4. Explore how you can offer the best possible value for money
How can you maximise the impact you can deliver for the funding you request? When planning your budget, never underestimate the power of efficiency: presenting an efficient and realistic cost breakdown can reassure assessors that the spending request is justified.
In building your budget:
- think of the resourcing you’ll need to support your innovation-based approach.
- consider the link between cost efficiency and fail fast approach: if you can quickly assess what’s working and what isn’t, it’ll be easier to focus spending on those areas of the project that have the greatest likelihood of success.
- make a clear case for each budget item and how they will deliver value for customers, society and the environment, justifying your contingencies.
Secondly, consider what financial and/or in-kind support you, your partners and even third parties can bring to the entry to maximise the value you will deliver to customers, society and the environment.
Finding opportunities to make cost efficiencies and including value-add in-kind support can strengthen your case for showing your entry is viable and demonstrates good use of customer money compared to other entries.
5. Scale up, roll out
It might seem too early to plan for sector-wide adoption of your innovative solution, but sharing how you intend to support implementation at scale can demonstrate your commitment to the Fund’s innovation enablers. This is a critical part of the project you will build, as it’s where you get the chance to increase the impact of your innovation.
Make sure you explain the potential for your solution to be adopted at scale and your plan if your entry is successful. Identify any challenges and barriers you may face immediately and in the longer term, and make detailed plans for sharing across the sector.
It’s ok if you can’t scale across the sector yourself – but think about how you may overcome barriers to support others to do so.
6. Engage with people
No matter what you are working on, there will be people who directly experience the need you are trying to address in their daily lives. These people can provide a rich source of ideas and inspiration for practical solutions, so why not try speaking to them about your entry?
Breakthrough 1 assessors and judges were impressed by entries that included end-users in research, service design and prototype testing. Demonstrating stakeholder engagement in your entry shows that your proposed solution is based on what might work for those involved in making this succeed.
If you are not sure where to start, take a look at how participatory futures methods could support your entry.
7. Balance out risks and opportunities
Breakthrough innovation is all about taking risks and managing uncertainty. In your entry, try to recognise risks and opportunities proportionately. Pay particular attention to the risks you can’t control, such as that the sector won’t take up the solution. Make the case as to why these risks will be worth taking: how you will maximise benefits, even if your proposed solution doesn’t work?
A strong project plan can help manage uncertainties and ensure the project progresses efficiently. In the first round, project management plans that included appropriate stage gates and relevant key performance indicators for each phase had an edge on the rest of the pack. To start, identify your key milestones, and frame your delivery plan around these. Later down the line, reaching those milestones will help you monitor your progress towards success.
While risks and uncertainties can spell out failure, make sure your entry includes realistic plans to share the learnings widely to benefit the whole sector and beyond. Being open about what you are trying to do is a great way to attract others to the conversation: many risks and their mitigation have already been managed in other sectors. You could end up recruiting a new partner to give a unique edge to your next try!