Applications
Writing the market and commercial potential questions well
Every Innovate UK competition asks about market and commercial potential, not a hockey-stick chart. What customer evidence, pricing and route to market should look like in a strong application.
The credibility problem
Assessors read many commercial potential sections that all forecast a large share of a large market. The projections carry almost no weight because nothing behind them is verifiable.
What does carry weight is evidence of contact with real buyers: conversations held, questions asked, and what changed in your plan as a result of hearing the answers.
Customer evidence you can cite
Quantify the work. The number of conversations, the roles and organisations involved, and two or three specific findings that were uncomfortable enough to be believable.
Letters of support from named potential customers, with a sentence describing what they would evaluate and when, are worth more than any market size figure on its own.
Build the market from the bottom up
Start with the unit: who buys, how many exist in the UK and internationally, what they pay today, and what they would pay for your improvement. Multiply upward and state your assumptions so an assessor can check them.
A defensible £10 million beachhead in a named segment beats an indefensible multi-billion-pound total addressable market every time.
Show the road after the grant
Assessors want to know what happens when public funding stops. Set out the certification or regulatory path if one applies, the manufacturing or deployment route, and who funds the next stage of growth.
Naming the specific follow-on funding you will pursue, whether a further Innovate UK competition, an Innovation Loan, or private investment, shows that you see the grant as a step rather than a destination.
Ready to turn this into a funded proposal?
Book a free 30-minute consultation with a senior grant consultant. We will check your eligibility, match you to the right program, and map out your submission timeline.
Learn more about our approach