A Guide to Smart Grants for climate startups
Innovate UK’s Smart Grants programme aims to bring original, high-impact innovations to market, and can be a great source of funding for climate entrepreneurs working on innovative products and services. This being said, Smart Grants are also highly competitive, and have an industry success rate of less than 3%.
Whilst it can be challenging to put together a winning Smart application, with the right expertise, it is possible! At SV, we work with an external grant writing partner to bring this specific expertise to our ecosystem. Over the past year, 66% of the clients we've referred to our Smart partner have successfully won Smart funding. And what's more, they honour SV's 'no-win, no-fee' model for Smart calls. So, with the newest round recently launched, we thought it would be a good time to share some tips on where to start.
The basics
The Smart Grant competition gives UK registered organisations the opportunity to apply for a share of up to £25 million for game-changing and world-leading ideas, designed for swift commercialisation, that can significantly impact the UK economy. For this most recent grant call, IUK will fund feasibility projects, industrial research projects, and experimental development projects.
To be in scope your proposal must demonstrate:
A ground-breaking and innovative idea for brand new products, processes, or services that is significantly different from those already available globally
Clear potential to positively impact the UK’s position, productivity and competitiveness within the global economy
A clear, evidence-based business plan to deliver significant economic impact, ROI, and growth through commercialisation after project completion
Project size:
Projects of 6 to 18 months must have total eligible project costs between £100,000 and £500,000 and can be single or collaborative.
Projects of 19 to 24 months must have total eligible project costs between £100,000 and £1 million and be collaborative.
Match funding:
Please note that there is an element of match funding required. You can see details in the 'Eligibility' tab here.
Sound like the grant call for you? Chat to our team if you’d like to explore how we can support you on your application.
Words by Beckie Cole
Beckie leads our Grants Team in writing winning bids for climate tech clients. Beckie joined SV from the charity sector, where she specialised in securing six-figure grant funding from Trusts and Foundations.