Find funding for your Safety Tech business: How Innovate UK and KTN can help

The Safety Tech Innovation Network is hosting a series of webinars focused on finding funding opportunities for Safety Tech businesses.

In the first of a series of events focused on finding funding for Safety Tech businesses, attendees heard from: 

Jordan Fletcher, Knowledge Transfer Manager for Investment at KTN, who provided a guide to grant competitions available, as well as the support and expertise KTN provides with funding and finance.

Jordan was joined by Innovate UK’s Programme Lead for Innovation Loans, Hexmaxi Bhatt, who further explained the free resources available to both new and established Safety Tech companies wanting to access the key research, partners, investors, and markets needed to help turn ideas into commercially successful products and services and grow their businesses. 

Sources of funding and advice covered

In their talks, Jordan and Hexmaxi covered the following types of funding and advice:

  • SMART Grants – available for organisations looking to deliver an innovation project – either as a single SME or a collaborative grant (whereby the lead organisation must be registered in the UK). The maximum level of funding you can receive through a SMART Grant is 70% of project costs. While a popular choice for many, it is worth noting that SMART Grants are highly competitive, with around 10% of applicants receiving the grant. Applications for the next round of SMART Grants close on 5 January 2022 but will re-open later in the year.
  • Innovation loans – for later stage research and development with a clear route to commercial success, Innovation loans are for businesses that are looking to grow and scale.
  • The Small Business Research Initiative – bringing together government challenges and ideas from businesses to create innovative solutions.
  • Knowledge Transfer Partnership – companies can innovate, grow and elevate their competitiveness through funded partnerships with academics and researchers, bringing new skills and academic thinking to projects.

Check out KTN’s funding and R&D grant page, which is updated daily with new opportunities.

Support at your finger tips

KTN and Innovate UK offer a number of free resources to help companies on their journey. Recommended materials include:

  • Good Application Guide – use KTN’s guide to submit high quality proposals for grant opportunities. Click here to download.
  • Innovation Canvas – identify the most important challenges in developing innovative products, services and processes, and prioritise resources and time to overcome challenges in the innovation journey. The digital canvas can be accessed by clicking here.
  • Funding Finder – access to more than 100 UK wide funding opportunities ranging from grants, loans, fellowships and more.
  • Eligibility Criteria – an informative breakdown of who is eligible for funding opportunities, including an applicant approval process for organisations currently not eligible.
  • Assessment and decision-making – an in-depth assessment of how each proposal is considered and independently assessed, as well as information on how funding is allocated.

Regional funding opportunities

Safety Tech companies can also access regional public funding opportunities, including:

Want to know more? Join us for the next access to finance event on private funding and investors for new Safety Tech innovations. More information on the series will be released on our events page.


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