Campaigners call for reform at Innovate UK after thousands of women left 'deflated and defeated'

According to campaigners, this year’s ‘Women in Innovation’ Awards saw 1,452 applications from female-founded and female-led businesses across the UK, applying for £75,000 to “develop their exciting and innovative ideas.” A spokesman said: “A total funding pot of £4m was assigned and set to award 50 founders, but it was revealed last week that only 25 had been awarded the grants, despite some applications receiving over 90 per cent scores.”

A spokesman for Innovate UK said the decision to only award this number was a mistake and it apologised wholeheartedly. Innovate UK has now pledged to fund 50 Women in Innovation awards, meeting its original commitment of £4m for this programme.

A group – Let’s Fund More Women – has been launched to call on Innovate UK to engage in a “collaborative dialogue” to address the issues raised by applicants and implement reforms.

Ms Moore, who launched Let’s Fund More Women alongside entrepreneurs Becky Lodge and Tara Attfield-Tomes, said: “There are thousands of women who are deflated and defeated by a process that should have been there to serve them. I am one of them. Having spent significant time on this application process only to receive such vague feedback and from assessors who I know nothing about, is a kick in the teeth.

“We hear the stats around there being £250bn left on the table from underfunded women – it’s a huge part of the work we did with the taskforce – and yet we’re letting public money be spent so inefficiently.”

"Reform is needed because there are thousands of female-led innovations simply not making it out alive.”

Becky Lodge, the founder of Little Kanga and StartUp Disruptors, said: “The Women in Innovation Awards have fallen short of their intended goals, and we are calling on Innovate UK to take immediate action to ensure that future awards are more equitable, transparent, and supportive of female founders. Women-led businesses are significantly underfunded in comparison to their male counterparts and we rely on a public body to exercise fairness and equity when it comes to distributing public money.

“As part of their acknowledgement of their failings, we would also like Innovate UK’s CEO, Indro Mukerjee, to publicly apologise to the 1,400 women who have spent – on average – 80 hours completing the onerous application process, only to receive inconsistent feedback from assessors. In some cases, we’ve heard of people scoring over 95 per cent and still not being successful. It’s just not good enough.”

The statement added: “Let’s Fund More Women is committed to working with Innovate UK to create a more inclusive and effective funding landscape for women entrepreneurs, and will be issuing its full findings and reforms in a private letter to Indro Mukerjee this week.”

A spokesman for Innovate UK said: “Since 2016, our Innovate UK Women in Innovation programme has played a vital role in strengthening the UK’s innovation system.

"We’ve worked hard to develop this unique programme and we care about its success deeply. For this year’s Women in Innovation awards, we said that we’d fund a portfolio of up to 50 projects. Last week, we communicated that 25 applicants had been successful for funding.

“As public funders, we must manage our budgets carefully. The decision to only award this number was a mistake and we prioritised wrongly.

“We recognise the impact this has had on the many applicants and on the community as a whole, and we apologise wholeheartedly. We confirm we will be funding a total of 50 awards.”

The statement added: “This represents a total investment of £4m for the current cohort, as originally committed.”

As well as confirming 50 awards, Innovate UK also wants to reassure everyone who applied that it remains committed to supporting and increasing opportunities across the system for women innovators, the spokesman added.

The spokesman continued: “We will be contacting all applicants to highlight how they can access support from Innovate UK and our partners.

“The response to this programme has been our highest to date and demonstrates the increasing number of women-led innovative businesses that are driving growth for our economy.”

"Women in Innovation is one of the programmes that we offer across the Innovate UK system, which includes the Innovate UK Catapult Network, business growth advisors and Innovate UK Business Connect.

“Across this system we offer many products and services to support innovation.

“Latest data for all Innovate UK competitions, shows that one in three of successful grant applications were led by women, up from one in seven in 2016.

“We apologise again for the concern and frustration that we have caused.”

Innovate UK has pledged to fund 50 Women in Innovation awards, meeting its original commitment of £4m for this programme.

It will also contact the additional 25 successful applicants to confirm funding, starting immediately.

It has promised to contact all Women in Innovation applicants with information of other types of support available to them and continue to work collaboratively to improve its processes and co-create new opportunities, the statement added.

In response, Ms Lodge said: “The power of women has been proven yet again. In 72 hours, we’ve made Innovate UK reverse their decision to cut the funding assigned to innovative female founders and leaders.

"We’re absolutely delighted that all 50 women will now receive their funding, and all £4 million will go towards supporting female entrepreneurship. It’s not enough, but it’s a start."

"The conversations are still continuing with Innovate UK to reform the process and avoid this in the future, but we’re happy to welcome their public apology and recognition of the impact their “wrong decision” has made.”