Funding your big idea

In the last issue of New Electronics, Myrddin Jones, the Technology Strategy Board's lead technologist for Electronics, Sensors and Photonics, outlined the focus for his agency in terms of its role within the electronics industry. However, there remains a lingering impression with some companies that government grants are more trouble than they are worth. They come under the same broad umbrella as tax relief on capital equipment – unobtainable on account of the excessive red tape that successive governments insist they are going reduce. They are not necessarily SME-friendly, instead aimed at larger organisations who have the resource and infrastructure geared to such things. Would you be surprised to learn that TSB grant applications can involve answering as few as four questions? A lot of companies would be. Jones admitted: "There are thousands more companies out there that don't know that we exist. I know that because very often in every competition we run there are only one or two newcomers. If more people knew about us then we would be getting far more newcomers every time. I think the reason is that companies think it is difficult." Companies are frequently more successful on their second application, Jones conceded, but that is partly because they benefit from having experienced the process and because of the feedback they get. A SMART project requires answers to four questions, the Collaborative R&D competitions require answers to ten. "They have to make the effort," said Jones. "The form asks serious questions about the business case, the innovation and the technology in the project, the project management and the finances. Serious questions, but no more so than if you were looking for finance from the bank or anywhere else. We tend to fund projects that are far more innovative and far more risky than a bank would deal with." The main ways in which the TSB can help fund projects, are through the SMART projects, Collaborative R&D competitions, SBRI competitions, and Knowledge Transfer Partnerships (KTPs). There are many other networking (Knowledge Transfer Networks) and industry specific mechanisms, but the four mentioned are a good starting point for companies wanting help to get certain projects off the ground. SMART offers grants to individual SMEs of up to £25k to cover up to 60% of the project costs. The project can be to determine proof of market, proof of concept or for prototype development. It is a rolling programme with a cut-off every two months. All projects are assessed within three weeks and contracts can be resolved within a further fortnight – so it does not take long to get up and running. A useful tool for applicants, that also holds for the other programmes, is that all assessors' responses are fed back. Handy for companies wishing to re-apply for SMART funding, but also a useful appraisal of the justification for the project. With five assessors giving responses to the ten answers, that can present 50 data points of valuable business intelligence for applicants for the Collaborative R&D competitions. During the financial year 2013 there will have been 75 of these competitions across all of the TSBs areas of interest. Two current examples, with closing dates of 2 April 2014, are 'Manufacturing electronic systems of the future' and Seeing more than before, emerging imaging technologies'. These are therefore unlike SMART in as much as they are aimed at particular topics. They also require at least one partner, often academic and will be on a bigger scale the imaging one can offer grants up to £150k per project to cover 75% of costs. KTP is really aimed at academics who are looking to take their idea a step towards commercialisation. Under this scheme a graduate or postgraduate is employed by a business for up to three years, which also gives businesses access to breakthrough technology. Jones said of the 800 or so KTPs: "It is a sign of success that 75% of the associates end up working full time for the company when they have finished." A fourth opportunity comes from SBRI (Small Business Research Initiative), which links across government departments with companies to look for solutions to specific problems. The process is through open competition in the same way as the Collaborative R&D projects but, in this case, the government effectively becomes a lead customer. An example of such a project was the development of an energy efficient light bulb – the 'Life Bulb' – by Zeta Specialist Lighting, following a call to reduce carbon emissions from DEFRA. 'We are a world first in ultra-efficient lighting that uses only 10W of energy to create the brightness of a 60W bulb – 14% less than the most energy saving bulbs on the market – a winning product that would probably never have come to market without the Technology Strategy Board," said Zeta's founder Philip Shadbolt. The picture shows Jones with a Life Bulb, which is due to enter production this month. The message was that for genuine innovation there is public funding to be had. It does not require the innovator to be a big company – half of the TSB's budget went to SMEs last year, nor is it a task blanketed in red tape. All you need is a good idea!