Creative, Digital & Design Business Briefing - September 2015

Creative, Digital & Design
Business Briefing
A digest of useful information for UK businesses seeking
funding and support, updated monthly
September 2015
@KTN_Creative

Brought to you by the following
organisations:

Contents
• KTN events
• Other events
• Public funding calls
• Other public funding
• Public investment
• Accelerator programmes
• Private financing
• Other financing mechanisms
• Launching a new business?
• Non-financial support for your business
• Training & skills
• Useful reports

09:30-15:00, Wednesday 3 September – Digital Catapult Centre, 101
Euston Rd, Kings Cross, London NW1 2RA
The Research Councils UK (RCUK) Digital Economy Theme and the cyber
security strand of the Partnership for Conflict, Crime and Security are
investing up to £10 million to support user-driven and interdisciplinary
research that solves real problems in the broad areas of trust, identity,
privacy and security. To facilitate collaboration KTN are hosting this
brokerage event aimed at both academics and users.
More info and how to register available here.
Trust Identity, Privacy and Security Research Funding

09:30-15:00, Thursday 4 September – Digital Catapult Centre, 101
Distributed-ledger technology refers to the use of an electronic ledger that
has no central repository; the ledger is distributed between multiple nodes
on a network providing an electronic transaction record of integrity without
need for a central authority. Entrepreneurs and innovators are now
beginning to deploy these techniques beyond Bitcoin and unlock the
broader potential. This event will bring businesses, researchers and public
services together to explore the opportunities and challenges of distributed
ledger technologies.
Personal Data & Trust - Distributed Ledger
Technologies

12:30-15:00, Wednesday 16 September – Digital Catapult Centre, 101
An informal information sharing session designed to support digital
companies and learn more about Innovate UK and the Digital Catapult. This
session will include representatives from across Innovate UK’s programmes
highlighting a range of upcoming funding opportunities for digital
companies, researchers and academic institutions working across a diverse
range of sectors.
Please note: If you are interested in giving a 5 minute presentation, slots
are given on a first come first served basis at the event.
More info on: Digital Catapult
Digital Business Drop-In

11:00-14:30, Thursday 17 September – Techhub Swansea, 11 Wind St,
Swansea SA1 1DP
An informal information sharing session designed to support digital
companies and learn more about Innovate UK and the Digital Catapult. This
session will include representatives from across Innovate UK’s programmes
highlighting a range of upcoming funding opportunities for digital
companies, researchers and academic institutions working across a diverse
range of sectors.
Please note: If you are interested in giving a 5 minute presentation, slots
are given on a first come first served basis at the event.
Regional Digital Business Drop-In

Thursday, 24 September 2015 from 09:30 to 16:00 at Ambassadors
Bloomsbury, 12 Upper Woburn Place, London WC1H 0HX
Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) as one of the core technology platform
for IoT plays a key role on the recent development of ‘smart things’ over a
wide range of social and industrial sectors, from ‘smart wearable’ to ‘smart
home’ to ‘smart cities’, from ‘smart Labs’ to ‘smart factories’.
This workshop brings together the user community, WSNs providers, and
WSNs research community in urban living and health sectors, to share their
knowledge on challenges, technology needs, and technology in
development, and to identify news opportunities important to the WSNs
businesses in the UK.
Wireless Sensors Network in Urban Living and Health
Workshop

12:00 Friday 25 September – 16:00 Sunday 27 September at
Wallacespace, 18 Clerkenwell Green , London EC1R 0DP
MODHack is a unique opportunity to collaborate with software developers,
data scientists and innovators to develop ideas and solutions for mining of
the Deep Web, using a range of open source tools and services and build
something that has the potential to support the national security of the UK.
All you need do is bring your laptop and be up for it! Please note dstl/MOD
will not have a claim on any Intellectual Property you create. You build it,
you keep it. Support will be given to the most promising proofs of concept to
get a market ready MVP.
MODHack - Mining the Deep Web

