R&D · Innovation · Economic Advisory

Giving Your Innovation
Both Direction
and Force

VIC works with organisations that want rigorous, evidence-led advice on R&D strategy, innovation funding, and the economic decisions that shape how they grow.

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Practitioners, Not Generalists Our team combines real-world R&D and economic expertise, not just consulting frameworks.
UK Innovation Funding Specialists Deep knowledge of the Innovate UK and UKRI landscape, from opportunity identification to post-award.
Economics at the Core Every engagement is grounded in rigorous economic thinking, not anecdote or assumption.
Transparent by Design No inflated claims, no opaque methodology. You'll always know what we're doing and why.
Who We Are

Rigour Where It Matters

VIC was created for organisations that want more than packaged frameworks and slide decks. We combine deep R&D expertise with economic rigour, helping clients design better programmes, access innovation funding, and make sharper strategic decisions.

Evidence-led thinking grounded in robust economics, not frameworks
Specialist knowledge of the UK innovation funding landscape
Comfortable across technical and commercial environments: we bridge the two
Transparent and outcome-focused: you always know what we're doing and why
Our Philosophy

Great consultancy doesn't end at the recommendation. We embed alongside your team, ensuring insights translate into measurable results: a funded R&D programme, a revised market strategy, or a compelling economic case for investment.

We believe the best outcomes come from genuine partnership, not packaged methodologies. Every engagement is built from the ground up around your specific context and ambitions.

What We Do

Our Core Service Lines

Six integrated practice areas, each distinct and more powerful in combination.

Research & Development

We design and optimise R&D programmes that strengthen IP pipelines, accelerate commercialisation, and create the foundation for sustained innovation.

What this involves

  • R&D programme architecture: structuring activity, milestones, and resource allocation to maximise technical output and commercial return
  • IP strategy: identifying patentable inventions, freedom-to-operate analysis, and long-term portfolio management
  • R&D tax relief: structuring qualifying activities under HMRC schemes and preparing robust technical narratives for claims
  • Technology readiness assessment: TRL mapping and structured advancement planning toward commercialisation
  • Consortium structuring: identifying partners, defining IP ownership, and designing collaboration agreements
  • Commercialisation pathways: evaluating spin-out, licensing, and product development routes with clear decision criteria

Typically engaged by SMEs formalising their R&D function, scale-ups entering new technology areas, and research-led organisations looking to extract more commercial value from their technical work.

R&D Strategy Tax Relief Programme Design IP Strategy

Innovation Strategy

We help organisations build systematic innovation capability, from identifying emerging technology opportunities to designing the governance and culture to exploit them.

What this involves

  • Technology horizon scanning: structured monitoring of emerging technologies, competitor activity, and adjacent sectors relevant to your business
  • Innovation governance: designing stage-gate processes, portfolio review frameworks, and innovation committees that connect activity to strategy
  • Open innovation: identifying university partners, startups, and technology providers to accelerate capability acquisition
  • Build, buy, or partner decisions: rigorous analysis of how best to acquire new technical capabilities given cost, speed, and risk constraints
  • Innovation metrics: designing KPIs that connect innovation input and activity to tangible business outcomes, not just output counts
  • Capability assessment: honest evaluation of where your organisation's innovation strengths and gaps lie, with a practical development roadmap

Most relevant to larger organisations wanting to systematise what has been ad hoc, and to businesses facing technology disruption who need a clearer forward view.

Tech Scouting Innovation Governance Open Innovation Roadmapping

Innovate UK Grant Funding

We provide end-to-end support across the Innovate UK, Horizon Europe, and UKRI funding landscape, managing the full process so your team can focus on the science.

What this involves

  • Opportunity identification: active monitoring of Innovate UK, UKRI, and Horizon Europe calls to surface the right opportunities before deadlines arrive
  • Eligibility assessment: rapid evaluation of fit between your project and a funding call, so you invest effort only where the case is strong
  • Bid writing: technical narrative, commercial case, team description, and dissemination plan written to assessor criteria, not just project description
  • Financial modelling: full project cost planning, eligible cost categorisation, match funding calculations, and grant budget construction
  • Consortium building: identifying and approaching credible partners where collaboration strengthens the application
  • Post-award management: project reporting, financial claims, monitoring and evaluation, audit preparation, and variation requests

Particularly valuable for innovative SMEs applying for the first time, companies with strong technical ideas but limited bid-writing experience, and organisations managing multiple concurrent funded projects.

Bid Writing UKRI Horizon Europe Post-Award

Economics

Robust economic thinking sits at the heart of our advisory practice. We apply microeconomic and macroeconomic frameworks to inform strategic choices, from pricing to regulatory engagement.

What this involves

  • Market structure analysis: mapping competitive dynamics, concentration levels, barriers to entry, and the forces shaping your market position
  • Regulatory economics: preparing submissions to regulators, informing responses to market reviews, and building the economic case in price control processes
  • Investment appraisal: NPV and IRR modelling, real options analysis, and sensitivity testing to support capital allocation decisions
  • Pricing strategy: demand analysis, elasticity estimation, and pricing model design grounded in economic theory and market evidence
  • Competition economics: market definition, competitive effects analysis, and merger assessment support
  • Macroeconomic scenario planning: stress-testing strategy against credible macro scenarios, including demand shocks, inflation, and supply chain disruption

Used by regulated businesses, companies facing competition scrutiny, and leadership teams who want economic rigour behind strategic decisions rather than intuition alone.

