If you are eligible to receive a grant offer, your notification email will instruct you to start the project set up process.
You must complete the project setup before your project can start and any funding can be claimed. You will receive full instructions and guidance for project setup in the Innovation Funding Service as well as a briefing event.
Watch our video on what steps there are before a project starts.
During the project set up you will be assigned a delivery executive who will guide you through the project set up process.
Your project manager, finance contact and bank details for each organisation must be submitted within seven days of your successful notification.
You will have 90 days to complete all of your project set up. Within this you are required to submit:
- names and email addresses of your project team
- project location
- any answers to financial queries we have requested
- any requested documentation to support your project such as a collaboration agreement, exploitation plan, spend profile
Your funding offer may be withdrawn if project setup is not completed within this or an alternative timeframe as advised by Innovate UK.
If Innovate UK has not paid grant payments to you before, we will request your bank details. We will also ask for proof of your bank details as a copy of a redacted bank statement in a PDF format. We can only pay funding to a UK business bank account that has the same name as the organisation in your application.
Your banking provider must have a clearing facility and must be authorised by the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).
If your bank provider does not have a clearing facility, we can accept it if there are no sanctions, and it is authorised by the PRA and regulated by the FCA.
If you need further information, please contact our customer support service on 0300 321 4357 or email support@iuk.ukri.org.
If your project is a collaboration you will be asked to provide a collaboration agreement. The agreement will need to be signed by all collaborative partners in the project.
Example agreements can be found in the Lambert toolkit.
Project setup, including any requested agreements or documentation, must be completed within 90 days, or sooner if the competition has a ‘date projects must start by’. Failure to do this could result in your funding being withdrawn.
You must not start any project activities until you are in receipt of a signed and approved grant offer letter (GOL) from Innovate UK. Any work carried out before you are in receipt of a signed GOL is not eligible for funding.
Once you have submitted all documentation
We will review your total eligible project costs to check that they meet our funding criteria. Each organisation may be asked to provide further information on the detail in your submitted finances.
Financial viability checks are made on all business partner organisations.
Monitoring officer
You will be assigned a monitoring officer who will work with you throughout your project. They will help you make sure your project complies with our terms and conditions and report to Innovate UK on its progress. They are not responsible for the project management of your project.
Watch our video on how successful projects are monitored.
Claims and auditing
Costs are only eligible if they are incurred and paid between the project start and end dates. Claims may be subject to an independent audit. You must submit an independent accountant’s report (IAR) with your final claim.
Any partners with individual total project costs above £50,000 must provide evidence with an IAR.
We will not award you funding in any future competition if you have:
- failed to exploit a previously funded project
- an overdue IAR
- failed to comply with grant terms and conditions
As standard, funding should be claimed quarterly in arrears. Once audits and reports are complete and approved, the claims are released.
All participants must provide evidence to support each claim made.
Claims must be paid into an account in the name you have applied to be able to receive grant payments.
Watch our video on how successful applicants receive their funding.
Promoting your project
We may choose to promote your project as part of our communications. If you have any queries about public relations or media coverage email pressoffice@iuk.ukri.org.
Support for small and medium-sized enterprises from Innovate UK Business Growth
If you receive an award, you will be contacted about working with an innovation and growth specialist at Innovate UK Business Growth. This service forms part of our funded offer to you.
These specialists focus on growing innovative businesses and ensuring that projects contribute to their growth. Working one-to-one, they can help you to identify your best strategy and harness world-class resources to grow and achieve scale.