17:30 – 20:30 Wednesday 30 September – Urban Innovation Centre,
Future Cities Catapult, One Sekforde St, London EC1R 0BE
Innovate UK's IC tomorrow programme, in partnership with the Knowledge
Transfer Network, is hosting an exclusive Smart Spaces Speed Networking
event to connect leading industry partners with entrepreneurs developing
innovative sensors and analytics solutions to better manage resources,
deliver services more effectively, and enhance experiences for their
customers.
How to apply: If you are a digital company and would like to be considered
for this opportunity or are an established brand and would like to attend as
an industry partner further details, more info on IC tomorrow.
Smart Spaces Speed Networking

Other Events
Interlaced 2015 – London 3, September
Next steps for creative industries in Scotland – Edinburgh, 8
September
UX Cambridge 2015 – Cambridge, 9 September
Venturefest Scotland – Glasgow, 9 September
VRTGO Labs Demo Day – Gateshead, 10 September
Mind the Product – London, 10-11 September
London Design Festival – London, 19-27 September

Other Events contd.
Artful Spark – London 15 September
IOT – Internet of Things or Islands of Things? – Cambridge, 16
September
Funding for Innovation for Creative and Cultural Enterprises –
22 September, Brighton
GamesIndustry.biz Investment Summit 2015 – 24 September,
Birmingham
The Technology Expo – London, 5-6 October
Power to the Pixel: The Cross-Media Forum – London 13-15
October
Innovate 2015 – London, 9-10 November

Public funding calls
Key feature: Investment by the Department for Culture, Media and
Sport (DCMS) in a single collaborative R&D project to demonstrate
the capability of the Internet of Things (IoT) in a city region. Projects
must be collaborative and led by a local authority or local enterprise
partnership (or an equivalent body outside England). Projects should
involve at least one local authority, one local enterprise partnership
and several businesses.
Scale: up to £10m
Closes: 23 September 2015
More info on: innovateuk.org
Internet of Things - cities demonstrator

Key feature: The challenge from the Home Office’s Office for Security
and Counter Terrorism (OSCT), is to improve the speed, efficiency
and effectiveness of recovering and automatically analysing data from
the seized digital devices of suspects under investigation.
Scale: up to £300K
Briefing event: A competition briefing event will be held on 14 September
in London - click here to register.
Closes: 7 October 2015
Digital forensics

Key feature: The purpose of this call for research proposals is to
identify innovative technologies or approaches to meet the security
challenges created by the Internet of Things.
Scale: Up to £1 million is available for phase 1 of this competition. A
number of projects will be funded between £60,000 to £90,000 for a
duration of around 3 months. Up to a further £1 million will be made
available for phase 2. Funding will be considered on a per-project
basis.
Closes: 29 October 2015
More info: innovateuk.org
Security for the internet of things

Key feature: investment by the Department for Business, Innovation
and Skills (BIS) in collaborative R&D projects and feasibility studies
(delivered by Innovate UK on behalf of BIS) to stimulate developments
in autonomous vehicles and connected transport systems.
Scale: up to £20m
Connected and autonomous vehicles

Key feature: Investment in collaborative R&D projects to catalyse
innovation to improve the efficiency and experience of the end-to-
end journey for people and freight.
Scale: Up to £1 million
Briefing events: Register here for the Manchester event on 17
September and here for the Edinburgh event on 22 September.
Closes: 11 November, 2015
Enhancing the end-to-end journey

Key feature: This Centre for Defence Enterprise (CDE) themed
competition seeks to address the challenge of providing information
about the layout and situation inside a building using novel
techniques, remotely.
Scale: £650,000 of funding is available for this Phase 1 competition.
What’s inside that building?

