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The Financial Regulation Innovation Lab Innovation Call

Operational Resilience: Shaping the Future of Financial Stability

In partnership with

In collaboration with

Applications to join the upcoming Financial Regulation Innovation Lab challenge are open until 15 August 2025. 

Some applicants might be eligible for a grant award. More information about grant eligibility can be found here.

Apply here

Join us in co-creating next-generation solutions that can safeguard the financial system in an increasingly digital world.

Join us in co-creating next-generation solutions that can safeguard the financial system in an increasingly digital world.

We are looking for companies with creative ideas and new solutions dedicated to helping financial services companies strengthen their operational resilience and future proof against evolving threats. 

You will get the opportunity to work with a wide variety of financial services and technology industry partners, providing a unique insight into the challenges faced in ensuring the resilience of operational and digital infrastructure. 

Working collectively, key challenges and opportunities for proposition and product development have been identified that will help our Financial Services partners strengthen their systems and controls, adhere to evolving regulatory requirements, and provide a more resilient financial market. 

Applications are open to companies at all stages of development, that can help tackle these challenges. 

A number of Grant Awards of up to £50,000 will be available to selected Innovation Call winners to develop your propositions.

Here are some examples of some of the challenges faced by industry. If you have an innovative solution that supports in strengthening operational resilience across financial services we want to hear from you. Our industry partners have shared with us challenge statements to support the development of your solutions key themes include:

Supply chain monitoring and risk assessment/testing

Simulation and scenario planning

Data quality and accuracy

Cross-border resilience & compliance gap analysis

Business culture and resilience

Cloud and hybrid cloud risk management

Read more about the use cases

What will I get if I’m selected?

Work alongside some of the leading financial services firms in the UK

Learn from them about their challenges, their ways of working and how to best integrate your solutions within their businesses.

You may be eligible for a grant award up to £50,000 to develop your solution further.

Whether it’s tools for colleagues, analysis of data or the development of new functionalities, this could help you advance your proposition.

Deepen your understanding of the evolving operational resilience regulatory landscape.

Learn about the evolving regulatory landscape and the challenges financial services firms are facing in the deployment of innovative solutions whilst ensuring regulatory adherence.

Access information and insights from our industry partners.

Access support and inputs from our industry partners to help develop your solution.

Timeline

21st July

Competition opens online 

24th July

Fintechs Application Drop In Q&A 1 

31st July

Fintechs Application Drop In Q&A 2 

7th August

Fintechs Application Drop In Q&A 3 

15th August

23:59 Competition closes 

19th August

Successful Applicants notified and next steps detailed 

26th August

Kick Off Day: Industry Challenge Partners briefing day to successful Fintech Applicants (Fintech Requirement: all day in person, venue in Glasgow) 

Throughout September

Virtual sessions with strategic partners organised by FRIL team 

30th September

Virtual Pitch sessions for funding 

2nd October

Fintechs Showcase/Demo Day for Applicants to pitch their solutions to judging panel (Fintech Requirement: all day in person, in Glasgow)  

Early October

Innovation Call outcomes announced 

Interested?

We are organising two Q&A sessions if you have questions before applying: 

24 July 2025– register here 

31 July 2025 – register here 

7 August 2025– register here 

Who are FinTech Scotland? 

Learn about FinTech Scotland here.  

Who are SuperTech?  

Learn about SuperTech here  

What is the Financial Regulation Innovation Lab? 

The Financial Regulation Innovation Lab (FRIL) is an industry-led collaborative research and innovation programme focused on leveraging new technologies to respond to, shape and help evolve the future regulatory landscape in the UK and globally. Helping to create new employment and business opportunities, and enabling future talent.  

FRIL is a partnership between FinTech Scotland, a cluster management organisation that encourages innovation and collaboration within the financial services sector, and the University of Strathclyde (UoS) and the University of Glasgow (UoG).  

