin
to stimulate innovation in
many key business sectors
software-intensive technologies,
including general manufacturing,
processes and systems.
construction, clean tech and
transport. The interdependency
In all these areas, the UK benefits
between advanced materials
from a strong research base
and high value manufacturing, in
from which to pull through new
particular, offers a large opportunity technology developments to
for innovation and growth in the UK. support current and future sectors,
Businesses in the UK that produce, leading to economic growth.
process, fabricate and recycle
materials form a critical element
in high value manufacturing. They
The barriers to innovation
have an annual turnover of around
£197bn and contribute GVA of
Private investors are finding it
£53bn
difficult to invest in higher-risk,
early-stage innovation across the
– biosciences continue to play
four enabling technology areas
a vital role in the development of
in the current economic climate,
products and processes that are
making it hard for innovators to
an integral part of our lives, from
take their initial ideas to a level of
the food we eat to our medical
maturity that will attract later rounds
care. The UK has a diverse
of investment or the engagement of
range of businesses developing
potential users.
and exploiting cross-cutting
technologies based on a foundation Our recently published strategy has
of strong academic science.
identified the following barriers that
Between them, the UK biosciences are specific to the sectors:
sectors of pharmaceuticals and
industrial biotechnology represent
–advanced materials:
more than 13,000 companies and
uncertainties in the availability
generate a turnover of over £134bn
of energy and raw materials,
and a contribution to GVA of £41bn
and competition from lowcost manufacturing overseas,
– electronics, sensors and
present major challenges to
photonics underpin activity in
UK industry. However, the UK
healthcare, energy, transport,
can use its strong R&D base
environmental sustainability,
to enhance existing materials
construction and consumer
through design, and to bring new
goods. The UK’s electronics sector
products to market faster than
generates approximately £29bn a
the competition
year in revenues contributing over
£12bn to GVA
54
– b
iosciences: advancing a
novel product or process often
involves long and expensive
development requiring high-value
capital equipment. The route to
exploitation can also be complicated
by regulation. The transformative
potential of technology advancement
in this area, particularly in genetic
technologies, also brings with it
moral and ethical considerations.
There is a lack of cross-disciplinary
working required to accelerate
advancements, in particular working
with ICT, engineering and design
– electronics, sensors and
photonics: the cost of product
development and manufacturing
can be prohibitive (particularly
for early-stage companies), and
there is a fragmented supply chain
dominated by innovative SMEs with
some larger systems integrators
and manufacturers who are more
risk-averse. In the UK, we no longer
have large, vertically-integrated
companies providing internal supply
chains and a route to a home market
–information and communication
technology: low barriers to entry
into software development and
lack of engagement with end users
throughout the process often means
that software is not dependable
or sympathetic to the needs,
preferences and values of the
user. New approaches to software
engineering, data exploration and
user interaction are required.
[ Enablling technologies ]
Focusing our investment
We will focus our innovation support
between proof-of-concept and
commercial demonstration, where
collaboration and the cross-fertilisation
of ideas can happen within and
between sectors.
One of the mainstays of our activity
has been our ‘technology-inspired’
competitions, open to businesses
working on these enabling
technologies. We will continue to
run these competitions in 2013-14
and also invest in activities focused
on identified technology challenges.
