The ICUK Collaboration Fund
The ICUK Collaboration Development Fund is a £3 million fund designed to support staff exchange, feasibility studies, proof of concept and joint commercial research and development projects. Through this dedicated fund, ICUK has become a champion of progressing research from universities to markets in both countries. There has been a total of £2.79m awarded to projects to-date, including 39 partnership grants and 33 proof-of-concept projects. These projects could potentially lead to a commercialisation outcome: either technology licensing or spin-out creation; industrial collaboration or some other form of development partnership.
The funding rounds have now closed and the funds are now fully allocated. However you can read about the funding process below:
Proof of Concept:
The purpose of the ICUK Proof-of-concept fund is to support technologies or business ideas from the research community to be further developed to the stage that a commercial company or a private investor will become engaged in the commercialisation of a new product or service. It effectively reduces the risks involved in early-stage technology development. Examples of the use of Proof-of-Concept (PoC) Funding include:
Developing and evaluating commercial prototypes
Comparison with competitive products or services
Strengthening Intellectual Property Rights
Conducting market research on customer preferences
Incorporating external skills such as market researchers and design engineers
Partnership Grant:
The purpose of the Partnership Grant is to support the UK and Chinese Higher Education Institutes in initiating research and development collaboration and facilitating joint innovation and knowledge transfer. Funding will be provided to those projects which are judged by the ICUK executive team as most likely to lead further knowledge transfer collaboration between the two countries.
Each collaboration project can apply Partnership Grant up to £15,000. The funding can be used to carry out feasibility study on partnership and market, staff exchange in fostering collaboration, as well as hosting events for knowledge exchange in specific technology areas. Positive outcomes of a project awarded Partnership Grant may also lead to subsequent application for the ICUK Proof-of-Concept Fund.
