1. Technology Strategy Board
Driving Innovation
Collaboration across
digital industries
round 1 CompETiTion for funding
CollaBoraTivE r&d and Trials
July 2010
2. Table 1: This is a competition for proposals that address at least two of the challenge areas –
people, digital content & services, and networks
People Content & Services Networks
Community Community Community
The general public, including Originators, owners and distributors of Owners, operators and programmers
consumer and business users creative and digital content, plus the of the internet’s infrastructure.
of the internet. designers and operators of services.
Background Background Background
Internet users are the ultimate In the context of file-sharing and The networks enable the delivery of
beneficiaries of the power of the difficulties in managing intellectual content and services to the user, but
internet, and are also the source of property rights, new business often receive no direct rewards for
revenue that sustains the entire models are needed, alongside increased traffic or improved service
business ecosystem. They must be advertising, to assure the long-term quality. This reduces incentives to
willing and confident to use it, and economic success of the sector. invest or to make available the full
must value the experience they receive. capabilities of the network to create
versatile products.
Example Example Example
35 10 80
9
30 70
8
60
25
% of UK Households
7
PB/month ‘000s
50
20 6
£ Billion
5 40
15
4 30
10 3
20
2
50 10
1
0 0
0
2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2005 2006 2007 2008 1996 1998 2000 2002 2004 2006 2008 2010
Video to TV Video to PC File Sharing Online Conventional All Internet Access Broadband Access
Web/Email By Sub-Segment (PB per month)
Gaming, Voice, Video Comms Source : CISCO, 2009 Source : IAB, 2009 Source : ONS, 2009
Consumer internet traffic doubles UK advertising revenues are declining, Two-thirds of UK households have
every year but is dominated by and even though online advertising a broadband connection; there is
content that does not directly has overtaken TV, it too has flattened general political consensus to achieve
create revenue. off as multiple channels compete universal availability, with ‘next-
for attention. generation’ becoming accessible to 90%
of the population in the next few years.
Challenge Challenge Challenge
Protection and enablement: to create To generate sustainable revenues To justify investment to expand the
trust, security and privacy in services from creative content and services, networks’ reach, capacity and capability.
that are highly available, usable and to enable continued market growth
can be personalised. of the UK creative content sector.
3. Collaboration across digital industries
CompETiTion for funding CollaBoraTivE r&d and Trials
Summary
Over the next 12 months we will invest
up to £18m in this competition, which
challenges businesses to develop an
internet with a sustainable economic
future from which all participants will
benefit. To this end, we have identified
three challenge areas:
K people
K digital content and services
K networks.
In this first round, we anticipate providing
up to £10m to support collaborations
between industry sectors, which must
substantially address at least two of these
challenge areas.
The specific challenges are outlined
in table 1 opposite. We will invest at least
50% of our budget in projects that address
all three challenges.
In this round we will fund two types
of project addressing these challenge
areas, both attracting 50% public funding: The competition for fast-track funding challenge areas: people, digital
K strategic research opens on 14 June 2010. For mainstream content and services, and networks.
and development projects projects, the competition opens on
Much effort has already been devoted to
12 July 2010.
K ground-breaking trials. these challenges, but often an advance
in one area has unintended repercussions
This round of the competition is open to
all UK-based companies and research
Background and challenges in the others; for example, protecting
ownership rights can impact user privacy
organisations in business-led consortia, The internet touches all aspects of our lives, or reduce opportunities for innovation,
and may be of particular interest to those reaching across shopping, travel, banking, controlling peak traffic volumes can affect
designing and operating internet networks, healthcare, education, communication and service quality, and poor rewards for
or the services that operate over them, and entertainment, and it is revolutionising the improved network service inhibit the
those who are concerned with how digital way we work. The implications are roll-out of infrastructure.
content is distributed to, and used by, profound for all businesses. The most
customers. strongly affected are those working to These challenges must be addressed
create and distribute information and to together, to develop a sustainable future
We will be funding: for the internet economy, and to advance
offer services to customers, who are
K fast-track projects: up to £100k in finding that conventional commerce needs our vision that all participants should
total project value. These should be to be fundamentally rethought. This is an benefit fairly from the creation,
completed within 12 months, and exciting time of opportunity and risk. It is distribution and consumption of digital
a time ripe for innovation. content and services.
K mainstream projects: more than
£100k in total project value. These In our digital strategy (see We expect there to be one or two
will last from about 12 months up to www.innovateuk.org under Publications) more rounds of this competition in this
a maximum of 24 months. we identified three interdependent financial year.
