CAN DO Innovation Challenge Fund Guidance for Public Sector Applicants 1
Introduction The CAN DO Innovation Challenge Fund is a national fund to support Scottish public sector organisations to find innovative solutions to operational service and policy delivery challenges. Organisations are invited to come forward to access new, creative and previously untapped ideas and receive up to 0% funding to seek out and develop the most innovative solutions from the marketplace. Allowing the public sector to identify and work with innovative organisations, the fund provides support to develop, test and access creative solutions to the problems they face. The aims of the fund are to: Find solutions for service delivery issues faced by the public sector. Improve public services. Boost Scotland s economic development. Benefits for challenge sponsors: Opportunity to explore creative solutions to operational challenges. Improved service delivery and quality from tailored solutions. Up to 0% funding to find and develop innovative solutions. Leading on and running the challenge (with support from the fund team, who are able to build internal capability and processes to run future challenges). Who is running this? The CAN DO Innovation Challenge Fund is a joint project between the Scottish Government, Scottish Enterprise, Highlands and Islands Enterprise and the Scottish Funding Council. What is an applicable Innovation Challenge? It is a current service or policy delivery issue you face which: There is no currently available market ready solution. If solved, will bring better services and reduced costs. There are customers and markets for the solution out with your organisation. Challenges can address any area requiring innovative solutions and in any form e.g. a physical product or improvements to a process. What types of innovation challenges are of particular interest? Although open to any challenges that can contribute to the aims outlined above we are particularly keen to receive challenges that: Increase investment in Scotland s assets in a sustainable way, e.g. supporting a resource efficient low carbon energy system and economy. Promote Inclusive growth, e.g. remote and rural Scotland. Support Internationalisation, e.g. challenges where solutions have international market potential. Align with Scotland s sector strengths and opportunities, e.g. Energy (low carbon/smart energy systems and demand reduction), water and waste water, digital and advanced engineering, and life sciences. 2
Terms Challenge Sponsor: the public body running the challenge, having applied successfully to the fund. Challenge Solver: A company or other organisation that has successfully applied to develop a solution to a challenge. Fund Process Public Sector submit expressions of interest (EOIs) EOIs reviewed and successful are invited to submit full applications (6 weeks) Full applications submbitted, Interviews of Challenge sponsor and winning challenges are selected (8 weeks) Challenges launched and promoted Companies, universities and other organisations bid for contracts to develop a solution Successful applicants are awarded contracts with the challenge sponsor to develop a solution Phase 1 Proof of Concept (3-6 Months) Phase 2 Funding application. Review, and decision on phase 2 funding Phase 1 contract winners bid for phase 2 contracts to prototype and demo solutions Phase 2 Prototype & demonstration (9-18 Months) End solution is developed that public sector can procure and the solver can exploit. 3
Application Process Only Scottish publicly funded organisations and Government departments can apply for funding to run a challenge. Businesses are not eligible to sponsor challenges, only to respond to them. Calls for individual challenges will be made twice per year. Expectations of Challenge Sponsors: Whilst the fund partner organisations are setting up, coordinating and overseeing the fund, challenges will be run and project managed by the challenge sponsor organisation. It will be the responsibility of the challenge sponsor to arrange a dedicated project management resource. The Fund team will support the challenge sponsor through the process and look to build internal capability through this process. As this project is a form of innovation procurement, all challenge sponsors must have a strong intent to procure any successful end solution that meets their requirements Submitting EOIs Application forms can be found at: Completed forms should be emailed to the CAN DO Innovation Challenge Fund team candoicf@scotent.co.uk Issues to consider when completing an expression of interest: Challenges by their nature do not have a clear solution, so avoid specifying what solution you want, only outline the issue a solution needs to solve. Consider whether you could find a currently existing market solution for your challenge if so, this process is not appropriate for your challenge. Whilst challenge sponsors are not obliged to procure any end solution is it viewed as likely they would do so if a successful solution is developed, and intention to procure is a crucial element of this process. The Fund will only support challenges that can demonstrate benefits to public sector service delivery and economic development, the latter through the commercialisation of any developed solution. Applicants should consider what other markets could exist for any end product, either in the public or private sector, in Scotland, the UK or internationally. Review Process EOIs will be reviewed by assessors, a mixture of experts on innovation challenges, and experts on the policy area or topic the challenge addresses. Successful applicants will then be invited to submit a full application. Unsuccessful applicants will be provided feedback and where appropriate suggestions of other routes to support their challenge. Full Applications Full application forms expand on the detail given at EOI stage, and applicants may also be asked to give a presentation on their challenge and be questioned by an assessment panel. 4
