DTIF Call 6 The Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Simon Coveney, together with the Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science, Simon Harris, and Minister of State for Trade Promotion, Digital and Company Regulation, Dara Calleary, launched the sixth call for applications to the Disruptive Technologies Innovation Fund (DTIF) on 8 March 2023.
DTIF is seeking investment in the development and deployment of disruptive innovative technologies, on a commercial basis, targeted at tackling national and global challenges. The fund is driving collaboration between our world class research base and industry as well as facilitating enterprises to compete directly for funding in support of the development and adoption of these technologies and seeding a new wave of start-ups.
DTIF Call 6 is a general call and welcomes applications from all sectors. We would particularly encourage projects that complement the priority enterprise policy objectives on digital transformation and integrating decarbonisation and net zero commitments, as set out in the White Paper on Enterprise. Projects that help to drive the innovation and transformation opportunities that are needed in sectors such as construction are also encouraged. However, all projects will be expected to demonstrate a positive contribution to the sustainability targets in the Climate Action Plan.
Eligibility The main eligibility criteria for DTIF Call 6 include:
all projects should be seeking minimum funding of €1.5 million over three years each project to have at least three independent partners seeking funding from DTIF, including at least one SME and one other enterprise partner SMEs can claim up to 50% of their eligible costs, whereas large companies can claim up to 40% of their eligible costs research organisations (including colleges) can claim up to 100% of the eligible costs but can receive no more than 50% of the total DTIF grant aid per project to draw down funding under DTIF, project partners:
must be a current client of Enterprise Ireland, IDA Ireland or Údarás na Gaeltachta or an eligible Research Performing Organisation (RPO), and must be based in Ireland the type of eligible research to be carried out by all partners, must include “industrial research” and/or “experimental development”, that is, within Technology Readiness Levels 3-9 all company partners must provide financial information to demonstrate that they are not Undertakings in Difficulty (UiD) Guidance documents The DTIF Call 6 Guide for Applicants, indicative application form, consortium agreement template and UiD questionnaire are available for information.
Applicants are strongly recommended to familiarise themselves fully with the terms of the scheme for each specific call, as set out in the Guide for Applicants and in any related content on this webpage, before completing and submitting applications.
Please follow the department or Enterprise Ireland on Twitter – @DeptEnterprise or @Entirl for updates.
Application submissions Applications can be submitted through the Online Submission System on Enterprise Ireland’s website.
All enterprise applicants are reminded that to be deemed eligible they are required to include financial information with their application submission. The information required is outlined in Section 5.1.9 in the DTIF Call 6 Guide for Applicants. This information should be sent to DTIFFinance@enterprise-ireland.com by the deadline below.
Deadline The deadline for receipt of applications for Call 6 is 3pm on 31 May 2023 and the eligible applications received will go through a two-stage evaluation process.
Webinar Enterprise Ireland hosted a webinar on 4 April 2023 for anyone interested in learning more about the application process. A recording of the DTIF Call 6 webinar is available for information, along with a DTIF Call 6 webinar Q&A document containing a comprehensive set of responses to the questions raised at the webinar.
DTIF overview and objectives The Disruptive Technologies Innovation Fund (DTIF) is a €500 million challenge-based fund established under Project Ireland 2040. It is one of four funds set up under the National Development Plan (NDP) 2018-2027. It is managed by the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment and administered by Enterprise Ireland.
The National Development Plan (NDP) stated that the DTIF would see investment in the development and deployment of disruptive technologies and applications on a commercial basis; drive collaboration between Ireland’s world-class research base and industry as well as facilitating enterprises to compete directly for funding in support of the development and adoption of these technologies and seeding a new wave of start-ups. The DTIF is explicitly linked to National Strategic Outcome 5 (a strong economy, supported by enterprise, innovation and skills).
The DTIF objectives are to:
support enterprises in Ireland to exploit the enterprise opportunities associated with “disruptive technologies” by de-risking collaborative projects support enterprises in Ireland to collaborate in order to engage with and be prepared for challenges associated with new “disruptive technologies” that will have a transformative impact on the way we work and live in the future build on research undertaken in Ireland and to leverage that research further by supporting the delivery and exploitation of new technology-based solutions from that research foster deeper and wider RD&I collaborations between the public and private sectors in key technology areas and, in particular, to support collaborations between large firms and SMEs in Ireland strengthen spin-out, spin-in and other start-up activity associated with disruptive technology. prepare Irish enterprises and public bodies to engage in European and global partnerships around the development and deployment of disruptive technologies promote innovation and drive collaboration between Ireland’s enterprises and its research base Essentially, DTIF is about funding collaborations that demonstrate technology-based disruptive innovation, collaborations that can:
alter markets alter the way business operates involve new products or the emergence of new business models Successful DTIF projectsThere have been five completed DTIF Calls to date. DTIF Calls 1-4 were general calls, where applications were required to be within the Research Priority Areas 2018-2023. The fifth DTIF Call was a pilot themed call on Advanced and Smart Manufacturing.
The calls were seeking projects of scale with a strong enterprise agenda to harness maximum medium-term economic impact for Ireland. Ideally, we were looking for enterprise-driven research and development challenges that can demonstrate commercial impacts within 3 to 7 years of project completion.
Details of the 91 successful projects that were awarded funding of €306 million to date under DTIF Calls 1-5 and videos of some of the success stories are available below.
Call 4 and 5 A further €17.8 million invested in innovative and novel technologies under Calls 4 and 5 of the Disruptive Technologies Innovation Fund bringing total investment from the fund to €306 million
Call 4 Tánaiste announces funding of up to €13.3 million for three innovative projects
Government invests €40 million in 11 disruptive technologies projects across health and wellbeing, advanced robotics and machine learning
Call 3 €95 million for groundbreaking projects under Disruptive Technologies Fund
Call 2 €65 million for 16 groundbreaking projects under Disruptive Technologies Innovation Fund
Call 1 Over €75 million for 27 groundbreaking projects under Disruptive Technologies Innovation Fund
Video: DTIF Call 3 project BOXAPP VIDEO
Watch on YouTube: DTIF Call 3 Project ‘BOXAPP’ - YouTube
Video: DTIF Call 3 project ENACT VIDEO
Watch on YouTube: DTIF Call 3 Project ‘ENACT’ - YouTube
More DTIF videos DTIF Call 3 announcement - YouTube
DTIF playlist - YouTube