Derby Innovation Accelerator

The UK Shared Prosperity Fund was launched in April 2022 to replace EU funding. The fund aims to boost communities, support local businesses and improve skills as a key part of the Government's "levelling up" agenda. 

The UK Shared Prosperity Fund is a central pillar of the UK government’s Levelling Up agenda and provides £2.6 billion of funding for local investment by March 2025. The Fund aims to improve pride in place and increase life chances across the UK investing in communities and place, supporting local business, and people and skills. For more information, visit UK Shared Prosperity Fund: prospectus.

Each part of the UK is receiving an allocation from this fund to cover three years until the end of the 2024-25 financial year. Following Government approval of its Investment Plan, Derby City Council was awarded a total of £6.1m from the core fund. Each authority is encouraged to use the money to meet unique needs of their community and location. 

This project is funded by the UK Government through the UK Shared Prosperity Fund.

The Derby Innovation Accelerator will provide:

• Innovation Workshops (one-to-many interventions) to support companies to achieve innovation-led growth through research and development
• Challenge-led Workshops (one-to-many interventions) for launching challenges and drawing together potential collaborators.  The challenges will focus on strengthening the identified key sectors for Derby whilst inspiring innovation
• Decarbonisation Workshops (one-to-many interventions) to support companies who are seeking to grow sustainably and respond to opportunities in the low carbon and circular economies
• Innovation Vouchers (one-to-one support) to support access to University of Derby innovation assets, knowledge and expertise
• Capital Grants (one-to-one support) to stimulate private sector investment in capital assets that support research and development
• Access to Angel and Investor Networks (one-to-one support and one-to-few intervention) to support, coach and facilitate companies to understand, prepare and secure 'Angel Investment'

Eligibility 

The Derby Innovation Accelerator will provide innovation support to:

• Companies within Derby city only
• Established businesses and third sector organisations with high growth* potential 
• Pre-start and newly founded organisations with high growth* potential

(* high growth defined as evidence of, or ambition to grow, by at least 20% staff and/or turnover)

Target sectors

1. Rail and the sub-sectors of planning design and project delivery, rail infrastructure and equipment, rolling stock, asset management, safety and security, operations, ticketing
2. Nuclear across activities including new build, nuclear infrastructure, waste management and decommissioning
3. Aerospace across activities including design, manufacture, maintenance, modelling, simulation, materials, acoustics, guidance and control systems
4. Life sciences and the sub sectors of pharmaceuticals, biotechnology, medical devices, biomedical technologies, nutraceuticals, cosmeceuticals, food processing and environmental science
5. Creative industries sub-sectors 

Innovation Vouchers and Capital Grants

Innovation Vouchers 

Innovation vouchers will provide access to facilities and expertise to deliver Collaborative Research and Development projects with the University of Derby.  Vouchers can be used to:

• Access specialist equipment and facilities
• Undertake proof of concept to de-risk investment  

Where required, applicants can apply for a capital grant to complement their innovation voucher.  This will be treated as a separate grant.

Capital Grants

We will offer capital grants for Research & Development (including decarbonisation).

Subject to public subsidy control rules, projects could be awarded between £6,000 - £20,000 capital grants.  There is a maximum 40% intervention rate with a minimum spend of £15,000.

Applicants must be able to provide match funding for the grant and this must be in place before grant agreements can be issued.  This will need to come from private sector sources such as bank loans, asset finance, company funds, directors loans and/or from other public funding sources (where permitted). 

Access to Angel and Investor Networks

Facilitating companies who may need equity investment to understand what 'equity investment' actually means, how it differs from debt and other forms of business growth investment; decipher the language and terminology; and where to fund support and information.

Additionally, we will be developing an Angel Network and supporting potential investors to understand that there are good opportunities in Derby City Centre that offer excellent value.

There will be three pitching events where fully supported and coached companies will have the opportunity to pitch, live, to a group of potential investors.