Partnering for Innovation, £18m TSB fund for UK technology companies

Creative Industries KTNThe Technology Strategy Board (TSB) has recently announced a fund of £18m to be used for collaborative R&D across the UK’s digital industry.

To support the fund and provide information about the application process, the Creative Industries KTN have organised a series of six regional events taking place through-out May and June 2010.

The videos and presentations from the events along with further information about the competition including key dates are outlined below.

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Other competition: Partnering for Innovation (Metadata)

Collaboration Across Digital Industries competition

The TSB fund will be in the form of a competition launched to promote lasting alliances between technology companies and entrepreneurs. To qualify for both streams, projects must be truly collaborative, with at least one partner.

Partners can be drawn from businesses large or small, academia, research and technology organisations, not for profit organisations, but the projects must be led by revenue earning business entity.

We spoke to the TSB's Lead Technologist, Alex Stanhope on the background to the fund and details on the patnerships, projects and match-funding requirements.

 

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Key Dates & Deadlines

Fast-track projects (up to £100,000)

  • Competition opens - 14 Jun 2010
  • Optional briefing - 22 Jun 2010
  • Deadline for applications - 22 Jul 2010
  • Decision to applicants - 20 Aug 2010

Mainstream Projects (£100,000+)

  • Competition opens - 12 Jul 2010
  • Optional briefing - 21 Jul 2010
  • Deadline for expression of interest (optional) - 12 Aug 2010
  • Deadline for expression of interest (compulsory) - 19 Aug 2010
  • Decision to applicants - 10 Sep 2010
  • Full stage opens - 13 Sep 2010
  • Compulsory briefing - 21 Sep 2010
  • Deadline for full-stage applications - 4 Nov 2010
  • Decision to applicants - 10 Dec 2010

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Competition Info Flyer

The flyer is also available to download in PDF format.

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Partnering for Innovation Regional Tour

The six Partnering for Innovation events took place around the UK, in Newcastle, Manchester, Glasgow, Bristol and London. Presentations, pictures, videos and other useful links from the events are listed below.

Technology Strategy Board Presentations

Alex Stanhope (@alex_stanhope), Lead Technologist, Technology Strategy Board outlining the background to the competition, the scope and details of the criteria for applications.

Keynote Presentations

Roland Harwood (@rolandharwood), Co-founder of 100% Open and former Director of Open Innovation at NESTA shares seven important lessons in collaboration.

Bill Thompson (@billt), Internet veteran, presenter of BBC World's Digital Planet and all-round digital sage joined the Partnering for Innovation event in London to share his thoughts on the dynamics and opportunities available in the digital industry.

Ewan McIntosh (@ewanmcintosh) from NoTosh joined the Partnering for Innovation events in Newcastle and Glasgow. He's blogged the key points and examples from his talk on the NoTosh blog.

Case Study Presentations

Case study from Ewan Lamont of Monumental Games, who discussed how the TSB grant-funding enabled ground-breaking development of massively multi-player online gaming engines and a great list of do's and don'ts of applying for collaborative TSB competitions.

Lynette Morrison (Tailored for You) and Tom Dowding (Mobile Pie) shared their tips on how to write an effective competition entry, how to work with the TSB and an insight into how their projects developed.

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Finding Partners (Ideas Marketplace)

Partners Wanted: OKMYWAY by Creative Industries KTNSuccessful applications require entries from consortiums of two or more partners. To help this process it's possible to connect with any delegates who attended the Partnering for Innovation events through the Creative Industries KTN Beacons social network.

Register (if you came to an event, you'll be registered already), navigate to the events pages (Newcastle, Bristol, London, Glasgow, Manchester, London) and you'll find a list of all the delegates who attended including details of their project, if supplied. 

At several of the Partnering for Innovation events, lunchtime sessions included an Ideas Marketplace, for companies looking to connect with partners using the trusty, low-tech method of flipcharts! Pictures of all the ideas have been posted on the Beacons social network and you can browse them on Flickr, too.

If you're looking for a partner who deals with network technology or infrastructure, contact the Digital Communications KTN.

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TSB contact info

  • Competition helpline: 0300 321 4357
  • Email: competitionsattsb [dot] gov [dot] uk

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Useful links

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Thanks...

Chinwag was asked by the Creative Industries KTN to host the Partnering for Innovation events, develop the content and market the events and the TSB competition to the digital industry.

We'd like to say a massive thank you to everyone who supported the series including: Technology Strategy Board, Creative Industries KTN, Digital Communications KTN, South West Screen, North West Vision and Media, IAB, Codeworks Connect, Thinking Digital, South East Media Network, and PACT.

Thanks to all the speakers Alex Stanhope, Maurizio Pilu, Sian Brereton, Ewan McIntosh, Roland Harwood, Bill Thompson, Lynette Morisson, Jon Wetherall, Ewan Lamont, Philip McLauchlan, Tom Dowding and the team at Creative Industries KTN, John Cass, Jeremy Davenport, Tony Henderson, Jess Sully, Kelechi Amadi and our expert collaboration host, Mellissa Norman from Media Sauce.

And lastly, but by no means, least, the Partnering for Innovation crew: Tara Solesbury, Sam Michel (Chinwag), Mellissa Norman and Anita Onwuegbuzie.

 

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TSB Collaboration Across Digital Industries Office Competition Flyer (PDF)236.96 KB