We can always tell when Innovate UK has announced a new Design Foundations grant competition as we will get an influx of emails from businesses wanting to partner on an application. The grant requires the lead applicant to partner with an organisation with  “appropriate expertise in people centred and systemic design”, therefore after a quick Google search they often end up on our site (glad to know our SEO is working!). We have collaborated on 5 applications in as many years and we have been successful on 2 of them. That might not seem like an incredible success rate, but considering how competitive it is (Round 5 of the competition only awarded 25 projects out of 344 assessed) a hit rate of 40% is great. 

We have learned a lot from working on those five applications. We aren’t claiming to be grant funding experts and of course the criteria and rules for the Design Foundations grant can change from round to round, but generally we have learned what works well and, more importantly, what doesn’t. If you are an organisation looking to apply for a future round of the Innovate UK’s Design Foundations competition, here are our top tips…

Engage early and collaborate

The application for Design Foundations is very time consuming. It will require about 5,000 words to answer the questions, along with a series of appendices that need to be created, however it is the preparation and thought that need to go into each response that can take the most time. This is why it is important to find and engage with a design partner as early in the process as you possibly can. We are often contacted by organisations just a week or two before the deadline. While that sometimes can not be avoided, it will put you in a much better position if you start early and take multiple months to work on the application. 

A good design partner will have thoughts and advice on how best to approach the research and design phases of the project, and they should be collaborating with you to formulate your responses so that their expertise comes through clearly in the application. We have found that it works best if the application is prepared in a collaborative workspace like Google Docs, and one person from the organisation leads on writing the application, tagging in the design partner or others to feed in at key points. We have worked with organisations who had a different person be responsible for answering each question in the document but that led to a very disjointed application, it needs to feel cohesive. 

Consider the cost implications

If you are considering engaging with an agency for the application, it’s important to note that (as of February 2025) Innovate only allow partners to claim back their staff costs based on their PAYE records. This means that an agency wont be able to claim back their usual agency day rate, they can only claim back the day rate of the allocated staff. That means either the agency will have to work at cost, which they often won’t do, or the lead organisation will need to pay some additional money out of pocket to supplement the amount the agency can claim back from Innovate. Keep this in mind when reaching out to potential agency partners and potentially factor in some budget outside of the Innovate project costs to account for the shortfall.

Clearly define the innovation

One area we have commonly seen applications fall short is the focus of the innovation. Innovate UK wants to know how the project will improve on the current state-of-the-art identified and how it will make your business more competitive. It is crucial here to have the value proposition of your concept nailed down. Why is it different from what is out there? How is it advancing the field? How will it help give your business an edge over competitors? These questions need to be clearly answered in order to score highly. 

Uncertainty is ok (in certain contexts)

What if I haven’t nailed down the innovation yet, you might ask. Isn’t this competition about uncovering innovation opportunities? While officially yes, the scope of this competition does include using research to uncover new areas for innovation, we have found in our experience that assessors tend to give higher scores to responses that can clearly define the innovation area. The applications we have contributed to which focused on “using user-centred design to identify innovation opportunities valuable to your business” tended to score much lower than those that went in with a specific idea or concept they wanted to validate or improve. That being said, within the context of a coherent innovation area it is ok to talk about uncertainties as long as you identify how the people-centred design process will help you overcome them. 

Don’t neglect the business plan

Another area where applications can often lose points is in the market awareness and route to market responses. Assessors want to see that you have a clear understanding of the target market for your innovation, with specific numbers supported by research and evidence. Make sure to differentiate between the target market for your usual business and the market for this specific new innovation as it may well be different. 

When it comes to the route to market, make sure you clearly lay out the outcomes of the project and list the specific steps you will take to commercialise the new innovation. If you prototype and validate a new innovation during the project, how do you plan to finance the work required to fully design and build it? Have you identified grants for further stages? Will you be securing investment? Innovate wants to know you have a clear plan to fund later stages and that the money they are awarding you won't be going to waste. 

Get in touch

Applying for funding is always tricky and the  Design Foundations competition is no exception. It is competitive and it takes a very strong application to be in with a chance. In some prior years we have seen applications score over 80% and still not make the cut. If you have a strong idea and are planning to apply, hopefully our advice above will help. And if you need more support, don’t hesitate to reach out, we would love to chat - just don’t leave it too late ;)

Featured image credit: Image by Christina Morillo