Key feature: This CDE themed competition seeks research proposals
for innovative approaches to improve the way humans interact with
data to allow them to understand what’s going on in cyberspace.
Scale: £500,000 of funding is available for Phase 1 of this competition.
Understand and interact with cyberspace

Key feature: Investment in collaborative research and development
projects to stimulate innovation in response to Malaysia’s urbanisation
challenges.
Scale: Up to £14.4m
Malaysia-UK Research and Innovation Bridges
Competition

Key feature: investment by Innovate UK and the National Council of
Science and Technology of Mexico (CONACYT) in collaborative
research and development projects to stimulate innovation across
three sectors that underpin future Mexican socio-economic growth.
Scale: Up to £6 million
Applicant briefing recording is available here. The passcode to
access this recording Mexico. Applicants are strongly recommended
to view these alongside the other competition documentation.
Closes: 27 January, 2016
Mexico-UK Collaborative Industrial R&D Competition

Key feature: Innovate UK is to invest up to £10 million in collaborative
research and development and feasibility studies to accelerate the
commercialisation of highly innovative technologies for civil
aerospace.
Scale: Up to £10m
Game-changing technologies for aerospace

Key feature: Investment in feasibility studies to stimulate innovation across
four enabling technology areas that underpin future UK growth: advanced
materials; biosciences; electronics, sensors and photonics; and information
and communication technology (ICT).
Scale: up to £3m
Technology inspired innovation

Key feature: IC tomorrow’s ‘Quantified Self Innovation Contest’ will offer up to
£175K to businesses to explore and encourage innovation around health and
wellbeing. Through a range of challenges, including themes of nutrition, older
people, younger people, mental health and data capture, IC tomorrow are
looking for innovative proposals from companies with digital solutions relevant
to these themes.
Briefing events: These will give applicants the opportunity to hear more
about each individual challenge and network with the industry challenge
partners. Register now:
London, 21 September & Online Webinar, 21 September
Cambridge, 22 September
Quantified Self Innovation Contest

Key feature: The H2020 programme is the major funding opportunity for R&D
initiatives across Europe running up until 2020. There is a strong emphasis on
creative industries, design and digital technologies. All calls will be published
in October 2015.
Info days: ICT 2015 – Lisbon, 20-22 October
The key EC Info Day of 2015 for all calls under ICT (under which many are
relevant to creative, digital and design businesses). A great way to meet
potential partners, programme officers and to find out more about calls.
Registration is free but fills up fast.
KTN will be running a number of events in London & Europe in 2015-16 to
help UK businesses learn more about relevant calls and find consortia
partners. More info on the KTN Creative, Digital & Design portal including our
‘Guide to Horizon 2020 and Other European Funding for the Creative
Industries’.
H2020

Key feature: Innovation voucher scheme funding for start-up, micro, small
and medium-sized enterprises to work with an external expert to gain the
knowledge to innovate and grow.
Scale:
• Up to £5k voucher for SMEs
Closes: 20 October 2015, 12:00
Innovation Vouchers – Round 13

Smart 2015/16 – Round 3
Key feature: A grant scheme which offers funding to small and
medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to engage in R&D projects in the
strategically important areas of science, engineering and technology.
Scale:
• Proof of market - up to £25k - 60% of project cost
• Proof of concept - up to £100k - 60% of project cost
• Prototype development - up to £250k - up to 45% of project cost

Creative England film production funding
Key feature: Creative England now offers two strands of film production
funding for both feature and high-end TV drama.
• Lottery-based Production Fund: this is targeted at feature films with
budgets of up to £2m and looking to experiment with innovative
approaches; the fund has doubled from £500K to £1m for 2014/2015.
• West Midlands Production Fund: invests in the production of feature films
and high-end TV drama from companies based in the West Midlands as
well as from producers looking to establish a base to film in the region.
Circa £4m funding available for 2015, with a maximum investment of £1m
per project.
More info at creativeengland.co.uk

Other public funding
• Creative Europe - here you can find relevant information concerning
funding opportunities within the Creative Europe programme.
• Arts Council of Wales – offer a selection of arts grants for creative
professionals and organisations.
• Wellcome Trust Arts Awards – offer two levels of funding to encourage
collaboration between arts and science.
• Screen Yorkshire – Yorkshire Content Fund – production finance
available; can invest £1m+ in individual film or TV dramas that will be in
production by December 2015.

