Capability and Innovation Fund - Pool F
Overview
The Alternative Remedies Package (ARP) that BCR is delivering includes in its process an ability for awardees to revise their original business cases, subject to the approval of the BCR Board. Pool F is being run following the return of funds by two Pool E awardees. Onfido Limited (a D Body) returned its £5m award in January after a strategic review resulted in changing of focus away from UK SMEs while Ebury Partners Limited returned £7.5m to BCR in June after reducing the scope of their business plan to focus on investing in scalability and an improved user experience for UK SMEs.
BCR will distribute £12.5m Capability and Innovation Funding under Pool F to support eligible bodies to:
- Develop and improve their capability to compete with RBS (now NatWest) in the provision of banking services to SMEs; and/or
- Develop and improve the financial products and services that are available to UK SMEs.
Consultation
As set out under the ARP terms, eligible applicants for Pool F are A, B and C bodies, but not Pool D bodies. As with Pool E, existing awardees may apply for Pool F grants. As required, BCR has completed a consultation on the size of the awards. This was sent to some 357 organisations with 16 responding.
The award sizes for Pool F are £5m *2 and £2.5m *1 with applicants able to apply for 2 grant sizes.
The application period window for Pool F is now open and will close at 5pm on 15 September 2021. Further information on the timeline can be found below.
Timeline
The expected timeline for Pool F can be found here:
What we can tell you at this time:
- £12.5m of awards is for Pools A, B and C bodies only.
- Existing awardees and applicants from previous rounds will be able to apply as well as new applicants.
- Eligibility criteria is in line with previous pools and can be found on our website here.
- It is likely to be important for Pool F projects to be completed by end of December 2022. The assessment criteria can be found here.
- The Application Documents can be found here.
Registration and Application Process
If you are interested in applying for the Capability and Innovation Fund (CIF) Pool F, please email the BCR mailbox at bcradmin@bcr-ltd.com stating the full name and company email address of the employee you have nominated to manage your application.
The registration for the CIF Data Room (Scout) will be processed as soon as possible.
The CIF Data Room is BCR’s mechanism for receiving applications and for receiving and responding to queries from Applicant Companies. Once set up, Applicants will be able to access their account and submit an application.
