I have been working in the UK as a skilled for more than 2 years now. Out of which I worked on leading a project A that was funded by Innovate UK, worked for company B with a salary more than average in the UK. Started my own climate tech venture as the CTO and got into a venture builder program (VB) that is one of the recognized one by Tech Nation. Here is my application summary:
RL1: A serial entrepreneur from US with almost 20 years of startup experience
RL2: A known climate tech entrepreneur in the UK, one of the advisers and judge of Tech Nation Net Zero initiative
RL3: A superviser of my project A, a Professor of Cyber Security, author of the grant application to Innovate UK
Mandatory Criteria
E1: Letter from VB detailing how competitive the selection was, what I did in my venture + High Salary from company B (proof of increment)
E2: Document detailing the startup and its traction (Trello Board, System Design, Pitch Deck)
E 3: Hackathon win + Certificate of Talk in conference as a keynote speaker + Conference Publication + Newsletter publication
E 4: One letter from managing director explaining my contribution to end-to-end delivery of first food packaging system (Project A) and its impact on company
Optional 1:
Evidence 1: Innovate UK grant letter with project number (Project A) + HR head letter to show that I am working on the project numbered in grant + project milestone breakdown I made
Evidence 2: Innovate UK grant application feedback score for innovation with project number + A support letter from Innovate UK person who gave that feedback +Trello board, Design pics, code snippet, dashboard images, published papers
Evidence 3: Offer letter of being a CTO of climate tech startup + Pitch deck + System design + Investment proof + 3 year financial projections + LOIs + MS Planner board screenshot
Optional 4
E1: One document mentioning the topics of my research papers and the fact that they were not part of my MSc or BSc thesis. For one publication work, I can add citations (but work was published in 2017) I can add citations Published Papers (at-least 2) + Tutorial (Detailed talk) in a research conference where I was invited
E2: One document Academic excellence (Distinction in MSc, First class honours in BSc, Awards pictures)
E4: Letters from research expert showing my academic excellence and working beyond studies with my potential of research
I have answered different questions relating to your application. You keep repeating questions and expecting a different answer. How does all your evidence in optional criteria 1 prove innovation? Maybe you should consider showing impact not innovation. Go to the tech nation guide and note the difference between showing proof for innovation and impact.
Why are you merging Hackathon certificate and talk in conference?
Overall, given the recent competitiveness of the global talent application and based on the rejection feedback shared here, I don’t think your evidence are strong enough for talent. Your evidence are mostly centred around the Centre programme you got into. By the way, how long a go did you get into this programme?, Also note that tech nation now require that your recommenders/ referees must know you for up to 12 months.
I have also responded to some of the questions and pieces of evidence you have shared on this forum over time.
OC1: The fact that it is Innovate UK project does not prove innovation except you have sufficient evidence to show it. You can check my response to the question on what could be used as innovation evidence here:
@Francisca_Chiedu I don’t like this tone of yours, to be honest. Yes, I should avoid tagging you personally but that does not mean to answer this way. I think the purpose of the platform is to ask as many times as you want and improve further. Still, I appreciate your efforts and input for the applicant community overall.
@May Thank you for the feedback. As you suggested in your answer, I do have a letter from my employer mentioning the innovation but I was hoping to use that for MC but will add that to OC1 as well. Even though the project has helped the company to get new customer base, but the reason I was avoiding to go for OC3 rather than OC1 is that I do not have a documental/dashboard proof of that increase in number of customers.
You have chosen to add a tone to my response. I am not stopping you from answering questions. I am just pointing out that you have asked same questions. It appears you have made up your mind what response you want to get.