Other public funding
• Creative Industry Finance - Delivered by Creative United and funded by Arts
Council England, this programme is designed to assist creative and cultural
enterprises in securing access to loan finance from £2,500 upwards.
• Funding Central and Finance Funder - Online guide to over 4,000 grants,
contracts and other forms of finance: fully searchable based on finance type,
scale and your geographical location; especially good for businesses seeking
charitable or grant funding.
• Creative Scotland Open Project Funding - This fund supports the arts, screen
and creative industries, with projects that help them explore, realise and
develop their creative potential.
• Creative Skillset - Creative Skillset directs collective investment through the
Skills Investment Fund to create new and innovative training in priority skills
and in-demand roles to ensure growth in the UK’s Creative Industries.

Public Investment
Nesta Impact Investment Fund
Key feature: An equity investment fund investing in social ventures with
innovative products or services that are addressing some of the UK’s most
pressing challenges. Investments are made in areas that tackle:
• the health and wellbeing of an ageing population
• the educational attainment and employability of children and young people
• the social and environmental sustainability of communities.
Scale: between £150k - £1m
Closes: on-going
More info on: Nesta Investments

Public Investment
Arts Impact Fund
Key feature: Funded by Arts Coucil England, Bank of America Merrill Lynch,
Esmee Fairbairn Foundation and Nesta, the Arts Impact Fund is a new
£7million initiative set up to demonstrate the potential for social investment in
arts. It offers repayable finance to arts organisations working in England that
can show how they are sustainable, have great artistic ambitions and have a
positive impact on society in at least one of the following areas: citizenship &
community, young people & educational attainment, health & wellbeing.
Scale: between £150k - £600k
Closes: on-going
More info on: Arts Impact Fund

Public Investment
Open Data Incubator Europe (ODINE) – Round 3
Key feature: ODINE offers financial support to European innovators to grow
their open-data idea into a sustainable business. Project proposals from
SMEs working with open data are being assessed every two months from 1
May 2015 to 31 August 2016. All proposals are assessed by a panel of
external reviewers and selected projects will run for up to six months.
Scale: up to £100K per company plus: expert advice from business
mentors, peer-networking and support, brokering introductions to business
angels and investors.
Closes: 31 October, 2015
More info on: opendataincubator.eu

Accelerator Programmes
• Sheffield Smart Lab invites entrepreneurs and start-ups to develop
and demonstrate their pioneering solutions helping promote
Sheffield as a city of innovation. Up to 10 winning teams will be
selected to join the Sheffield Smart Lab programme, starting
January 2016. Submissions close 30 September 2015.
• Launched by the Design Council and MedCity, and supported by
Axa PPP Healthcare, the MedTechSouthEast programme offers
south-east based individuals and teams with a technology at proof
of concept stage a chance to compete for one of ten places on the
intensive coaching course, which will be led by design experts and
medical technology industry leaders. Deadline to submit
proposals: Friday 23 October.

Private financing
Balderton has a track record of helping entrepreneurs build substantial
businesses – with more $250m+ exits in the past five years than any
other European venture firm
Connect Ventures, London – invest in mobile, internet and digital
media businesses; invest at the early stage and focus on seed
investments; investment size ranges from £200K-£600k
Index Ventures, London, San Francisco & Geneva – venture capital
firm making investments in information technology and life sciences
companies, since 1996 they have teamed up with technology
entrepreneurs in more than 30 countries
Apply now for Truestart’s startup accelerator programme ‘The
Collection’ aimed at retail / consumer entrepreneurs - £25,000-
£50,000 per business, deadline to apply 20 September 2015

Private financing
Notion Capital, London – invest in B2B Cloud & SaaS companies who
have sustained 100% Year-over-Year growth; investment areas
include adtech, communications and collaboration tools, ecommerce,
enterprise software, fintech and security; portfolio raised over £200m
in 2014
Hoxton Ventures, partners with founders seeking to invent new
market categories or transform large, existing industries; their sweet
spot is internet, mobile and software startup investing - up to $2m
The Business Finance Guide, expertise from over a million members
in businesses, finance providers and advisory firms and organisations

Private financing
Better Business Finance is an excellent tool for identifying the right
type of finance at all stages of a business as well as identifying
providers who can help. This section provides a searchable directory
of information about the members of the UK Business Angels
Association, what services they provide and how to contact them.
British Private Equity and Venture Capital Association provides an
explanation of different types of financing and other resources for
entrepreneurs.
The UK Business Angels Association is the national trade
association representing angel and early-stage investment in the UK.

