Tooling Grant Petition on Change.org

Britain is one of the most creative and innovative countries in the world, yet with all the extensive government support available, why are so many innovative projects still failing to obtain funding?

The UK Gov had previously set up the SMART AWARD SCHEME in which it provided grants for various stages of a project's progress, but the issue remained hidden within, because they gave access control to the funds to the banks. These have now been renamed: SMART: Innovation Funding.

At first glance they appear to the casual observer to provide a nice clean flow of grants for each stage in taking a new product from initial concept to shop shelf. However, hiding within this flow between 3 & 4 is a crippling ‘Catch 22’ capable of sending even the most promising of projects into the Abyss, by preventing access to the 'EFG', which in turn, when an application is turned down, creates a false impression that there is something intrinsically wrong with the Project, People or Proposition, rather than the Support System itself.

 

(Note: Smart Award Scheme. Amounts may have since changed.)

1. Smart - Proof of Market Grant Up to £25,000 Available
2. Smart - Proof of Concept Grant Up to £100,000 Available
3. Smart - Development of Prototype Up to £250,000 Available
4. Enterprise Finance Guarantee (EFG) - Up to £1,000,000 Available

 

Catch 22 Predicament - The Eternal 3-Point Trap.

• Without 'Orders' you CANNOT raise the 'Funding'.
• Without 'Funding' you CANNOT produce the 'Samples'
• Without 'Samples' you CANNOT get the 'Orders'.

You end up stuck in an eternal cycle, and so CANNOT ever qualify for No 4. The EFG Scheme!

 

Leaving this 'Catch 22' issue unresolved poses the question; Why make collective Grants of up to £375,000 of taxpayers’ money available for a project to reach prototype stage 3. above, only to leave it exposed to a crippling issue that then prevents it from ever meeting the criteria imposed by banks to access the EFGS funding needed to take it to market?

The ‘Catch22’ explained in more detail; Due to the global economic condition since the crash of 2008 even Private Equity Investors now follow the banks in refusing to lend until a project can show actual orders placed for its products (Proof of Income). Buyers however CANNOT order off prototypes and so demand sight of actual production samples before they can place those orders (Proof of Quality), and Manufacturers refuse to start the tooling and production process without receiving full payment in advance from a new customer. Most will proceed with 50% deposit and 50% on completion, which is still 100% in advance of receiving anything.

This creates the proverbial ‘Catch 22’ scenario, because Projects need the Funds <> to make the Tooling - to produce the Samples the Buyer demands - before they can place the Orders the Bank demands - before they provide the Funds (Go back to <>). As you can see, once a Project falls into this trap there is rarely a way out! And that is the purpose of this Petition, to create a way out!

To help overcome this issue, I have also created an Innovation Support Fund called 'BizKit-Tin', which will initially be crowdfunded, to create a new fully independent funding source for people stuck in this trap. Please consider visiting this anonymous portal to make a small donation, on the premise that, if 1 million people donated just £1 each, the fund could start off with a £1,000,000 source available to lend from.

Any Inventor or Creator of IP that has a great product but not the funds to start it off is going to end up in this trap unless we do something about it, and this solution would be a negligible cost to the UK Government when offset against the losses the UK treasury will incur when these ideas collapse and/or go overseas. UK ideas are being picked up like treats by overseas competitors because we lack the support needed to keep them here.

NOTICE TO THE GOVERNMENT

We the undersigned call upon the UK Government to introduce a new ‘TOOLING/SAMPLE’ Grant to bridge this crippling 'Catch 22' funding issue once and for all.

The Grant will be used solely to pay for Production Tooling and the First Production Run, the criteria for eligibility being that the recipient can provide genuine evidence of Customer/Buyer interest in stocking/purchasing the products for which the Grant is being applied to. Funding will be paid back to the Grant Lender from the sales of that stock or from ongoing sales from the resulting business behind the new product.

Once 100,000 Signatures have been obtained, this Petition will be sent to the UK Prime Minister on behalf of all Inventors and Entrepreneurs across the United Kingdom.

Thank you!