Enabling technologies action plan 2013-14
Challenge: Across all enabling technologies
Action
Timing & Budget
–Technology-inspired innovation: Accelerating the development of
underpinning technologies through collaboration, science-to-business
knowledge transfer and participation across the supply chain, helping
to scale up ideas from previous technology-inspired competitions
Collaborative R&D
competition
Q2
Up to £8m
–Technology-inspired innovation: Enabling small and micro
businesses to demonstrate the feasibility of innovative underpinning
technologies
Feasibility studies
competition
Q4
Up to £4m
–Lightweighting: Stimulating innovation in lightweight materials
applied to transport, structures and devices to reduce energy
consumption and emissions and to increase efficiency
Collaborative R&D
competition
Q4
Up to £2m
–Materials for energy: Stimulating innovation in materials for cheaper
and more efficient energy storage and management
Collaborative R&D
competition
Q4
Up to £1.5m
– M
ERANET: Stimulating innovation and transnational partnerships in
materials science and engineering
EU competition
Q3
Up to £630k
Feasibility studies and
collaborative R&D
competition
Q1
Up to £4m
Challenge: Advanced materials
Challenge: Biosciences
–Nutrition for life: Stimulating innovation in technologies that enable
nutrition for life. Joint programme with high value manufacturing team
and shown in both areas
continued over page…
[ Delivery Plan 2013–14 ] 55
[ Delivery Plan 2013–14 ]
Enabling technologies action plan 2013-14
Challenge: Electronics, sensors and photonics
Action
Timing & Budget
–Sensor systems: Stimulating the design, development and
integration of new sensor systems with intelligence and optimised
control
Collaborative R&D
competition
Q3
Up to £1.5m
–Photonics: Stimulating innovation in lasers for industrial processes
Collaborative R&D
competition
Q2
Up to £1m
–Electronic systems: ARTEMIS Joint Technology Initiative focused on
embedded systems
EU competition
Q2
Up to £2.25m
–Big data exploration: Stimulating development and demonstration
of new ways to explore data to extract value from it
Collaborative R&D
competition
Q4
Up to £3.5m
–Software engineering Stimulating development of new
methodologies for multi-disciplinary software engineering
Feasibility studies
competition and
Knowledge Transfer
Partnerships
Q1
Up to £1m
–Robotics and Autonomous Systems special interest group:
Building an integrated community of entrepreneurs, innovators,
researchers, investors and end users and developing a robotics and
autonomous systems vision for the UK to stimulate innovation and
collaboration
Special interest group
Q1-Q4
Up to £200k
–Robotics and Autonomous Systems mission: Giving small
UK companies the opportunity to understand how robotics and
autonomous systems technology is being developed and successfully
commercialised elsewhere
Mission
Q3
Up to £200k
–High-performance computing: Raising awareness in UK
businesses of the high-performance computing resources and
expertise available and highlighting opportunities for innovation to
ensure the UK’s world-class position
Special interest group
Q1-Q4
Up to £100k
Challenge: Information and communication technology
Budgets shown refer to funding commitments in the year, which may be spent over several years.
56
Delivery Plan 2013-2014
[ Enablling technologies / Emerging technolgies and industries ]
Emerging technologies and industries
An emerging technology is a
technology that has only recently
emerged, or is still emerging, from the
science base.
It allows something to be done that
was not previously possible or was
possible only in theory. It creates a
totally new value proposition, and
consequently has the potential to
disrupt existing markets. Emerging
technologies might be adopted by
existing businesses or form the basis
of new enterprises.
This programme identifies highpotential technologies just emerging
from the science base and helps
accelerate their commercialisation
through the early engagement of
business.
This activity will link to and complement
the investment being made by the
research councils in the eight great
technology areas through the £600m
allocated in the Government’s 2012
Autumn Statement.
The barriers to innovation
Focusing our investment
The barriers to innovation are:
Working with business, the research
councils and DSTL, we are currently
investing in feasibility studies in three highpotential areas: synthetic biology, energyefficient computing and energy harvesting.
We will monitor progress in these areas,
and use what is learned to inform further
investments in areas such as the ‘eight
great technologies’. We will continue to
support the work of the Synthetic Biology
Leadership Council and will play our
part in helping responsible innovation in
this area, including through our funding
of the Synthetic Biology Innovation and
Knowledge Centre.
–it is difficult for companies to
see how they can benefit from
technologies when they are
completely new, and potentially
disruptive – and for academics to
find the best routes to market
–the potential value of a disruptive
technology must be judged at
individual business level as well
as sector level and this rarely
happens of its own accord
–getting investment for these
riskier, early-stage technologies
can be hard
–it is not easy to generate the
critical mass needed for the
development of new industries,
which requires many parties
working together with easy
access to expertise and facilities.
We will update our assessment of other
emerging technology areas with a view to
creating a pipeline of potential emerging
technology investments. Working with
the Engineering and Physical Sciences
Research Council, we will continue to
explore the innovation opportunities
arising from the additional science
investments in graphene.