Other financing mechanisms
Crowdfunder.co.uk – UK’s largest crowdfunding network having
launched 1000’s of projects and raised over £2m, platform launched
by KEO digital and partners include Nesta and Creative England
Funding Circle – an online marketplace which allows savers to lend
money directly to SMEs; the first site to use peer-to-peer lending for
business funding in the UK; as of February 2014 Funding Circle has
facilitated £223m in loans to SMEs
Crowd2Fund – a crowdfunding platform designed to enable a range of
funding options, from loans to equity
SyndicateRoom – equity crowdfunding platform for investing in UK
startups backed by experience business angels

Launching a new business?
• The Open Data Institute runs a start-up programme that helps
start-ups build business models around open data
• Tech City UK offers advice and support to start-ups looking for
guidance in and around London. It has launched its Digital
Business Academy. Tech City UK can also endorse visa
applications to help recruit talent to Britain.
• Innovate UK - IC tomorrow connects start-ups and SMEs with
leading commercial partners and investors, through funded
contests, events, and strategic matchmaking opportunities.
• Transmit Start Ups provide financial support and mentoring to
creative and digital entrepreneurs that would not normally be
available via traditional banking relationships.

Launching a new business?
• AIM Start Up Loans - Government supported start-up loans for the
Creative Industries.
• Seedcamp is a London based accelerator that provides startups
with seed money, mentorship, office space, support over a year
long programme.
• The British Business Angels Association can help put you in touch
with relevant business angel investors.
• Fintech Innovation Lab is a 12-week mentoring programme run by
Accenture and other leading UK financial service institutions; apply
by 18 Sep 2015.
• With a focus on the Internet of Things and Smart Cities
PITCH@PALACE BOOTCAMP will take place in London on 14
October – apply by 25 September for opportunity to pitch.

Are you an existing business seeking
non-financial advice or support?
• Nesta’s creative business mentor network offers ambitious
businesses looking to grow one-one mentoring with some
of the creative digital sector’s most successful leaders
• The UKTI offers advice to help with exporting
• Tech City UK can help advise on inward investment
• The Digital Catapult can help you showcase your business

Are you an existing business seeking
advice or support?
• Subsidised costs to work with a specialist to build and
deliver business growth – GrowthAccelerator
• Use the IP Health check to identify commercial IP in your
business
• AngelList – helps source angel investors
• Interactive Scotland is a Scottish Enterprises project
providing specialist expert advice to all Digital and
Creative Businesses across Scotland
• Grant Thornton provide a specialist service for R&D tax
relief/ credits claims

Personal Data and Trust Network
A digital business network to build and nurture a community that
brings together industry, the public sector, funders, research
organisations and innovators to support the UK in becoming the
global leader in trust and responsible innovation with personal data.
For more information and to join, visit pdtn.org.

Training and skills
• Training in Open Data from the Open Data Institute
• Digital Business Academy – via Tech City
• Digital Project Management – via @IABUK
• Digital Acceleration – via @hyperisland_uk
• Digital training – via @Econsultancy – e-marketing courses
Develop your skills with these world-class courses:

Useful reports/ market research
• Ofcom – The Communications Market 2015
• Nesta – A guide to successful corporate-startup collaborations
• UK Commission for Employment and Skills (UKES) –
Skills & performance challenges in the digital & creative sector
• KTN – A Guide to Horizon 2020 and Other European Funding for
the Creative Industries
• Social Media Examiner – Social Media Marketing 2015
• APX – ‘The Periodic Table of Wearable Technology’
• Next Big Sound – ‘Data to Date: The Rapid Rise of Social and
Streaming’

Something else we've missed?
Please let us know: cdd@ktn-uk.org
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Creative, Digital & Design Business Briefing - September 2015

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Creative, Digital & Design Business Briefing - September 2015