Offering British innovators more opportunities in Asian markets

Flags of South Korea and the United Kingdom

Innovate UK today launches a new UK-South Korea collaborative research and development (CR&D) funding competition.

The UK-South Korea CR&D funding competition follows hot on the heels of the recent UK-Singapore CR&D funding competition, which opened last month.

UK-registered businesses can apply for a share of up to £2 million for developing innovative proposals with South Korea.

The competition is in partnership with the Korea Institute for Advancement of Technology (KIAT).

Industrial research

The aim of this competition is to fund CR&D projects focused on industrial research.

Projects must include at least one partner from the UK and one partner from South Korea.

Projects must focus on one or more of the following sectors:

  • advanced manufacturing and materials
  • artificial intelligence
  • clean energy, specifically:
    • battery technologies
    • hydrogen mobility technologies
    • future vehicles.

Emerging technologies

In December 2021, Innovate UK signed a memorandum of understanding with Enterprise Singapore (ESG) to enhance enterprise competitiveness and facilitate go-to-market partnerships in emerging technologies.

The UK-Singapore CR&D competition is particularly looking at applications from the following sectors:

  • advanced manufacturing and materials
  • agri-food tech
  • mobility and transport
  • cybersecurity
  • health and life sciences.

ESG has backed the competition with matched funding for Singaporean firms working with UK ones, as has KIAT for local partners.

First bilateral competitions

These are the first bilateral CR&D competitions to be run by Innovate UK with both countries.

Innovate UK is committed to additional competitions over the next three years.

This is further underpinned by Innovate UK’s Global Business Innovation Programme and the Global Incubator Programme which supports the global Britain ambitions of the UK government’s innovation strategy.

Global leader

David Golding, Innovate UK’s interim deputy director, global said:

South Korea is a global leader in sectors such as telecommunications, electronics, transportation and materials.

This opportunity, coupled with the one Innovate UK launched with ESG in January, is part of a longer-term, more strategic approach, with both countries, allowing the best of British innovators to team up with their counterparts in two of Asia’s most technologically-advanced nations.

Top image:  Credit: alexis84, Getty Images

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