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1. Checklist

In order to ensure your application for a Defence Innovation Loan is eligible, as part of your application you will be asked to confirm you have met the criteria in the checklist below. Please contact an Innovation Partner if you have any queries about any of the criteria (further details can be found in the competition document).

• The application is made in the name of a single UK registered聽SME.

• The results will be either exploited in the UK, or exploited overseas to make a significant and positive impact on the UK economy and / or productivity.

• The loan amount requested is between 拢100k and 拢1 million.

• Only one single Defence Innovation Loan has been applied for, and no Innovate UK loan has been requested for the same project.

• There is no procurement, commercial, business development or supply chain activity with any Russian entity as lead, partner or subcontractor. This includes any goods or services originating from a Russian source. (Under current restrictions, this competition will not fund such activities.)

• There is a strong defence need that is demonstrated in the application.

• The person submitting the application has authority to act on behalf of the company in whose name the application is being made.

• The applicant has made contact with UKDI鈥檚 Business Growth and Finance team, which has confirmed the application鈥檚 suitability for the Defence Innovation Loans competition.

2. Top Tips

When preparing to submit your innovation application for the Defence Innovation Loan please consider the following points. Please note that this guidance focuses on the innovation application form (submitted to UKDI on the UKDI Submission Service additional guidance on completing the Innovate UK application form can be found at the聽.

• Read the competition document. This contains all the information about what is in聽and out of scope for a competition plus any guidelines you need to follow.
• Refer to the聽checklist above聽鈥� have you met the criteria listed?
• Ensure you are content with the Terms and Conditions (see the 聽for more information) as these are not negotiable.
• Please use the text boxes provided for each section of the application, don鈥檛 attach a PDF with your聽answers.
• You may find it helpful to have both the Innovate UK and UKDI forms open at the same time as there will be an element of duplication.
• To allow us to cross-reference your UKDI and Innovate UK applications, you will need to add your UKDI Submission Number to your Innovate UK loan request form:

1. Start a draft innovation application in the UKDI Online Submission Service

2. Obtain Your Submission Number (starting ACC, found in the Summary Section)

3. Complete your Innovate UK application, providing Your Submission Number in the relevant field.

Once you have submitted your Innovate UK application, you will be sent an email confirmation, containing your Innovate UK Innovation Loan Request Response_ID, which is your unique identifier for the Innovate UK application.

• Sometimes the formatting of the form can look different when you review it. Don鈥檛 worry we don鈥檛 have rules on font type, size, line spacing etc.
• Check your title and abstract. These need to be clear and concise, so they attract assessors from the most appropriate research areas.聽Make sure no confidential information is included in these (or the value proposition statement) as they will be used by UKDI, and other government departments, to describe the innovation and its intended outcomes and benefits.
• Select your Area of Specialism(s) with care as these help us select the right assessors for your application 鈥� you only have to select one, but聽consider selecting one for the technology and one targeted at End Users.
• Address all three assessment criteria: Desirability, Feasibility and Viability. Take care to address all of the points in the question guidance, you may want to consider using sub-headings for additional clarity.
• Check whether your application may be subject to any relevant legislation or regulations (e.g.聽MODREC,听RIPA听辞谤听animal testing regulations).
• Identify the current聽Technology Readiness Level (TRL)聽of your technology and tell us what it is. Remember that to be eligible for a loan your technology must be TRL 6 or above so you should be in a position to select 鈥楳inimum viable product (approximate technology readiness level 5 鈥� 7)鈥� on the Innovate UK application form.
• To assist you to complete the 鈥楧esirability鈥� section of the application form, you may wish to consider some of the following resources:聽MOD鈥檚 Science and Technology Strategy,听Gov.uk website,听聽official website,听聽聽official website and聽聽official website,听Defence Equipment and Support magazine听补苍诲听Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl) Magazine聽and current聽Dstl programmes. You may also find it helpful to look at innovations which have been聽funded previously聽through various DASA or UKDI competitions.
• Provide enough technical detail to enable assessors to establish the feasibility of your innovation. You should assume that assessors聽will have at least degree level education in relevant subjects.
• You can add figures if you feel they assist; please name them Figure 1, 2 etc in聽the text and as the attached files (PNG, JPG, PDF only). Use figures sparingly as they聽detract from assessors reading the application. The same applies to journal papers聽which also often have copyright restrictions.
• Tell us about your team and capabilities. Name team members and explain what聽they are going to do and their expertise in a couple of sentences 鈥� don鈥檛 just give a job title (e.g. 鈥榯echnician鈥�). In the finance section, name each individual and remind the assessors of their role (e.g. Joe Bloggs (Technician)). If you need to hire someone that鈥檚 fine, you should list their job title (e.g. Unknown (Technician)). In the risk section show how you will mitigate the risk of not hiring people.聽Also explain what聽equipment and facilities you have for the project.
• Provide a clear technical project plan that identifies any links or dependencies between work packages or milestones. You may wish to include a Gantt chart as an attachment to illustrate this, showing the stages of the work planned and the duration of each stage.
• Identify technical risks to completion at each stage and outline mitigation steps.
• You may wish to outline plans to fully commercialise the project at the end of the project period and how you might intend to support this. You might wish to include an outline of the expected market price, customer base, number of units to be sold etc.
• Explain how the work will be progressed at the end of your project, remember we聽are interested in moving projects up the TRL scale to commercialisation. Include details of any end users you have already engaged with.
• Aim for an hour. Assessors have an hour and a half to read, think about,听understand, mark and provide feedback. Read your proposal and think about it; if聽it takes you ten minutes to read through, it doesn鈥檛 contain enough information.
• Don鈥檛 leave it to the last minute. Please don鈥檛 wait until the last minute to try and聽submit your proposal, technical issues do occur and unfortunately we are unable to accept late submissions.
• Once you have submitted you cannot make any changes.

2.1 1.1聽Financial Information

• Carefully consider proposed major equipment purchases, ensure Value for Money聽(VFM) and justify this resource. Could you use a test house, or rent equipment聽instead?
• If you have a subcontractor make sure you justify their costs. For example,听鈥淢ouse Ltd (overheads subcontractor) = 拢100,000鈥� or similar, is not sufficient.
• No conference attendance permitted. Please see Innovate UK鈥檚 聽Project Finance Guidance for eligible costs.

2.2 1.2聽Innovate UK Business Financials

On the business financials questions, consider the following:

• The financial information on the Innovate UK forms is key, a lot of it pre-populates once you have input some basic information so please follow the instructions.
• Take a look at the questions and prepare the information well in advance of the closing date.
• Seek financial and legal advice where appropriate.
• Submit ALL parts of the application.
• Cover the full loan period
• Balance the balance sheet
• Match cash in the balance sheet and cashflow
• Describe the assumptions in the financials
• Revenues 鈥� top down and bottom up, be realistic
• Costs 鈥� including all costs needed to deliver your ambitious growth plan
• Think about sensitivities and stress cases - delays do happen
• Revenues are rarely as high as forecast
• Costs are typically higher than expected
• Is the loan affordable?
• Do you have adequate capital?
• Will you have sufficient cash throughout?

If you have any questions about either the UKDI or the Innovate UK application, please contact the UKDI Help Centre:

Phone: 01980 950000, option 3 (open 09:00 鈥� 12:00 midday, Monday 鈥� Friday)

贰尘补颈濒:听accelerator@dstl.gov.uk