FRIL will deliver four workstreams to support this: actionable research, innovation calls, skills and education, and knowledge exchange.  

Funded by the Glasgow City Region Innovation Accelerator programme (led by Innovate UK on behalf of UK Research and Innovation), FRIL will deliver this wide-ranging and ambitious agenda led by, and for the use of, the financial sector.  

FRIL provides an environment for participants to engage and collaborate on the dynamic demands of financial regulation. This will allow them to explore, test and experiment with new technologies, build confidence in solutions and demonstrate their ability to meet regulatory standards worldwide.  

How does the award funding work? 

 To be eligible to receive the award funding the award money must be used to drive forward innovation in the UK with a focus on Scotland. Companies who do not meet these criteria can participate in the Innovation Call with potential benefits from engagement and exposure but will not be eligible for Grant funding.  

The award funding is provided through the University of Strathclyde.  

For the full guidance and eligibility criteria click here . 

Please contact FRIL@fintechscotland.com if you have any queries relating to this.  

Is there a registration fee or any cost associated with participating? 

No, there are no registration fees and no direct costs to participate. Travel to Glasgow will be required for events, travel costs will not be re-imbursed.  

Can I submit multiple entries or proposals?

If your company would like to respond to more than one innovation challenge you are welcome to submit individual application forms for each.  

How are winners selected? 

An assessment panel has been made up of industry representatives, fintech experts and academics. The panel will judge the information in the applications and the pitches based on assessment criteria and will make a collective decision.  

Will my intellectual property be protected during the innovation call? 

All IP will remain under your ownership. The call invites you to present your proposition to the judges in as much detail as you feel comfortable with.  

Can I seek external funding or investment for my idea during or after the challenge? 

FRIL has a requirement to ensure that any secondary funding remains compliant with the Minimal Financial Assistance (MFA) rules of the UK’s Subsidy Control Framework. MFA has a financial threshold so no recipient can receive more than £315,000 over a rolling 3 financial year period.  

If you have received more than £315,000 of public funding in the last 3 years you will not be eligible for funding.  

Please contact FRIL@fintechscotland.com if you have any queries relating to this.  

Will there be any opportunities for networking with industry experts or potential investors? 

Yes, FinTech Scotland and Super Tech has a broad partner network of academia, industry and investors. Opportunities could be as broad and as varied as pitching to the assessment panel made up of relevant industry experts, presenting at events and introductions to other relevant businesses ranging from SMEs and large enterprises.  

Can I participate in the challenge if I am not from Scotland or the West Midlands? 

There are two parts to answering this question.    

We would be delighted for ANY business to apply for this challenge. Any business that believes they can make a meaningful contribution to the challenge statements is welcome to participate in the programme.   

That said, one specific aim of the FRIL is to stimulate fintech and financial services activity in Scotland. As such it is a requirement that the additional grant funding is spent on activities that can indicate what benefits any proposal may be expected to produce for Scotland with a focus on Glasgow.  

Please outline in your submission how your application meets this requirement if you want to be considered for the potential £50k awards.   

At the time of writing, the ability to support firms making a similar contribution to the West Midlands is not confirmed and hence there are questions about this in the application form in the event that this can be offered during the programme.   

For more information on the eligibility requirements for the additional grant funding, please see here.   

Can I download the application form? 

Should you prefer to download the application form, please reach out through FRIL@fintechscotland.com

I have a question that is not included above, who should I contact? 

Please contact FRIL@fintechscotland.com. There are also two drop-in Q&A sessions for applicants to discuss and queries. Registrations for these can be found further up on this page.

Footnote

The UK Shared Prosperity Fund is a central pillar of the UK government’s Levelling Up agenda and provides £2.6 billion of funding for local investment by March 2025. The Fund aims to improve pride in place and increase life chances across the UK investing in communities and place, supporting local business, and people and skills. For more information visit https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/uk-shared-prosperity-fund-prospectus