Innovate UK Smart Grant Funding
Project Planning and Budgeting / Project Management / Grant Writing / Innovate UK
London, UK
£500k
Grant won.
IUK
Smart Grant.
3
Partner collaboration.
How BladeBUG secured funding for offshore wind farm innovation
The two companies met during an online webinar given by Venturenomix in partnership with Innovate UK.
Chris and the team at BladeBUG explained the success they had already achieved in securing equity and grant funding – but there was one grant programme (the Smart Grant from Innovate UK) which had consistently eluded them.
About BladeBUG
As the offshore wind industry enters a rapid phase of growth, the challenges to keeping turbines spinning and optimised grow with it. BladeBUG are developing advanced robots to assist technicians in the inspection and repair of turbine blades, without the need for rope access.
Together We Solve
The BladeBUG team had a vast amount of content – technical, team, funding and more – along with established partners for this project – Imperial College London and ORE Catapult. All the ingredients were there for the Venturenomix team to work with to develop a compelling application to the Innovate UK Smart Grant. Based on a proven approach, the work began.
Successful Outcomes
The Innovate UK assessors approved the Smart Grant application for funding of £500,000 for the R&D project over 12 months. The BladeBUG engineering team will lead the project with expert Robotics Machine Learning capability from Imperial College London and world-leading turbine testing facilities provided by Offshore Renewable Energy Catapult.
Chris Cieslak
Founder // BladeBug
