The SBRI programme aims to use government procurement to drive innovation. It provides business opportunities for innovative companies whilst solving the needs of government departments.

Competitions for new technologies and ideas are run in specific areas and aim to engage a broad range of companies in short-term development contracts.

SBRI enables government departments and public sector organisations to procure new technologies faster and with managed risk through a phased development programme, and it provides paid contracts for the critical stage of product development.

What is SBRI?
SBRI is a programme that brings innovative solutions to specific public sector needs, by engaging a broad range of companies in competitions for ideas that result in short-term development contracts.

Key features:

SBRI is a programme for running an open competition for ideas and new technologies.
- It results in a fully funded development contract between the company and the government department - it is not a government grant.
- It generally has a two-phased development approach that starts with initial feasibility and then more detailed product development.
- It is a fast track, simplified process that allows government departments to engage with business they would not normally work with.
- It is particularly suitable for SME and early stage businesses and gives vital funding for the critical stage of product development.
The government department (or public sector body) acts as the lead customer and is instrumental in helping the business develop its product or technology.
- It should result in a commercial product or service.
The intellectual property is retained by the company, with certain rights of use held by the department.

SBRI stands for Small Business Research Initiative and significantly reworks the previous scheme that was launched into the UK in 2001. The Technology Strategy Board champions SBRI which is now focused on technology development and specific competitions. This is similar to the SBIR scheme in the United States, which has been running successfully since 1982.

Benefits of SBRI
SBRI is a scheme that benefits both the government department that is running the competition and the businesses that have the opportunity of obtaining a development contract.

Benefits to business

It can be difficult and confusing for companies to access government departments and to obtain simple contracts with them. SBRI creates opportunities for businesses to engage with a specific department need and to prove their technology or idea. Successful companies will gain a lead customer for development and will receive a contract for the full cost of demonstrating the feasibility of their technology, leading to subsequent prototype development. This provides a route to market and establishes credibility for further investment. It is particularly suitable for small and medium-sized enterprises and early stage companies.

Benefits to government

SBRI supports the public sector to procure innovative solutions that address current significant department needs. It enables departments to appeal for a wide range of ideas and evaluate these through short-term simplified contracts and a two-stage development process. This allows government departments and public sector organisations to engage with a broad range of companies they would not otherwise work with. It results in bringing new technologies to market faster and with managed risk.

How SBRI works
The process starts with a government department or other public body identifying a specific challenge.

This is then turned into an open competition for new technologies and ideas that is open to the broad business community.

The Technology Strategy Board supports all competition and helps with the outreach to business.

Companies with potentially interesting technologies and ideas submit an application, either through the Technology Strategy Board or direct to the department, depending on the competition.

The ideas are all received and then subjected to an assessment process. The most successful applications will be awarded contracts to develop the product ideas.

This first feasibility phase is generally limited to 6 months and a maximum contract of £100k.

Following a second assessment stage, the most promising companies will be awarded a second phase contract for up to 2 years and £1m. This is for more detailed product development.

This leads to a commercial product or service which is taken to market and open to competitive procurement.

Competitions

1.The East of England Strategic Health Authority is launching three new SBRI competitions in April. The topic areas for ideas and new technologies are:

Managing Long Term Conditions:
Increasingly, more people are living with long term conditions and quite apart from the personal issues this creates; it poses a significant challenge to the local health service. We are looking for ideas and technologies that can be shown to make a difference in managing long term conditions. Specific areas that address the remote monitoring of patients combined with decision support to enable better care from home and innovative solutions to data and systems management with relation to patient care.

Patient Safety and improving health outcomes:
This competition is focused on the area of patient safety and areas where patient care can be improved, and errors eradicated. Specifically, we are looking for technologies that enable better patient monitoring, accurate transfer and interpretation of data to determine the correct treatment, designing best practice and eliminating calculation errors in medication.

Keeping Children Active:
Children are taking less exercise than they used to and the rate of obesity has risen by 45% over the last ten years. Whilst there are many plans for actions, we are looking for technologies which can help and motivate children to take more exercise, to understand and monitor the amount of exercise they are taking and to incentivise them to exercise more.

These three competitions are being managed by Health Enterprise East and are joint funded by the East of England Development Authority, the European Regional Development Fund and the Technology Strategy Board. The application process for ideas and new technologies will be run through Health Enterprise East, the NHS Innovation hub for the east of England website http://www.hee.org.uk/



2. The Ministry of Defence has also announced two new competitions as part of the SBRI programme. These are run by the Centre of Defense Enterprise and are managed through the website http://www.science.mod.uk/Engagement/enterprise.aspx. The two new topic areas are:

Personal Robotics Support Vehicle:
This aims to reduce the weight burden carried by soldiers, in order to increase their effectiveness and mobility. A potential solution is a robotic support vehicle that can follow an Infantry Section (8 soldiers) can carry some of their equipment on, but which will have the same mobility and can go to the same places that the soldiers can. We are looking for ideas and technologies that could show how this might be achieved.

Lightweight Soldier Weapon System:
Another way to reduce the burden carried by soldiers is to use novel technologies and materials that reduce the weight of the small arms (weapons) and ammunition carried by an Infantry Section (8 soldiers). We are looking for demonstration of feasibility of any new process that could be applied to this subject.

Self Sustaining Furture Operating Base
The Capability Vision – Reducing Dependence on Fossil Fuel seeks to utilize technology to significantly impact the amount of fossil fuel Britain’s Defence Forces use. The CDE event on the 21st May will explore a particularly challenging part of this problem – that of allowing forward bases to operate effectively while minimising / removing their need for a fuel supply chain. Such a concept presents a significant technological challenge but offers major military operational benefits and reducing vulnerability of the logistics tail. DTIC will seek, through the CDE, ideas and technology that could either reduce the energy requirements of a base or provide alternatives to the diesel generators. Any alternative power systems must provide a similar level of electrical power, with the same degree of robustness / resilience, and remove the logistics burden of transporting fuel to the base. There must be no compromise to the effectiveness of the operations. One solution to this may be the generation of bio or synthetic fuels for military use from resources within the local environment of a base. This aspect will be discussed by the Defence Fuels Group. If successful the outcome of this work could lead to a concept demonstrator.

All applications and further information for these two competitions are on http://www.science.mod.uk/Engagement/Events/01_cde_events.aspx



3. The Technology Strategy Board in conjunction with the Homes and Communities Agency and the Department of Communities and Local Government is running a competition on retro-fitting social housing:

Retrofit for the Future
This competition aims to retrofit UK social housing stock in order to meet future targets in reduction of CO2 emissions and energy use. The project will provide at least 50 demonstrator whole house solutions to improve the performance of the entire property with a goal to make deep cuts in carbon emissions. The key area of interest in this initiative is radical, low rise, whole house solutions.

More details are available on http://www.innovateuk.org/ourstrategy/innovationplatforms/lowimpactbuilding/lowimpactbuildingcompetitions.ashx