Design Foundations Round 2: Net Zero Living
Overview
Innovate UK, part of UK Research and Innovation, will invest up to £4 million in innovation projects that use people-centred and planet-centred design methods to transform where we live and work into net zero places. This funding is from Innovate UK.
The aim of this competition is to help businesses use people-centred and planet-centred design methods to lay the foundations for innovative ideas with the potential to deliver significant benefits. The purpose of this will be to support the transformation of our homes and places of work into net zero environments. These can be ideas for new or significantly improved products, services, places or business models.
Eligible organisations can apply for funding to use people-centred and planet-centred design methods to:
- improve existing innovative ideas
- generate new ideas in response to a known need or opportunity
- identify new opportunities to innovate and plan how to respond to them
Your proposal must look at the need or opportunity from the perspective of the people involved. You must make sure that proposed solutions are more desirable and beneficial and, as such, are more likely to be adopted or to result in net zero-supportive behaviour change.
Applications are encouraged from organisations that have not previously used people-centred and planet-centred design processes or expertise. We encourage you to work with design experts to get the best results and to develop your own understanding and capabilities.
This competition is split into 2 strands:
- Design Foundations Round 2, strand 1: Responsive. Projects that use people-centred and system-aware approaches to develop new or significantly improved services, products, places or business models
- Design Foundations Round 2, strand 2 (this strand): Net Zero Living. Projects that use planet-centred or system-aware approaches to consider nature as a stakeholder, to design beneficial solutions within the limits of planetary resources and ecosystems (this strand)
It is your responsibility to ensure you submit your application to the correct strand for your project. You will not be able to transfer your application and it will not be sent for assessment if it is out of scope.
In applying to this competition, you are entering into a competitive process.
Brief overview of competition scheme - see Guidance on the website for full details
Funding
Your project’s grant funding request must be equal to your project costs. Your grant funding request must be between £40,000 and £80,000.
They have allocated up to £4 million to fund innovation projects in this competition.
You can request 100% funding for your eligible project costs from £40,000 up to a maximum of £80,000. Your project’s grant funding request must not exceed this maximum.
If your grant funding request does exceed this maximum, then your application will be made ineligible.
You can make reference to any additional voluntary contribution in your application answers. It must not be detailed in the finance section.
Research participation
The research organisations undertaking non-economic activity as part of the project can share up to 100% of the total eligible project costs. If your consortium contains more than one research organisation undertaking non-economic activity, this maximum is shared between them.
Minimal Financial Assistance
Grant funding in this competition is awarded as Minimal Financial assistance (MFA). This allows public bodies to award up to £315,000 to an enterprise in a 3-year rolling financial period.
Eligibility
Your project must:
- have a total grant funding request between £40,000 and £80,000
- start by 1 December 2023
- end by 31 May 2024
- last between 3 months and 6 months
- carry out its project work in the UK, however user research in international target markets can be undertaken
- intend to exploit the results from or in the UK
Lead organisations must agree to contribute up to two days in support of Innovate UK activities to promote the use of people-centred and planet-centred design, or to help us improve our products and services. This activity could include, for example, taking part in interviews, supporting the creation of case studies or contributing to seminars or showcases. You will not be required to share confidential information or intellectual property.
You must only include eligible project costs in your application.
You will be made ineligible if you exceed the Minimal Financial Assistance limit. You must submit a complete declaration as part of your application.
Lead organisation
To lead a project your organisation must:
- be a UK registered business of any size, charity, not-for-profit or public sector organisation
- collaborate with other UK registered organisations
More information on the different types of organisation can be found in their Funding rules.
Project team
To collaborate with the lead, your organisation must be a UK registered:
- business of any size
- academic institution
- charity
- not-for-profit
- public sector organisation
- research and technology organisation (RTO)
Your project team must include appropriate expertise in people-centred and planet-centred design. Lead organisations without this capability are encouraged to work with designers as project partners or subcontractors.
Each partner organisation must be invited into the Innovation Funding Service (IFS) by the lead to collaborate on a project. Once accepted, partners will be asked to login or to create an account, enter their own project costs and complete their own Project Impact questions into IFS.
To be an eligible collaboration, the lead and at least one other organisation must apply for funding when entering their costs into the application.
Subcontractors
Subcontractors are allowed in this competition. The costs associated with sub-contracting must not exceed 75% of the total project cost.
Number of applications
A business, charity, not for profit or public sector organisation can only lead on one application but can be included as a collaborator in a further 2 applications.
If an organisation is not leading any application, it can collaborate in any number of applications.
Subcontractors can contribute to any number of applications. Lead organisations are advised to be mindful of their chosen subcontractors’ capacity to deliver should they be involved in more than one successful application.
Scope
Your Proposal
The aim of this competition is to help businesses use people-centred and planet-centred design methods to lay the foundations for innovative ideas with the potential to deliver significant benefits. These can be ideas for new or significantly improved products, services, places or business models.
To be within scope for the net zero round of this competition, your proposal must fall within one or more of the following 3 categories:
- Defining innovation opportunities: You will use people-centred and planet-centred design methods to identify, understand and prioritise needs and innovation opportunities that are relevant and valuable to your business. You will plan innovation activity to respond to them, including by generating, testing and improving new ideas as described above.
- Generating new ideas: You recognise a specific need or opportunity to innovate and will use people-centred and planet-centred design methods to verify and respond to it by generating new or improved ideas.
- Testing and improving ideas: You have an innovative idea and will use people-centred and planet-centred design methods to simulate, test and improve the quality of the experience and benefits that it offers at every stage of its lifecycle.
To be within scope for this competition, your proposal must also meet the following criterion:
- Net Zero Living: You must use people-centred and planet-centred design methods to identify, understand and prioritise needs and innovation opportunities which have the potential to transform where we live and work into net zero places.
Your project must explore opportunities and ideas from the perspective of the people and socio-technical systems who will be involved with, or affected by them, in the context of the transition to a net zero economy. Their experiences, motivations and behaviour must be allowed to shape the challenge and ideas. This is to make sure that:
- the most important, urgent and valuable problems and opportunities are being addressed
- proposed solutions are more desirable, equitable, beneficial and supportive of net zero living
- new ideas are more likely to be adopted and promote positive changes in behaviour
See Guidance for full details.
Themes
Your project must focus on net zero living, but may also cut across one or more of the following:
- health and wellbeing
- food and agriculture, except in primary production
- application of advanced digital and other technologies
This list is not exhaustive
Supporting information
This strand of Design Foundations has been developed with the explicit aim of embedding design activity in business communities relevant to Innovate UK’s Net Zero domain, outlined in its Plan for Action.
Learn more about people-centred and planet-centred design: