Pre-Announcement: Proof of Concept
About the Funding Opportunity
Apply for proof of concept to support the commercialisation of research to enable spinouts or social ventures, licencing or other commercialisation pathways.
Applications from any disciplines are welcomed. No pre-existing UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) funding is required. The programme will not support discovery-driven research. You must be based at a UK research organisation.
The full economic cost (FEC) can be up to £250,000 for 12 months duration with a minimum of £100,000 for 6 months. UKRI will fund 80% FEC.
The intention to submit is a mandatory step and the deadline is 3 March 2025 at 4:00pm (UK time).
This is a pre-announcement, and the information may change. The full funding opportunity will open on 12 March 2025. More information will be available on this page by then.
What UKRI is Looking For
Aim
The UKRI Proof of Concept funding opportunity aims to support and accelerate the development of new or improved technologies, products, processes, and services arising from research activities at eligible UK research organisations, for example, universities, research institutes, facilities and centres.
Scope
The UKRI Proof of Concept funding opportunity supports early-to-mid stage commercialisation activities that validate the development of concepts that arose from research. This is to support and enable the commercial application of existing research along varied commercialisation pathways such as licensing or company creation (spinouts or social ventures) or any other commercialisation routes.
Applications are welcomed from across all research disciplines and research councils’ remit (AHRC, BBSRC, EPSRC, ESRC, MRC, NERC and STFC) including cross and multi-disciplinary approaches.
We will support projects that are not eligible for funding applications via existing UKRI funding opportunities or those projects that have been funded by other mechanisms and that now require further de-risking at a larger scale.
If your project is eligible and in scope for live or upcoming UKRI council specific translation, knowledge exchange or commercialisation support via a specific council funding opportunity, you should apply via that council.
This UKRI funding opportunity aims to de-risk the commercialisation of research. This will allow research organisations and their partners to deliver better commercialisation outcomes via the establishment of successful university spinouts or social ventures, as well as developing applicable solutions through other commercialisation routes to deliver societal and economic impacts and benefits from research.
The intended outputs of funded projects should include the development of an appropriate commercialisation proposition and strategy. This might include increasing readiness towards an investable or licensable proposition (or any other applicable commercialisation routes, for example social ventures) after completion of the proof-of-concept project.
Successful applicants and their institutions will need to demonstrate commitment to the adoption of best practices in research commercialisation (including, for example, TenU USIT guides).
For more information on the background of this funding opportunity, go to the ‘Additional information’ section.
Duration
The duration of this award is a minimum of 6 months and a maximum of 12 months from project start date.
Projects must start by 1 September 2025.
Funding available
The FEC of your project can be up to £250,000 with a minimal amount of £100,000.
UKRI will fund 80% of the FEC.
UKRI aims to fund a range of applications across both the cost and duration permitted.
Resources to access specialised expertise pertinent to your specific commercialisation journey such as further intellectual property strategy development, legal requirement, expert business advice and investor input, user-centric design, regulatory requirements or standards are an eligible cost but will be assessed as part of the resource justifications in your application.
Collaborations between research organisations across the R&D system and notably access to specialised facilities or infrastructures required to further the development of research toward its commercialisation goals are welcomed including with those facilities supported by UKRI (catapults, research institutes, campuses and clusters, facilities and centres) but not exclusively.