UK-Nigeria Sustainable Construction Innovation Lead Customer ProgrammeCopy Link

Innovate UK, through the Global Alliance Africa project, is investing up to £120,000 for three UK-Nigeria collaborative pilot projects (x £40,000 per project) towards the adoption of sustainable construction practices in Nigeria.

Your project must focus on one or more of the following:

Affordable Housing

• Sustainable manufacturing: Use of innovative and environmentally friendly materials and processes to create cost-effective housing solutions. Your approach must aim to minimize environmental impact, reduce costs, and provide quality housing that is accessible and affordable to a wider population.
• Modular prefabrication and On-site Assembly: Use of innovative approach for modular prefabricated housing ready for on-site and off-site assembling. This solution should help to shorten construction time, be cost effective, improve materials saving and quality control, and enhance scalability.

Sustainable Construction Materials

• Alternative materials: Development of alternative materials for low-carbon building, construction and finishing. The approach should be the integration of already certified existing solutions or the development of innovative sustainable materials for building.
• Safety and environmental performance: Optimisation of on-site, labour and human capital as well as enhancing resource efficiency and structural integrity. Your design should involve practices that transform waste materials into valuable goods, reducing the need for new raw materials.
• Energy efficiency: Creative and practical solutions for sustainable materials that enhance energy efficiency in construction, and contribute to reducing greenhouse gas emissions and reliance on non-renewable energy sources.

Construction Waste Management

• Reuse and Circularity: Innovations in material lifecycle extensions, waste minimisation and creation of closed-looped systems where materials are continually repurposed and recycled. Integration of circular design principles from the outset, focusing on longevity, adaptability, and ease of disassembly.
• End-to-End waste management practices: Digital solutions to monitor and manage all stages of the construction project, from planning and design to demolition and disposal, with a focus on minimising waste and promoting sustainability. Technology and innovation around Building Information modelling (BIM) to optimize material usage, track waste, and facilitate deconstruction planning (including software to monitor waste generation, segregation, and recycling rates in real-time, smart packaging and use of materials designed for circularity such as biodegradable composites or materials that can be infinitely recycled).

PLEASE ENSURE YOUR APPLICATION INCLUDES THE DOCUMENTS REQUIRED: COMPLETED APPLICATION TEMPLATE, PROJECT PLAN & FINANCES TEMPLATE, AND LETTER OF SUPPORT (ADD THESE AS ATTACHMENTS)

INNOVATE UK AND GLOBAL ALLIANCE AFRICA

Innovate UK exists to connect innovators with new partners and new opportunities beyond their existing thinking – accelerating ambitious ideas into real world solutions. Innovate UK is delivering the 6-year (2019 - 2025) UK International Development funded, Global Alliance Africa project, which aims to build new and stronger UK-African partnerships to maximise the creation of inclusive market access, funding, and investment opportunities through innovation knowledge transfer between the UK, Nigeria, South Africa and Kenya.

The project aligns with the UK’s Official Development Assistance (ODA) objectives by building stronger local innovation ecosystems and enhanced UK-Africa collaborations that lead to self-sustaining economic growth in Kenya, Nigeria, and South Africa, harnessing the potential of innovation to meet current and future socio-economic-environmental challenges. The project is focused around three key pillars, one of which focuses on ‘Connected Innovation’ where Innovation Networks will be forged to facilitate UK, African and International networks to deliver collaborative research, innovation and funding solutions that address key global innovation challenges.

In Nigeria, one of the key sectors identified is Sustainable Construction due to its potential to generate economic opportunities, reduce costs, expand markets, and mitigate environmental impact. The country boasts contemporary architects and builders but there is a constant steady increase in the population leading to impending housing deficits and lack of accessibility to affordable homes. The construction supply chain in Nigeria also faces challenges that inhibit the sector from fully embracing sustainable practices. These challenges include a lack of effective construction and demolition waste management, limited research and know-how, and non-uniform standards. Recognising these issues, Global Alliance Africa, with its objective to align with the country's innovation needs, has identified the opportunity to fund innovation aimed at enabling sustainable construction.

UK-Nigeria Sustainable Construction Innovation Lead Customer Programme Background

The building and construction industry in Nigeria is a significant sector of the economy, contributing to employment, infrastructure development, and economic growth. With the large and growing population, Nigeria has a massive infrastructure deficit with total infrastructure stock in the country amounting to about 30% of gross domestic product (GDP).

With the rise in technology and rapid urban development, the need for the adoption of sustainable construction practises in Nigeria has never been more vital. Traditional construction methods often result in high energy consumption, deforestation, and excessive waste putting a strain on the environment, depleting natural resources, and contributing significantly to pollution and carbon footprints. 

