Innovate UK cuts prove women are still being told entrepreneurship isn’t for them

As half the promised number of female founders are awarded funding from Innovate UK, women are still facing too many barriers in tech, says Camilla de Coverly Veale

Heist movies are famous for the double cross reveal – but last weekend we weren’t at the movies when a heist was revealed and 1450 female founders found themselves the ones double crossed. 

Earlier this year Innovate UK launched a grant to fund 50 female founders. A welcome initiative to tackle the obvious and well documented disparity between the funding secured by female and male founders – and one of the few that actually proposed putting hard cash on the table as opposed to shunting female founders towards some sort of accelerator where they can be taught to be more assertive – but when the grant applications closed and the winners were revealed only 25 women, instead of the promised 50, were awarded funding.

Over the weekend rejected female founders shared their stories – as well as their positive feedback from Innovate UK assessors – over social media, demanding to know what happened. They were held to a higher standard than all other grants – why? A limp holding statement from Innovate UK, rushed out on the Sunday and promising to “better explain its intentions” hardly inspired confidence.

In the end an open letter, organised by Lets Fund More Women, succeeded in making Innovate UK U-turn within a couple hours on Monday morning. Their statement is extraordinary. Confirming they had chosen to cut the fund to save money, they also confirmed the “response to this programme has been the highest to date” – and yet they still decided that programme was the one to cut.

‘An avalanche of side quests’

The outpouring of frustration from founders speaks to wider issues with the way we allocate R&D funding in the UK. According to the Lets Fund More Women survey of 106 women, the average time spent on a single application to Innovate UK is just over 80 hours. This tallies with what we regularly hear.  Founders are fed up of the inefficiency of the process, the sheer amount of time and resources needed to complete the basic application forms – one founder likened it to an avalanche of side quests – unclear scoring systems and inconsistent rules which treat the same startup as either too innovative or not innovative enough. And that’s before we get onto stories about the grant assessments themselves. For too many the goal posts seem to always be moving.

Another indicator of the ailing health of the process – an industry of grant writing consultancies is thriving – despite the fact R&D funding is for technologists – it shouldn’t have aspirations to be the next Booker prize.

Over the past decade the tech sector has been a success story for the UK economy – but too many feel shut out from its benefits. Missteps like Innovate UK’s only contribute to a narrative that entrepreneurship isn’t for some.

Recently the new Tech Minister, Patrick Vallance, said he wanted to “transform” the way we fund research. This is overdue. We need wholesale simplification. A new UKRI CEO and Innovate UK chair are currently being recruited. This should be a time of renewal for the organisation – and a time to work out what needs to be done differently. Startup Coalition certainly has a list of recommendations – but those 1450 women should be first in line. 

Camilla de Coverly Veale is policy director at the Startup Coalition