Since 2007, Innovate UK has invested around £2.5bn to help businesses across the country to innovate, with match funding from industry taking the total value of projects above £4.3bn.
Innovate UK has helped 8,500 organisations create around 70,000 jobs and added an estimated £18bn of value to the UK economy. In the period 2019/2020, Innovate UK received 5,794 applications for grant funding and made 949 awards. £645,886 was awarded in terms of grant funding, 24% of the total amount applied for.
Makematic Limited Industry Sector: Maker of educational videos
Makematic Limited is a company based in Northern Ireland that specialises in making educational videos. The company applied to Innovate UK for funding of £48,268 to purse the Teaching Online Masterclass (TOM) project. This project has come about due to the Covid-19 pandemic which has highlighted a need for support for teachers who are now compelled to teach on-line.
The Teaching Online Masterclass (TOM) project will create a free video-based professional development resource for teachers, focusing on how to teach online, not just the technology they use. Each 3-5min video will feature insight, strategies and top tips from experienced educators, academics and industry professionals keen to share their knowledge.
Uniquely, TOM will use an open syndication strategy – distributing the core content to schools, training providers and education platforms to edit and incorporate free of charge in their own products and services. Makematic’s aim is to help 500,000 teachers and millions more worldwide get to grips with teaching on-line fast.
The application was successful and Makematic received £48,268 by way of funding.
Ocasta Studios Limited Industry Sector: Remote clinical teaching technology for all UK medical schools.
Ocasta Studios Limited, a Brighton based company that specialises in the creation of knowledge, education and training technology, has applied to Innovate UK for grant funding for feasibility studies to be carried out.
CAPSULE is a clinical learning platform that has been developed by Brighton & Sussex Medical School and Ocasta. CAPSULE is unique as it contains over 650 clinical caseswith 3,500 questions, including medicine, surgery, paediatrics, psychiatry, therapeutics, obstetrics and gynaecology, general practice and professional studies.
All content is supported by an editorial board of senior clinicians from all specialities, there is a rolling process of core review, case editing and selective case additions – maintaining active and relevant content. CAPSULE has been in use since 2016 in a small number of UK medical schools, however, the Covid-19 pandemic, which has interrupted undergraduate medical teaching dramatically, has spurred collaboration across the sector which has allowed the educational content on CAPSULE to be updated and enhanced to support a faster, wider deployment.
Ocasta state that the project funded by the innovation grant will allow the platform to be further established as a learning tool, with capabilities to advance remote teaching facilities, to support better student progress tracking with tailored teach and to promote research into the effectiveness of remote teaching practices. Through this funding, CAPSULE will become an industry-proven platform to support an increasing industry move to remote, self-paced learning, supported by teaching sessions to cement understanding.
This will lead to opportunities across other overseas territories for CAPSULE and a technology platform better able to be adapted for other market sectors and industry verticals. £73,632 has been received by way of funding.
To download a copy of these Education case studies, please click here.