Assessment Criteria Criteria Total Available Points Benefit to the Public Sector Impact on public sector service/policy delivery. likelihood of implementation/procurement Economic Development Potential Market potential Scottish supply chain capability Overall Application Quality Value For Money Alignment with Fund Priorities TOTAL 70 Funding Levels Typical projects: Phase 1: Feasibility (Proof of Concept) o 3-5 challenge solvers. o K - 40Keach. o 3-6 months duration. Phase 2: Prototype development and demonstration. o 1-2 challenge solvers. o 50K - 200K each. o 6-18 months duration. The range is due to the fact that it is likely that there will be a mixture of smaller scale digital based and large physical based technologies developed through calls. Smaller and larger projects will also be considered and potential sponsors should contact the Fund team to discuss this at candoicf@scotent.co.uk Up to 0% funding can be provided, but in your application consider what funds your organisation could contribute. Match funding will be considered when evaluating against the value for money criteria Funding Process. The Fund will provide funding to the challenge sponsor organisation to support the costs of procuring the development of innovative solutions from the supply chain. The challenge sponsor will lead and run the procurement of innovation process, with support from the Fund team. The Fund is able to offer the processes and contracts developed by Innovate UK s Small Business Research Initiative to challenge sponsors, this is a robust process supported by experienced staff who have been running the process for over years. https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/sbri-thesmall-business-research-initiative The SBRI process operates under the EU Pre-Commercial Procurement (PCP) framework which provides detailed guidance to support public bodies to adopt this approach to improving public services and supporting innovation and economic development. https://ec.europa.eu/digital-single-market/en/pre-commercial-procurement 5
If challenge sponsors have alternative PCP or procurement of innovation processes they wish to use then please get in touch with the Fund team to discuss this prior to submitting an EOI. Eligible and Ineligible costs. The Fund will support the R&D contract costs from the supply chain, the challenge solvers. The Fund will not support internal challenge sponsor costs. Intellectual Property The right to exploit Intellectual Property will be retained by the challenge solvers who develop solutions, in line with European Commission pre-commercial procurement rules. However, challenge sponsors will be provided a royalty free licence for the IP developed through the R&D service contract. Dates and Deadlines Applications Date EOI Submission Opens 7 November 2017 EOI Submission Deadline 19 January 2018 Notification of Outcome 2 March 2018 Full application Submission Deadline 30 March 2018 Presentation to Assessment Panel 9 April 2018 Notification of Outcome 27 April 2018 Further Information Downloadable guidance and application forms can be found at Completed forms should be emailed to the CAN DO Innovation Challenge Fund team candoicf@scotent.co.uk Contact Details All queries should be directed to terry.hogg@scotent.co.uk 6
FAQs Can I submit more than one challenge EOI? Yes, there is no limit to the number of challenges organisations can submit, but it is crucial that each has been fully considered and meets both public sector and economic development requirements, and please consider that you will need to provide project management resource for all challenges. What is SBRI? The Small Business Research Initiative (SBRI) is a process set up by Innovate UK to run such public sector challenge projects under the EU s pre-commercial procurement framework. It connects public sector challenges with innovative ideas from industry. This also generates new business opportunities for companies and promotes economic development. More than 70 government organisations across the UK have taken part in SBRI challenges, awarding over 270m. What if during the project a new solution emerges separately from the market, won t that leave public bodies with a poorer result? When the challenge sponsors wishes to procure a successful end solution, an open procurement will take place as usual, allowing challenge sponsors to evaluate whether there are better solutions emerging from the market. How will this benefit citizens? The solutions that these challenges will provide will bring a variety of improvements to public services, improving efficiency, service quality and using new technologies to create new ways for citizens to interact with their frontline services. Which is more important in selecting challenges, benefits to the public sector or benefits to the economy? There is equal weighting given to both potential benefits to the public sector and to economic development in the review of potential challenges. Successful challenges will need to demonstrate both. What happens to unsuccessful challenges? Challenges which are not successful will be considered for support through other mechanisms, for example through Scottish Enterprise, Highlands and Islands Enterprise or Scottish Funding Council. Who is in charge? The Fund is managed by a partnership of Scottish Enterprise, Highlands and Islands Enterprise, Scottish Government and the Scottish Funding Council. Once challenges have been selected and companies have succeeded in gaining funding, the individual challenges will be run by the challenge sponsor body and their own project manager, however support will be provided by the Fund and SBRI teams. 7