UK registered businesses have until 11am on Friday 20 November 2020 to apply for funding for Robotics and Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies from the the Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund (ISCF).
The funding is available to SMEs carrying out projects in the UK and intending to exploit the results in the UK. Eligible projects must take between 3 and 12 months during 1 April 2021 to 31 March 2022.
The funding is targeted at AI robotic solutions that identify commercial benefits, awareness of the addressable market and provide a detailed path to commercialisation. The focus is on:
- healthcare;
- logistics, warehousing and transportation;
- agriculture and food production;
- construction;
- ‘general-purpose’ remote working robotics; and
- robotics that can contribute towards the UK’s net-zero greenhouse gas commitment.
Funding is not available for projects relating to assembly-line manufacturing or solely focussed on software (there “must be a moving, physical (robotic) component of the system being proposed”).
Matt Hervey
Matt Hervey is Head of Artificial Intelligence (UK) at Gowling WLG (UK) and advises on Artificial Intelligence (AI) and IP across all sectors, including automotive, life sciences, finance and retail. Find out more about Matt Hervey on the Gowling WLG website. He is co-editor of The Law of Artificial Intelligence (Sweet & Maxwell).