The Smart Sustainable Plastic Packaging (SSPP) Challenge aims to establish the UK as a leading innovator in smart and sustainable plastic packaging for consumer products. Its goal is to deliver cleaner growth across the supply chain, with a dramatic reduction in plastic waste entering the environment by 2025.

Through this competition, IUK is investing in early-stage innovative projects which can deliver a more circular economy for plastic packaging in order to make good on the following SSPP Challenge objectives:
1. Unlock a significant overall increase in research and innovation (R&I) spend (government and industry).
2. Deliver R&I to support more sustainable plastic packaging in line with the UK Plastics Pact targets.

3. Increase UK plastic packaging supply chain collaboration.

IUK has allocated up to £1 million to fund innovation projects in this competition. A project’s total eligible costs must be between £30,000 and £100,000.

Projects can be either feasibility studies or industrial research. Proposals must focus on plastic packaging as the primary application but also include one or more of the following four innovation themes: Materials; Design; Technology or process; Business model or behaviour change.

Registered UK businesses, of any size, can lead a project or work alone. To collaborate with the lead organisation, applicants must be a UK registered business, academic institution, charity, public sector organisation or research and technology organisation (RTO). All projects must be carried out in the UK.

Applications are invited from 13 January 2020 until midday on 1 April 2020.