UKRI: Accelerated Knowledge Transfer

Overview

Improving productivity and innovating quickly are central to enabling business growth, resilience and sustainability. But achieving them often requires new knowledge and fresh thinking.

Innovate UK Accelerated Knowledge Transfer forms a partnership between a business and a specialist academic team to deliver a short, targeted intervention. Over a two-to-four-month period, the teams work together to accelerate the progress of an innovation project.

Accelerating innovation

Innovate UK’s Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) has been delivering positive impacts for businesses for nearly 50 years, demonstrating the value of collaboration between businesses and academia.

KTP is ideal for businesses with a clear strategic challenge. But for many, the real challenge is identifying their barriers to being truly innovative and knowing how to overcome them.

For these businesses, a shorter-term, rapid intervention can be the solution. Innovate UK Accelerated Knowledge Transfer was launched to create these intensive collaborations that impart knowledge and help businesses to:

• identify innovation blockers
• evaluate an innovation concept
• find solutions to immediate and long-term challenges
• accelerate new thinking and processes
• develop new business models and expand capacity

Accelerated Knowledge Transfer 4 – Addiction Healthcare Goals

A total of up to £2m will be available to support this round. Please note that projects must be in the thematic area of Addiction Healthcare Goals.

Funding supports short, targeted innovation projects aimed at improving treatment, recovery, and harm reduction or prevention for individuals with drug or alcohol addictions. This initiative seeks to foster collaborations between UK academic institutions and businesses, not-for-profits, or public sector organisations to accelerate the development or evaluation of innovative concepts with significant impact potential.

Each project under the AKT4 programme is expected to last 13 weeks, with a maximum grant of £35,000 per project. The business partner involved must contribute at least 10% of the total project costs in cash. The funding aims to facilitate knowledge exchange activities that can lead to meaningful advancements in addiction treatment and prevention strategies.

Eligible applicants include UK-registered academic institutions, research and technology organisations (RTOs), or Catapults, partnering with UK-registered businesses, not-for-profits, or eligible public sector organisations. The academic institution will act as the lead organisation and sole grant recipient, responsible for submitting the application. Projects must focus on addressing challenges related to drug or alcohol addiction treatment and prevention.

Treatment, recovery, and harm prevention for those with drug and alcohol addictions 

• Projects supported by the Addiction Healthcare Goals AKT fund will explore questions linked to treatment of, recovery from, and reduction or prevention of harm by addictions or dependence to substances treated in a typical treatment service in the UK. 
• These substances include alcohol, opioids (both illicit versions and abuse of prescription medication), stimulants (including but not limited to cocaine/crack, amphetamine, methamphetamine), cannabis, GHB, ketamine, benzodiazepines and, gabapentinoids. This is not a comprehensive list, and other substances could be applicable.
• Applications should explore areas of established unmet need in addiction treatment, linked to key government priorities, such as those described in the 2021 strategy From Harm to Hope, Dame Carol Black’s Independent Review of Drugs, and equivalent drug and alcohol strategies across the devolved UK nations. Specific local priorities and needs, such as those of local authorities or regions, and those of specific service providers or treatment settings should also be accounted for. 
• Projects should also set out where relevant how they relate to delivering on the Government’s core Missions especially, ‘building an NHS fit for the future’ (Health), ‘kickstart economic growth’ (Growth), Safer Streets, and ‘break down barriers to opportunity’ (Opportunity).

For more information on these Government Missions please visit: https://www.gov.uk/missions 

Examples of topics within the scope 

Within the context of the AKT, projects may explore any areas which relate to improving treatment, recovery, or prevention of harm from drug and/or alcohol addiction(s) in any relevant setting UK-wide. 

Applicable topics for projects include but are not limited to: 

• Scoping, designing or deployment of new or improved treatment options (e.g. pharmaceuticals, MedTech, or digital technologies), recovery options, or innovative harm (including overdose) prevention approaches. 
• Piloting approaches to improve access to treatment services for researchers, including NHS or third sector led and those in criminal justice system settings. 
• Devising methods for improving data collection, processing or availability for research across relevant settings and UK nations. 
• Developing and testing optimal methods to best engage people with lived and living experience across the UK in product, treatment, or treatment pathway design and research. 
• Exploring approaches to enhancing the awareness and openness of people with lived and living experience to the use of new technologies, treatments, and approaches for the treatment of, recovery from, or reduction and prevention of harms caused by drug and/or alcohol addiction(s). 
• Investigating key barriers to the roll out of new treatments and technologies by service providers across settings and regions and devising potential solutions to these barriers. 
• Exploring optimal approaches to ensure well connected pathways across treatment, recovery and community support services. 
• Mapping current pathways and systems of joint working between substance use treatment and recovery, mental health treatment and physical health treatment providers, and devising opportunities to enhance these to improve joined up care. 
• Exploring approaches for improved pathways and ways of joint working between substance use treatment providers with social (including housing, education, family services) and criminal justice system settings to ensure continuity and quality of care.

Who can apply

Eligible applicants include UK-registered academic institutions, research and technology organisations (RTOs), or Catapults, partnering with UK-registered businesses, not-for-profits, or eligible public sector organisations. The academic institution will act as the lead organisation and sole grant recipient, responsible for submitting the application. Projects must focus on addressing challenges related to drug or alcohol addiction treatment and prevention.

Any Knowledge Base that is eligible to apply as a Knowledge Base for KTP is eligible to apply in this competition. You will find a list of Knowledge Bases already approved to participate in KTP here: https://iuk-ktp.org.uk/find-your-local-knowledge-base/ 

If you are not already approved as a Knowledge Base to participate in KTP, you will still be eligible to apply for an Innovate UK AKT award. You must be a UK registered higher education (HE) or further education (FE) institution, Research Technology Organisation (RTO) or Catapult. Please follow the links for further information.

Funding Level & Notes

There is no upper limit to project costs, but the maximum grant that can be awarded is for £35,000. Any costs over £35,000 must be met by the business partner, in addition to their 10% of project costs. 

The Funding Level for AKT projects if 90% regardless of Business Partner Size.

Combined project costs allocated to travel, consumables and estates may not exceed £3,500. As a guide these 3 budget items should be approximately 10% of the total project cost. Costs must be itemised and justified within the application. 

Any costs above the £3,500 limit must be excluded from the project costs (eligible for the grant) and must be added to the additional Business Partner costs. 

Where the 10% guide is exceeded this may impact the score received from assessors.

Your project costs may include: 

• employment costs for AKT associate 
• associate development costs 
• travel and subsistence 
• consumables 
• costs for the knowledge base supervisor 
• associate estate costs 
• additional associate support costs