Emerging technologies and industries action plan 2013-14
Challenge
Action
–Understanding and exploring early the commercial potential
of disruptive technologies: Special interest groups to build
communities of practice in the emerging areas of synthetic biology,
energy-efficient computing and energy harvesting. Consider
establishing a SIG in graphene
Special interest groups
Q2
Up to £400k
– Realising
the value of disruptive technology: Monitor progress of
the existing feasibility studies in target emerging technology areas and
make investments in demonstrators if justified by business opportunity
Collaborative R&D
competition TBD
Q3
Up to £4m
Innovation and
knowledge centre
Q2
Up to £2.5m
–Building early-stage critical mass in an area of strategic
importance: Building early-stage critical mass in synthetic biology, in
partnership with the research councils to enable development of new
industries in the UK
Timing & Budget
Budgets shown refer to funding commitments in the year, which may be spent over several years.
[ Delivery Plan 2013–14 ] 57
[ Delivery Plan 2013–14 ]
Other opportunity areas
Whilst those areas where Technology
Strategy Board programmes can add
most value to UK innovation are our
thematic priorities, there are other
sectors where the UK capacity is
strong and where we are able to help
and encourage business innovation
where not already encompassed in
our thematic programmes. These are
currently the creative industries and
financial services sectors.
Creative industries: During the year
we will update the creative industries
strategy and continue to offer support
to businesses in the sector. The
exciting digital opportunities for the
creative industries will continue to
be taken forward through our digital
economy programme. More broadly
across the organisation, we will
increase our support for the early use
of design across our programmes,
through the use of Innovation
Vouchers, the Design Option and the
work of the Design Special Interest
Group. The aim is to counter the
tendency to consider usability and
desirability aspects of design towards
the end of R&D projects and avoid revisiting earlier decisions that can result
in increased time to market, more
cost, and less commercial success.
Financial services: We will continue
to implement our strategy in this area.
The financial services industry is well
resourced in respect of its use of
technology, and our contribution here
remains to encourage and increase
the level of knowledge-sharing through
the Financial Services KTN.
Other opportunity areas action plan 2013-14
Challenge
Action
–Connecting design and technology communities: Ensuring that
design thinking is incorporated early in the project life cycle to improve
commercial outcomes by building up the Design Special Interest
Group and running a third Design Option pilot
Special interest group
Design Option
Budgets shown refer to funding commitments in the year, which may be spent over several years.
58
Timing & Budget
Q1
Up to £150k
[ Other opportunity areas / Continuously improving our capability ]
Continuously improving
our capability
To deliver our programmes as efficiently and effectively as
possible to best meet the needs of our customers we need
to be a highly capable organisation.
We will continue to develop our
resources and business processes
to be fast, flexible, and focused
on the needs of business, and our
benchmarks and impact measures to
ensure that we remain effective and
deliver value for money.
During 2013-14 we will work with
our sponsor department BIS
on the implementation of the
recommendations of the triennial
review of the Technology Strategy
Board, a standard process for public
bodies such as ours, which is due to
report during the financial year.
Business improvement
Over the last five years the
organisation has grown, requiring
a more robust approach to how we
manage our processes to ensure
capability, scalability and performance
improvement. We need to develop the
cross-functional business processes
that allow us to effectively and
efficiently meet our customers’ needs
and drive continuous improvement.
During 2012-13, we undertook an
assessment against the EFQM®
Excellence Model to help us identify
and address areas for improvement,
we continued to review our processes
to ensure we added value for
business, and we made some
operational improvements. We have
brought the administration of most of
our grants into one system and are
consolidating all our support into this
‘one-platform’ system to improve
processes and reporting. This work
includes embedding the Knowledge
Transfer Partnerships application and
grant payment processes.
We are increasing the access to our
project information and working with
the research councils on the Gateway
to Research, providing access to
grant information.
Developing our IT and
management information
capability
Targets
–Develop a clear and consistent
framework of processes
that will inform and support
decision-making, performance
improvement and change.
–Implement new management
information and reporting systems
and continue to improve the
grant processes across all our
programmes.
–Complete integration of
Knowledge Transfer Partnerships.
We will continue to improve our ability
to manage competitions, grants,
contracts and claims through an
integrated IT system. We will unify
databases to enable the simple
extraction of the management
information needed to respond to
requests and to enable more detailed
portfolio analysis.
Professionalising
customer support
The changed innovation landscape
and our new strategy have resulted
in an increased engagement with
small and young companies and an
increased volume of engagement.
We need to enhance our business
support group and improve our
customer query and complaint
tracking and support.
[ Delivery Plan 2013–14 ] 59
[ Delivery Plan 2013–14 ]
Resource planning
With an ambitious plan and new
responsibilities, we need to make
sure we are adequately resourced.
Our headcount plan for last year
was 215. In order to deliver our
programme for 2013-14 – which
includes many new challenges set by
government – we aim to increase this
to 235.
Organisational values
We rely on our people to achieve
our goals. Having clearly articulated
values is important for trust, clarity of
purpose and delivery. We identified
five values as core to our evolving
organisation and we will continue to
ensure these are embedded over the
coming year:
– solution-focused
– passionate about innovation
– curious and creative
– one dynamic team
–committed to helping one another.
Impact and evaluation
An important part of our work
is evaluating the impact of our
programmes and using the findings
to help steer future investments.
In 2012-13 we carried out
evaluations of:
–how Knowledge Transfer
Partnerships create value for
business
–the impact of the innovation and
knowledge centres co-funded with
the research councils
–the impact of our support for
feasibility studies
We have also set out an impact
evaluation framework for the Catapult
centres, which will ensure that each
creates an evaluation plan. We are
collecting baseline information to
assess the impact of the whole
Catapult network, for example on
the current size and composition of
the sectors targeted by Catapults,
on awareness of the brand, and on
the network’s influence at home and
abroad.
–Build and apply a portfolio analysis
tool that applies to both thematic
areas and our use of different tools
to reach different target audiences
(and addresses our strategic
intents).
–Devise an impact measurement
plan for our new community
engagement strategy, the
Biomedical Catalyst programme
and our EU and international
engagement (including our
involvement with EU programmes).
–Deliver the first annual report on
the development and impact of the
Catapult programme.
–Deliver impact evaluations
covering: the Assisted Living and
Low Impact Building Innovation
Platforms; Launchpads, and
Smart (interim evaluation at end
2013 – including on administration
processes).
Looking to the future, we will use a
range of innovation research sources
to inform the development of our
programmes and will work with BIS to –Evaluate the way our different kinds
of support work together within
build a full picture of impact evidence
innovation platforms to deliver
from our activity and that of other
their overall objectives, looking
relevant bodies. This will include:
across the innovation platforms in
low carbon vehicles, low impact
–engaging with innovation
buildings and assisted living.
research and using it to inform our
decisions
–having a plan of evaluations of our
various interventions
–developing portfolio analysis
We need to build an impact
capability
evidence base and use this, along
with evidence from innovation
–developing a methodology to track
research and our own management
companies’ development.
information systems, to develop our
strategic toolset, articulate arguments
that influence policy and support
investment decisions.
60
Targets
[ Continuously improving our capability / Financial summary ]
Financial Summary
Estimated breakdown of Technology Strategy
Board expenditure by activity (core budget)
2013-14 Breakdown of estimated expenditure £440m
Smart
Eurostars
Launchpads
Innovation Vouchers
KTP
KTN
SBRI
Thematic
areas
Admin/Programme support
Catapults
This chart shows anticipated actual expenditure in 2013-14. It does not represent funding
commitments to be made during the year, which may be spent over several years.
NB. Our programmes attract significant levels of funding from other organisations, both
public and private sector, which is not included in the above.
[ Delivery Plan 2013–14 ] 61
[ Delivery Plan 2013–14 ]
Notes
62
[ Notes ]
Notes
[ Delivery Plan 2013–14 ] 63
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T13/37
The Technology Strategy Board is the UK’s innovation
agency. Our goal is to accelerate economic growth by
stimulating and supporting business-led innovation.
We are a non-departmental public body sponsored
by the Department of Business, Innovation and Skills.