Sustainability in construction is a critical issue for many countries around the world, including those in Africa and the United Kingdom. While these regions have different construction practices as well as affordable housing challenges, the overall goal is the same: to ensure a stable and sustainable ecosystem for the built environment and provide accessible and affordable housing for the population.

The UK-Nigeria Lead Customer Programme aims to address these challenges in both countries through a partnership model, thus accelerating innovations needed to create new or improved sustainable construction innovations and technologies for the sector and contributing towards the UN Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 11. 

A Lead Customer is a Nigerian and/or UK construction supplier, company or top-tier end-user that shows support or commitment to the proposed innovations by presenting demonstrable deployment routes. The Lead Customer must provide a Letter of Endorsement with your application.

Funding Type and Project Size:

Projects must be led by a UK or Nigerian business. Universities, RTOs and other organisation types may be involved in consortia but can claim a maximum of 25% of the total project costs.

Innovate UK will fund 70% of a total project value up to £40,000 per project. An in-kind contribution of 30% is required from the project partners. Higher in-kind contributions by project partners are encouraged to boost the scale of the projects, and will be viewed favourably in the selection process. 

A project must involve at least one partner from the UK and one partner from Nigeria.

• Technology Testing & Validation, 6-month project
• Technology Demonstration & Scale-up, 6-month project
• Access to international collaboration and innovation through UK- Nigeria partnership.
• Support in facilitating industry engagement to seize future commercialisation opportunities and enhance market access.
• Access to grant funding of up to £40,000 for the UK/Nigerian lead organisation per project (subject to T&C)
• Sector expertise support from Innovate UK and Lead Country Partner.

Before you start

• You must download the Application Template and Project Plan and Finances Template.
• Register on the application portal by clicking the Apply Now button below. 

Before submitting, it is the lead applicant's responsibility to make sure:

• that all the information provided in the application is correct;
• your proposal meets the eligibility and scope criteria;
• all sections of the application are marked as complete; and
• that all partners have completed all assigned sections and accepted the terms and conditions (T&Cs).

PLEASE ENSURE YOUR APPLICATION INCLUDES THE DOCUMENTS REQUIRED: COMPLETED APPLICATION TEMPLATE, PROJECT PLAN & FINANCES TEMPLATE, AND LETTER OF SUPPORT (ADD THESE AS ATTACHMENTS)

You can reopen your application once registered, up until you submit the application. You must submit the application before the competition deadline on GMT 17:00 Monday 12th August 2024.

Your submission must include the following attachments:

• Completed Application Template
• Completed Project Plan and Finances Template
• Formal Letter of Endorsement from at least one top tier supplier or leading company in the construction sector (refer to as the Lead Customer)

What we ask you:

The application is split into five sections:

• Nigeria Applicant details.
• UK Applicant details.
• Details of top tier customer.
• Project Details.
• Project Plan and Finances

Accessibility and inclusion

We welcome and encourage applications from people of all backgrounds and are committed to making our application process accessible to everyone. This includes providing support, in the form of reasonable adjustments, for people who have a disability or a long-term condition and face barriers applying to us. 

You must contact us as early as possible in the application process. We recommend contacting us at least 15 working days before the competition closing date to ensure we can provide you with the most suitable support possible.

You can contact us by emailing joshua.adedeji@iuk.ktn-global.org

Finances

Each organisation in your project must complete their own project costs, organisation details and funding details in the application. UK Academic institutions must complete and upload a Je-S form.

For full details on what costs you can claim see our project costs guidance. You can also view our Application Finances video.

The aim of this competition is to create new or improved sustainable construction technologies for the sector through UK-Nigeria partnerships.  

Your application must:

• Focus on the innovations to improve of the adoption of sustainable construction practices in Nigeria and/or the UK, within the thematic areas of:

a)  Affordable housing

b)  Sustainable construction materials

c). Construction waste management

• Be a collaboration with at least one UK partner and one Nigeria partner.
• Propose an innovative technology solution or business model that is feasible, reliable and with tested proof of concept.
• Present demonstrable deployment route(s) with support/commitment from a Nigerian and/or UK construction company or top tier future customer. 

• 10 July 2024 - Competition Launch
• 12 August 2024, 17:00 GMT - Deadline for applications
• August 2024 - Selection and due diligence of finalists
• Aug/Sept 2024 – Notification of funded finalists, projects launch

We are not funding projects that:  

• Are below Technology Readiness Level 4 
• Have no interest from an end-user or top tier future customer.
• Do not have at least one UK participant and one Nigerian participant within the LCP Consortium.

