The Business Basics Fund aims to support projects that test and build evidence of innovative methods that encourage SMEs to adopt productivity-boosting technology and/or management practices. It is administered by Innovate UK on behalf of the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS), with support from Nesta’s Innovation Growth Lab. You can find out more about the fund here.
IGL has been asked by BEIS to help projects shortlisted to submit a full application to Round 3 identify a possible evaluation partner (a matchmaking process). Delivery organisations wishing to find a partner for the third round are listed in the Matchmaking Form. We have uploaded their information (excluding contact details, organisation's name, and email address) so potential evaluation organisations can see their project proposals.
If you are an evaluation organisation and wish to contact a specific project or potential partner, please email us at [email protected] with their unique application number (which you can find in the Matchmaking Form). Please state your organisation's name, the reasons why you want to participate in Business Basics and in that particular project. Also tell us about your experience running Randomised Controlled Trials (RCTs).
By participating in the matchmaking process, you agree to its Terms and Conditions, which can be found here.
If interested, you will wish to bear in mind that the lead applicant for each project is required to submit a completed application form by noon on 19 February 2020. This is a hard deadline. Interviews for shortlisted projects will take place on 30 and 31 March and projects are due to start on 1 June 2020.
The application form needs to include details of what costs will be claimed for evaluation and answer two key questions on the evaluation approach (Question 4) and evaluation plan (Question 5).