Market Economics Regulatory Investment Appraisal Competition

Economic Analysis

We deliver quantitative and qualitative economic analysis to support business cases, public policy submissions, and impact assessments used by boards, investors, and government stakeholders.

What this involves

  • Cost-benefit analysis: full CBA including social costs and benefits, distributional effects, and sensitivity analysis, aligned to HM Treasury Green Book methodology where required
  • Economic impact assessment: quantifying direct, indirect, and induced economic effects using input-output and multiplier frameworks
  • Value for money assessment: structured appraisal of public and private investment options against clear criteria and evidence
  • Econometric modelling: statistical analysis of economic relationships, demand forecasting, and regression-based evidence building
  • Labour market and skills analysis: employment effects, skills gap assessment, and workforce planning to support investment decisions and policy cases
  • Policy evidence and submissions: clear, credible economic evidence for public consultations, funding applications, and regulatory engagement

Outputs used by public sector bodies, local authorities, LEPs, grant applicants requiring economic evidence, and private sector clients making the case for major investment.

Impact Assessment Cost-Benefit Analysis Econometrics Green Book

Management Consultancy

From operating model transformation to strategic planning and organisational design, we help organisations build the management capability they need to compete and grow in complex environments.

What this involves

  • Operating model design: defining how your organisation delivers value, including structure, processes, decision rights, and technology enablement
  • Strategic planning: facilitated strategy development, scenario planning, and stress-testing of strategic options against market and competitive realities
  • Organisational design: structuring teams, reporting lines, and governance to support the strategy rather than obstruct it
  • Change management: stakeholder engagement, communication planning, and transition management to make change stick rather than slide back
  • Performance improvement: benchmarking, process optimisation, and KPI framework design to drive sustainable efficiency gains
  • Programme management support: PMO setup, governance design, milestone tracking, and risk management for complex transformation programmes

Most often engaged by technically excellent organisations that need stronger management infrastructure to scale, and by leadership teams who want an independent challenge to their thinking before committing to a direction.

Strategy Operating Models Transformation Org Design
How We Work

A Proven Engagement Model

We follow a disciplined four-phase methodology that ensures every engagement delivers clear, measurable outcomes.

01

Discovery & Diagnosis

We immerse ourselves in your organisation, understanding context, challenges, and ambitions before forming any view on solutions. This means conversations with the people doing the work, not just the leadership layer, and a genuine effort to understand what has already been tried. We do not arrive with a pre-packaged answer.

02

Analysis & Strategy

Rigorous quantitative and qualitative analysis informs a clear strategic direction, with options stress-tested against your priorities and constraints. We present findings plainly, including the uncomfortable ones, and make sure the strategic choice is yours to make with full information rather than guided toward a predetermined conclusion.

03

Design & Planning

We translate strategy into actionable plans: funding applications, operating blueprints, or programme roadmaps, all built to deliver. Outputs are designed for the people who will use them, not for filing. Where plans require buy-in from wider teams or stakeholders, we help build that case in language that lands.

04

Implement & Sustain

We stay alongside you through execution, managing risks, tracking progress, and ensuring your team builds lasting capability. Most consultancy value is lost in implementation. We consider the engagement complete only when the change is embedded and the team can sustain it without us.

Industries We Serve

Sector Expertise

Our consultants bring deep domain knowledge across a wide range of industries, enabling us to tailor strategies to the nuances of each market.

Advanced Manufacturing & Engineering

Manufacturing and engineering businesses face constant pressure to improve process efficiency, develop new product capabilities, and remain competitive as automation and materials science advance. VIC supports R&D programme design across precision engineering, advanced materials, robotics, and process innovation, helping businesses structure their technical activity to qualify for R&D tax relief and access Innovate UK funding through schemes including the Advanced Manufacturing challenge fund and Faraday Battery Challenge.

We also support strategic decisions around capital investment, make-versus-buy analysis, and operating model design for businesses scaling up production or integrating new manufacturing technologies.

R&D Tax ReliefInnovate UKProcess InnovationInvestment Appraisal
Advanced Manufacturing
Advanced Manufacturing & Engineering
Clean Energy & Net Zero Technology

The energy transition is generating significant public and private investment, along with a complex funding landscape. VIC works with businesses developing renewable energy technology, energy storage, hydrogen systems, smart grid solutions, and demand-side management tools, supporting both R&D programme design and access to UKRI Net Zero Innovation Portfolio and Innovate UK energy-focused funding calls.

We also provide economic analysis of energy investment cases, including cost modelling, demand forecasting, and the economic justification for new infrastructure or technology deployment at commercial scale.