We cannot fund projects that are: 

• dependent on export performance, for example giving a subsidy to a baker on the condition that it exports a certain quantity of bread to another country. 
• dependent on domestic inputs usage, for example giving a subsidy to a baker on the condition that it uses 50% UK flour in their product. 

Your project must meet the following requirements: 

• The lead applicant must be a registered business.
• Universities, RTOs and other organisation types may be involved in consortia, but may claim a maximum of 25% of the total project costs.
• Your project must be a partnership between a registered Nigeria or UK registered business of any size or a research and technology organisation.
• Your application must involve at least one participating organisation per country.
• Your application must include an endorsement letter from a UK or Nigeria construction industry sponsor/top tier future customer (non-grant recipient), indicating the challenges your proposed project may solve and possibility of commercial route.
• Your technology must be between Technology Readiness Levels (TRLs) 4 and 8.
• Your project should last 6 months and finish before the end of February 2025.
• All project work either to be carried out either in the UK or in Nigeria.

Lead organisation 

Be a registered business.

To lead a project your organisation must: 

be one of the collaboration partners that is a UK registered organisation or a Nigeria registered organisation.

register to apply on the application platform.

manage the project execution plan and its deliverables.

More information on the different types of organisation can be found in our Funding rules.  

Project team 

Your consortium must include:

• at least one technology lead from both the UK and Nigeria.

To collaborate with the lead, your organisation must be one of the following UK or Nigeria registered: 

• business of any size
• research and technology organisation (RTO) and universities as secondary partners in business-led consortia.  

Lead Customer

The Lead Customer can be any organisation type (academic institution, government body or commercial entity etc) that will be a credible end – user of the solution developed in the project. Credibility, name – recognition and organisation size will be considered during the selection process. 

Non-funded partners 

Your project can include partners that do not receive any of this competition’s funding, for example non-UK or non-Nigeria businesses. 

Subcontractors 

Subcontractors are allowed in this competition. 

Subcontractors can be from anywhere in the UK or Nigeria and you must select them through your usual procurement process.  

You can use subcontractors from other countries but must make the case in your application as to why you could not use suppliers from the UK or Nigeria.  

You must provide a detailed rationale, evidence of the potential UK contractors or Nigeria contractors you approached and the reasons why they were unable to work with you. We will not accept a cheaper cost as a sufficient reason to use another country as a supplier subcontractor. 

All subcontractor costs must be justified and appropriate to the total project costs.  

Number of applications  

A business or research and technology organisation (RTO) can only lead on one application but can be included as a collaborator in a further two applications. 

If an RTO is not leading any application, it can collaborate in any number of applications.

A construction industry sponsor can collaborate on any number of applications.

Subsidy Control 

All funding supplied by Innovate UK is in line with the Subsidy Control Act 2022. Further information about the Subsidy requirements can be found within the Subsidy Control Act 2022 (legislation.gov.uk) 

Innovate UK is unable to award organisations that are considered to be in financial difficulty. We will conduct financial viability and eligibility tests to confirm this is not the case following the application stage. 

EU State aid rules now only apply in limited circumstances. Please see our general guidance to check if these rules apply to your organisation.

Further Information

If you are unsure about your obligations under the Subsidy Control Act 2022 or the State aid rules, you should take independent legal advice. We are unable to advise on individual eligibility or legal obligations.

You must always make sure that the funding awarded to you is compliant with all current Subsidy Control legislation applicable in the United Kingdom.

This aims to regulate any advantage granted by a public sector body which threatens to, or actually distorts competition in the United Kingdom or any other country or countries.

This competition is operated by Innovate UK.

Innovate UK are directly accountable to you for their holding and processing of your information, including any personal data and confidential information. Data is held in accordance with their own policies.  Accordingly, Innovate UK, will be data controllers for personal data submitted during the application. Innovate UK’s Privacy Policy is accessible here.  

Innovate UK complies with the requirements of GDPR, and is committed to upholding the data protection principles, and protecting your information.  The Information Commissioner’s Office also has a useful guide for organisations, which outlines the data protection principles.

Data includes any relevant information submitted, generated and stored by Innovate UK during the application process concerning your application. This would include, but is not restricted to:  

• the information stated on the application, including the personal details of all applicants  
• scoring and feedback on the application
• information received during the management and administration of the grant, such as Monitoring Officer reports and Independent Accountant Reports

PLEASE ENSURE YOUR APPLICATION INCLUDES THE DOCUMENTS REQUIRED: COMPLETED APPLICATION TEMPLATE, PROJECT PLAN & FINANCES TEMPLATE, AND LETTER OF SUPPORT (ADD THESE AS ATTACHMENTS)