Funding Competition

2012 Funding Competitions

The Microelectronics iNet will be accepting applications for project support from any sector of industry via three funding competitions throughout 2012. The dates for our second competition have now been announced, please see below.

Spring Competition dates announced:

Competition Opens: Monday 30 April
Competition Breakfast meeting, Bristol: Tuesday 8 May
Competition Breakfast meeting, Paignton: Wednesday 9 May
Competition Closes: Friday 1 June
Competition Feedback: Friday 22 June

Competition Breakfast meetings: after the launch of each funding competition we run two breakfast meetings (one in North of region and one in South of region) which are designed to offer support to those wishing to apply. These breakfast meetings offer applicants the opportunity to come along and meet the competition team, find out what makes a good iNet application, have their questions answered and receive support in completing applications.

What’s it all about?

Our funding competitions seek innovative companies in the South West of England to apply for project support from the Microelectronics iNet.

Competition Summary;

• Open to SMEs in all industry sectors
• Up to £10,000 grant available
• Easy application process, quick decision

The competitions are run to support the innovative use of microelectronics technology in new products and services. They offer grants of up to £10,000 to enable expertise to be used by a company.

We welcome applications from any sector of industry so long as there is an innovative use of microelectronics technology.

Our core focus as an iNet covers three key subsectors:

• Microelectronics
• Digital Communications
• Photonics

Areas we  like to see projects addressing include but are not exclusive to:

• Power management, and energy efficient sustainable technology
• Smart grids
• Transport, including marine
• Healthcare, wellbeing and medical electronics
• Smart communities
• Test and verification
• Industrial, instrumentation
• M2M communications
• Security

Selection criteria

Our services are publicly funded so we do have set criteria outlining who and what we can support. As a guide supported projects should meet several of the following criteria:

• Support a business based within the South West region
• Have received less than €200,000 in public funding during the last 3 years
• Demonstrate innovation in product, service or business processes
• Lead to a commercially viable product or service
• Lead to tangible and measurable results such as multiple party collaboration, new product development, job creation, company growth and increased economic value
• In the case of larger projects, clearly identify the project phase with which the iNet will engage

If you are interested and want to find out more please come along to our competition breakfast meetings or contact the competition team from Monday 30 April onwards.