CfI: Advanced Connectivity Technologies (ACT) – Call 1 in Lancashire

Innovate UK, part of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), will invest up to £15 million, inclusive of VAT, in this Contracts for Innovation competition.

This competition is funded by Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) and delivered via Innovate UK, UKRI. Funding is subject to Business Case approval.

This investment is subject to receiving a sufficient number of high-quality applications.

This competition is part of the Advanced Connectivity Technologies (ACT) R&D Programme, announced in the Digital and Technologies Sector Plan under the UK’s Industrial Strategy.

Our ambition is for more technologies developed in the UK to be used in networks around the world. It also aims grow a strong UK ACT ecosystem of UK and international companies that attract private investment.

The ACT R&D Programme is a key part of delivering this ambition. Delivered through UKRI, it will use a range of interventions to:

This competition specifically focuses on challenge-focused solution development.

The aim of this competition is to develop near term, testable solutions that advance the UK capability in the two Grand Challenge areas of: Secure and Resilient Networks and Sustainable Networks. Projects will deliver deployable prototypes or demonstrators on UK testbeds and in real world environments. Solutions must show a credible path to adoption by UK network operators, vendors or public sector users. They must also clearly evidence improvements in network performance, such as reliability, availability, recovery time, security, energy use, spectrum efficiency or lifecycle carbon.

There may be future funding to support further development. If relevant, proposals should outline high level further development plans. Any additional funding would need a separate application. While no decision has been taken on future phases, the Contracting Authority retains the right to launch further calls building on the outcomes of this competition.

Where relevant it is recommended that projects will utilise the national labs and facilities that are available and relevant to the projects. This includes, but is not limited to the Catapult Network and the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) funded Future Connectivity Hubs and the Joint Open Infrastructure for Networks Research (JOINER) testbed.

In applying to this competition, you are entering into a competitive process. This competition has a funding budget of up to £15 million, inclusive of VAT, so we may not be able to fund all the proposed projects.

It may be the case that your project scores highly and receives positive comments from the assessors but we are still unable to fund it due to the portfolio approach we take.

Any adoption and implementation of a solution from this competition would be subject to a separate, possibly competitive, procurement exercise. This competition does not cover the purchase of any solution.

We expect to receive a high volume of applications and will not be able to fund them all. We expect to award a maximum of 20 contracts.

We consider a range of factors when determining whether to provide funding to applicants. This includes an assessment of prior conduct, such as any outstanding payments owed to Innovate UK or UKRI. Such factors may influence the funding decision, potentially resulting in a refusal of funding or an award subject to additional scrutiny.

We also reserve the right to adjust funding allocations for any of our competitions. This may be in response to changes in policy, portfolio funding considerations or broader government funding decisions.

This competition closes at 11am UK time on the deadline stated in this Innovate UK competition brief. We cannot guarantee other government or third party sites will always show the correct competition information.