Technology Strategy Board
4. Informed Personal Travel
CompETiTion for funding – issuE 2 dECEmBEr 2008
Our digital programme This competition is part of our £30m digital K business services such as billing
investment programme, which also and payment systems (notably
The difficulty of bringing together these involves creating the UK Digital Testbed. micropayments)
multiple communities, to invest jointly to The testbed will come online in phases
K shared content resources such as
address multiple challenges, provides through the second half of 2010 and will
an argument for our intervention. Through media warehouses, or the government
enable businesses from all communities to
this competition we are therefore investing databases made available through
work together, to assemble and
£18m in the overlap between the three data.gov.uk
demonstrate new services and applications
challenge areas, to encourage new quickly and at minimal cost to the innovator. K the experimental business process
cooperative ways of working (see below). support applications and services of
The testbed will have many shared resources
other trialists, which businesses can
figure 1: We are targeting projects in the and capabilities, and more will be added
overlap between the three challenge areas combine with their own ideas.
throughout the programme. Businesses
conducting trials on the testbed will be granted These facilities and resources will
free and open access to, for example: remove barriers to experimentation
K a registered population of thousands beyond the boundaries of current
of users, who will test and respond to business practice. Businesses will gain
Content &
People Services experimental services, and provide confidence that their products and
instant market intelligence services are well designed by
K the ability to record and analyse the demonstrating them in front of real
use of content and services within the customers, in realistic conditions, and
testbed environment with experimental controls in place.
Networks K enabling technologies, which might We are encouraging businesses
include network controls, metadata tools, throughout the UK to use this resource,
intelligent and interactive interfaces, whether through projects funded by us
and standardised interoperability or on their own initiative.
Scope
In this competition we are inviting
proposals that will address the multiple
challenges and contribute to an innovative
ecosystem of internet businesses.
In particular we are interested in compound
business models and partnerships that
share revenues for the benefit of all.
To create a phased portfolio of projects
within the evolving digital programme,
the competition is structured in a series
of rounds over 12 months. The aim of
this first round is to invest in innovative
collaborations across industry sectors.
We make a distinction between the
following types of projects:
K R&D – which increases and integrates
technology capabilities, and progresses
in stages towards marketable products
5. Collaboration across digital industries
CompETiTion for funding CollaBoraTivE r&d and Trials
K trials – which investigate users’ studies previously funded by us to enter Briefings for fast-track projects will be held
responses to prototype products and this competition as part of a consortium on 22 June 2010, and for mainstream
extract market intelligence that can be to take their work to the next level. projects on 21 July 2010, to explain the
used to build business confidence. application process and competition
requirements. We strongly advise that all
In round 1 we are inviting proposals that Assessment criteria applicants attend.
are one of the following:
Since R&D and trials have different
K strategic development projects, with fast-track projects
objectives and processes, we will use
the potential to cause substantial and different criteria to assess these components Applicants must submit a single
lasting change in the industries of the in each proposal. The assessment criteria application form by 22 July 2010.
internet, involving R&D and possibly are outlined in the Guidance for Applicants
also incorporating a trial for the testbed (see www.innovateuk.org under mainstream projects
K ground-breaking trials for the testbed Competitions). It is important that
Applicants must submit a compulsory
that will contribute to a vibrant applicants refer to these criteria before
expression of interest application form
ecosystem that fuels innovation and completing and submitting their proposal.
by 19 august 2010. An optional
attracts consumers
expression of interest may be submitted
Proposals should demonstrate that they Application process by 12 august 2010. In this case we will
contribute a technology, resource or review the proposal and give feedback
service that will be available for further Full details of the application process will before the compulsory expression of
collaboration. be included in the Guidance for Applicants, interest is submitted. The compulsory
available at www.innovateuk.org under forms will be assessed and we will invite
We will be funding fast-track projects (up Competitions. Applicants must read this a shortlist of applicants to submit a full
to £100k in total project value), which document before submitting a proposal. application by 4 november 2010.
should be completed within 12 months;
and mainstream projects (more than
£100k in total project value), which will last Key dates
from about 12 months up to a maximum of
24 months. Both types of project will fast track projects
attract 50% public funding. Competition opens 14 June 2010
all proposals in this round must Optional briefing 22 June 2010
demonstrate how they address
substantial challenges in at least Deadline for applications 22 July 2010
two of the three challenge areas. Decision to applicants 20 august 2010
We will reserve at least 50% of the
funding budget for projects that address mainstream projects
the challenges of all three areas. Competition opens 12 July 2010
Successful consortia that generate enabling Optional briefing 21 July 2010
technologies, services or resources may
Deadline for submission of optional expression of interest 12 august 2010
be eligible to receive follow-on funding to
support their continued involvement in the Deadline for submission of compulsory expression of interest 19 august 2010
UK Digital Testbed.
Decision to applicants 10 september 2010
The competition is open to all UK-based Full stage opens 13 september 2010
companies and research organisations
in business-led consortia. Consortia must Compulsory briefing 21 september 2010
consist of organisations from at least Deadline for submission of full-stage applications 4 november 2010
two of the three challenge areas. We invite
the participants in successful feasibility Decision to applicants 10 december 2010
Technology Strategy Board
