Grants

There are many types of grant available to support your business, ranging from small scale, locally based opportunities, to much larger national and European grants focusing on innovation and R&D. Funding from Innovate UK – the national innovation agency – remains one of the most sought after options for innovative companies. 

Grant opportunities with Innovate UK include:

• Smart awards – for game-changing and commercially viable R&D innovations that can significantly impact the UK economy. 
• Knowledge Transfer Partnerships – bringing new skills and the latest academic thinking into the business partner to deliver a specific, strategic innovation project.
• Small Business Research Initiative (SBRI) – offering organisations the opportunity to work directly with the public sector to develop new technologies and processes, helping to meet efficiency targets and improving public services. 

However, it can be difficult to know where to start to look for grants, and to know whether your business and your project idea is right for the many programmes and schemes that are available. Understanding funders’ criteria, and what they are looking for from your application, is also an important skill – one that usually comes from experience. 

Then once you find one that looks appropriate, and you decide to move forward, the application process itself can seem complex and daunting, often coming with a low chance of success. In short, grant applications can appear a big investment of time and resources, with no guarantee of a positive outcome.

Grant support

By choosing to work with Finerva on your grant application, we aim to not only demystify the process, but to support you to develop and present the strongest possible application, increasing your chance of success in the competition process. Then when you’re ready to submit, you can do so confidently, knowing that your application has been thoroughly stress-tested and is in the best shape that it can be.

As an initial step, we will work with you to advise whether or not your project is likely to be suitable for grant funding, and if so, which option would be the best fit. We will then introduce you to our grants specialist, who will work with you to scope and develop an application. 

There are two options available:

1. Support and review – you create your own application, but with our expert guidance and support. This option is also suitable if you have already prepared an application but would like it to be reviewed prior to submission.
2. Done for you – our expert creates an application from scratch on your behalf, with input from your business.

In both cases, we will work with you in a truly collaborative way to present your business to potential funders in the best way possible. Your application will also be tailored tightly to the needs and requirements of each individual funder and competition, making each application unique to you and to your business.