Net Zero FundingEnergy EconomicsUKRI NZIPR&D Strategy
Clean Energy
Clean Energy & Net Zero Technology
Life Sciences & Healthcare

Life sciences businesses often have technically sophisticated R&D programmes but can underutilise the funding and tax relief mechanisms available to them. VIC supports programme design across pharmaceutical development, medical devices, diagnostics, and digital health, helping companies structure their research pipeline to maximise R&D tax relief claims and access Innovate UK, NIHR, and Biomedical Catalyst funding.

We also provide health economic analysis and cost-effectiveness modelling to support market access submissions, NICE appraisals, and investment cases for new therapeutic or device technologies.

Biomedical CatalystNIHRHealth EconomicsR&D Tax Relief
Life Sciences
Life Sciences & Healthcare
Digital Technology & Software

Software and digital technology businesses are frequent beneficiaries of R&D tax relief, but many either claim too conservatively or fail to document qualifying activity robustly enough. VIC helps digital and software businesses identify qualifying R&D across AI, machine learning, cybersecurity, data infrastructure, and platform development, ensuring claims are both maximised and defensible under HMRC scrutiny.

We also support innovation strategy for digital businesses looking to develop systematic approaches to product development, and provide economic analysis for technology investment decisions, market entry, and platform pricing strategy.

R&D Tax ReliefAI & DataInnovation StrategyPricing Economics
Digital Technology
Digital Technology & Software
Agri-Food & Sustainability

Agri-food is undergoing significant technological transformation, from precision agriculture and vertical farming to alternative proteins and sustainable packaging. VIC supports R&D programme design and Innovate UK funding applications for businesses developing agri-tech solutions, food processing innovation, and sustainable supply chain technologies, including through the Transforming Food Production and Industrial Biotechnology challenge funds.

We also provide economic analysis of sustainability investments, helping businesses quantify the commercial and societal value of environmental improvements to support both internal decision-making and external stakeholder engagement.

Agri-Tech FundingSustainability EconomicsFood InnovationR&D Strategy
Agri-Food
Agri-Food & Sustainability
Defence & Aerospace

Defence and aerospace businesses operate in technically demanding environments with complex procurement and funding landscapes. VIC supports R&D programme design and innovation funding applications for businesses developing defence technology, UAV systems, propulsion, sensing, and space technologies, including through DASA (Defence and Security Accelerator) and the Aerospace Technology Institute programme.

We also provide management consultancy support for defence businesses navigating organisational growth, supply chain restructuring, and the transition from development to production, where operational and strategic complexity increases significantly.

DASAATI ProgrammeR&D StrategyProgramme Management
Defence & Aerospace
Defence & Aerospace
Financial Services & Fintech

Financial services and fintech businesses increasingly operate at the frontier of technology and regulation, making both R&D strategy and economic analysis highly relevant. VIC supports fintech businesses with R&D tax relief structuring for software and algorithm development, and innovation strategy for businesses building new financial infrastructure, payment systems, or data-driven financial products.

For established financial services firms, we provide regulatory economics support, market structure analysis, and management consultancy for businesses navigating digital transformation, new market entry, or structural change in their competitive environment.

R&D Tax ReliefRegulatory EconomicsInnovation StrategyMarket Analysis
Financial Services
Financial Services & Fintech
Public Sector & Local Government

Public sector bodies and local authorities require robust economic evidence to support investment decisions, funding bids, and policy submissions. VIC provides cost-benefit analysis, economic impact assessment, and value for money appraisal aligned to HM Treasury Green Book methodology, supporting business cases for infrastructure investment, regeneration programmes, skills and employment initiatives, and public service transformation.

We also support management consultancy engagements focused on public sector operating model design, service redesign, and the evidence base required for major change programmes where scrutiny from elected members, auditors, and the public demands rigour.

Green Book CBAEconomic ImpactBusiness CasesService Design
Public Sector
Public Sector & Local Government
Automotive & Mobility

The automotive sector is undergoing its most significant technological transition in a century, with electrification, autonomous systems, and connected mobility driving substantial R&D investment. VIC supports OEMs, Tier 1 and Tier 2 suppliers, and mobility technology businesses with R&D programme design and access to Innovate UK funding through the Automotive Transformation Fund, Advanced Propulsion Centre, and connected and autonomous vehicle programmes.

We also provide economic analysis of investment decisions related to new powertrain development, battery technology, and the commercial modelling required to assess the transition from ICE to EV production at scale.

APC FundingATFEV EconomicsR&D Strategy
Automotive
Automotive & Mobility
Higher Education & Research

Universities and research institutions face increasing pressure to demonstrate the commercial and societal impact of their research, attract industrial partners, and generate income beyond core funding. VIC supports higher education institutions with research commercialisation strategy, Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) development, and economic impact assessment to evidence the value of research portfolios to funders, government, and industry partners.

We also support collaborative R&D bids between universities and industry partners, helping to bridge the gap between academic capability and commercial application in a way that strengthens both the technical case and the funding narrative.

KTPsResearch ImpactCommercialisationCollaborative R&D
Higher Education
Higher Education & Research
Get In Touch

Begin Your Engagement

Whether you're exploring a funding opportunity, planning a transformation, or need expert economic analysis: we'd welcome an introductory conversation.

Email
enquiries@vectorinnovation.co.uk
Phone
020 8050 9041