Innovation Grants don't go to the best ideas - they go to the best grant applications
A recent article in the New Statesman magazine's supplement on technology [pdf] quoted Eben Upton, inventor of the Raspberry Pi. Applying for government support to develop his idea in 2009 he received the following reply:
Thank you for your application. … Given the widespread availability of "proper" computers, the rationale for a device that reverts to the early days of computing is not persuasive.
Three years later demand for the Pi was running at 700 units a second.
The government is not alone among investors or venture capitalists who have missed a golden opportunity but the public sector faces some special challenges when using public funds to support academic and commercial innovation. The need to be scrupulously fair when awarding grants together with high levels of scrutiny and accountability drive processes which attempt to quantify selection criteria and generate comparative measures. These will inevitably introduce implicit biases which work against those ideas that are the most innovative and disruptive.
None of this stops government-led investment from achieving notable success. Investment by the UK's innovation agency Innovate UK is credited with creating 55,000 jobs and ￡13.1bn in economic benefit over the past 7 years.
While the UK ranked 3rd in the OECD for the number of start-ups we create, we are only 13th for the number that go-on to become scale-up businesses. The government is doubling down on their industrial support programme. There is a long-term commitment to the EU's Horizon2020 and its successor programmes which will continue after Brexit. Meanwhile ￡2bn in new funding was announced in the 2016 Autumn Statement to be funnelled through Innovate UK and the Research Councils. There is a strong emphasis on SME's as the primary mechanism through which the resulting economic benefits are to be delivered.
If you are an innovative SME, there has never been a better time to seek out grant support. However, as the Raspberry Pi experience shows, having the best idea may not be enough.
Grants go to the best grant applications.
This risks generating a closed loop where funds accrue to those who are good at obtaining funds. Breaking into this loop requires a good understanding of the process requirements and the best strategies for aligning the grant opportunities to your business requirements. Doing so can have a massively positive effect on your business prospects by providing equity-free support, massively reduced R&D costs, early access to a wider supply chain and higher risk thresholds.
How the grant process works, and how to ensure you maximise your chances of winning is the subject of an upcoming workshop at SetSquared in Bristol on 7th February. It would be great to see you there. Click here for more details.
Great article, so true.