Funding Opportunities for Industry
A selection of funding opportunities for people working in industry
For further information, please follow the links to the external funding opportunity webpages.
Call status: Open
Application deadline: 31 August 2020
The Medical Research Council (MRC), Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) and Versus Arthritis are pleased to announce a £14m call for large and ambitious multidisciplinary consortia. This will build the foundation of a national-scale programme supporting discovery and translational science that will bring together leadership, tools and resources to help unravel the complexity of pain, driving new treatment development. This investment is part of a major new £24m initiative to establish an Advanced Pain Discovery Platform (APDP) that is jointly supported by the UKRI Strategic Priorities Fund and Versus Arthritis and will lead to step changes in the understanding and treatment of chronic pain across a wide range of conditions.
Transformative Research Technologies for the Detection and Diagnosis of Plant and Animal Diseases
Call status: Open
Application deadline: 08 October 2020
Novel technologies continue to revolutionise life sciences research. The 2020 TRDF call aims to pump prime the next generation of cutting-edge enabling research technologies with the potential for transformative impact in biosciences research. It will support applications for early stage technology development and research into the development of novel techniques and technologies that have the potential to enable transformative step changes in research capability.
The 2020 TRDF call has a strategic highlight on transformative research technologies for the detection and diagnosis of plant and animal diseases, and in particular infectious agents with zoonotic potential. It is expected that these technologies will lead to a step change in the ability of researchers to investigate UK plant and animal health problems caused by endemic or emerging pathogens or pests. Applications not related to the detection and diagnosis of plant and animal diseases will be considered out of the scope of the 2020 TRDF call.
The call has an indicative total budget of up to £2.75 million, subject to the quality of the applications received. The budget includes significant co-funding from UKRI-EPSRC. Applications must be between 6 and 18 months duration and are not expected to exceed £150K (£187K 100% FEC).
BBSRC Professional Internships for PhD Students
Call status: Open
Application deadline: apply at any time
A key component of our Doctoral Training Partnership programme (DTP) is the Professional Internship for PhD Students (PIPS) - a 3-month integrated placement to provide BBSRC-funded DTP PhD students the opportunity to carry out a work placement unrelated to their doctoral research during their PhD. Such experience is important both to help early career researchers understand the context of their research and to expose them to the range of opportunities in which they can apply their PhD skills and training after they graduate.
BBSRC Knowledge Transfer Partnerships
Call status: Open
Application deadline: apply at any time
Knowledge Transfer Partnerships (KTPs) accelerate business innovation by supporting knowledge exchange with academic institutions. KTP operates through an open call which includes the entirety of BBSRC's remit. As part of a UK-wide programme, these partnerships serve as a mechanism to transfer knowledge and to develop graduate and postgraduate personnel for industrial careers.
BBSRC seeks to promote KTP in industrial sectors that are able to benefit from the UK's excellent bioscience research base and encourages the appointment of KTP Associates at post-doctoral level.
Call status: Open
Application deadline: apply at any time
The Rainbow Seed Fund is an evergreen venture capital fund for some of the leading UK publicly funded research organisations. It is independently managed by Midven and provides capital to commercialise the partners’ research.
The partners employ over 3,000 scientists, in fields including: bioscience (non-medical), Medical (non-bioscience), electronics/ telecoms/ IT hardware, informatics and software, engineering/ physics, chemistry, materials and environment.
The annual research budget is in excess of £1bn with over 25 research institutes across the country, in addition to links with the European centres of CERN and ESA. The Fund makes individual investments of between £10,000 and £500,000 and helps to leverage additional human and financial capital over the lifetime of our investment.
Call status: Open
Follow-on Funding is intended to provide financial support at the very early or pre-seed stage of turning research outputs into a commercial proposition.
Follow-On Funding will support a range of relevant activities to enable the development and examination of a concept to establish its commercial feasibility and scientific and technical merit.
Call status: Open
Application deadline: apply at any time
You can apply for funding to test the feasibility of your idea, research and develop it and demonstrate it in a prototype. Innovate UK funding competitions cover the following industry sectors:emerging and enabling technologies; infrastructure systems; health and life sciences; manufacturing and materials. There is also an open programme that is not sector based.
Innovate UK Small Business Research Initiative (SBRI)
Call status: Open
Application deadline: apply at any time
The Small Business Research Initiative (SBRI) is a well established process to connect public sector challenges with innovative ideas from industry, supporting companies to generate economic growth and enabling improvement in achieving government objectives.
SBRI provides innovative solutions to challenges faced by the public sector, leading to better public services and improved efficiency and effectiveness. It generates new business opportunities for companies, provides small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) a route to market for their ideas and bridges the seed funding gap experienced by many early stage companies. It supports economic growth and enables the development of innovative products and services through the public procurement of research and development.
Wellcome Trust Funding Schemes
Call status: Open
Application deadline: apply at any time
A large number of science funding schemes, including schemes for collaboration with social sciences, humanities and arts are available from the Wellcome Trust.
Call status: Open
Application deadline: apply at any time
The Development Bank of Wales helps businesses get the capital they need to start up, strengthen and grow. There’s funding available for businesses at every growth stage. If you’re eligible and ready for investment, you have lots of options. Finance ranges from £1,000 up to £5 million with both loans and equity available. And you can repay the money over periods of up to 10 years, giving you the time and space you need to reach your potential.