General
SBRI stands for the Small Business Research Initiative. SBRI enables government departments to connect with organisations, finding innovative solutions to specific public sector challenges and needs. It aims to use the power of government procurement to accelerate technology development, supporting projects through the stages of feasibility and prototyping which are typically hard to fund. SBRI offers an excellent opportunity for businesses, especially early stage companies, to develop and demonstrate technology, supported by an intelligent lead customer.
Unfortunately not, SBRI is focused on research and development and innovation. There must be no commercially available solution on the market to meet your needs, businesses with market available solutions can apply but the solution must require significant changes/innovations to suit your needs.
SBRI is a simple structured process. Typically competitions are structured in two phases. Phase 1 proposals concentrate on research and development which will significantly contribute to proving the scientific, technical and commercial feasibility of the proposed project. The results of Phase 1 will determine whether the solution should go further to Phase 2, please note not all projects will progress to Phase 2. The main research and development effort takes place in Phase 2, which aims to produce a well-defined prototype. At the end of Phase 2 it is intended that what has been developed will be manufactured and marketed as a way of fulfilling requirements.
Who Can Apply
Yes, registered charities are equally eligible to enter SBRI competitions via their trading company limited by guarantee. All organisations must demonstrate a route to market.
Universities may apply, however they must demonstrate a route to market, i.e. The application must include a plan to commercialise the results.
Yes, but contracts must be awarded to legal entities.
Any organisation can submit an application, although it is expected that opportunities presented by SBRI will be particularly attractive for SMEs. SBRI is aimed at organisations working on the development of an innovative process, material, device, product or service. Successful applications will be those whose technology best addresses the specific needs identified, with the potential to make a measurable improvement to currently available products, processes materials, devices or services. Development contracts will be awarded only to individual organisations. However, organisations may also wish to demonstrate that successful collaboration will enhance their overall development. Work may be subcontracted but this is the responsibility of the main contractor.
Funding
Business will get 100% of the funding.
Procurement
There are many benefits to the SBRI process for you and for us. You get a unique opportunity to work with NHS experts to build your solution around our challenge/problem. We get the opportunity to work with you to build something that can potentially meet our needs. We will thoroughly evaluate the solutions at the end, those suitable will potentially be given the opportunity to then go through to a full procurement (but this is not a guarantee).