We follow full economic costing (FEC) principles. This means that we’ll usually fund 80% of the full economic cost of your project.
If you are an academic partner you must use the Transparent Approach to Costing (TRAC) method to calculate the FEC of your project.
Eligible organisations
Organisations that are eligible to be considered as academic institutions may include:
- universities and similar higher education institution (HEI) organisations
government research establishments - not-for-profit research and technology organisations (RTOs)
Eligible costs
Project costs for academic partners are calculated on the basis of full economic costs (FECs), as defined by the research councils.
If your project is successful, Innovate UK will fund an academic partner at 80% of FEC. The remaining 20% is not counted as part of your contribution to your project and must not be included in the total project costs.
Please note that the costs of PhD students are not eligible for inclusion in research organisation project costs. This is in line with UKRI guidelines.
For descriptions of eligible costs see Costs eligible for UKRI funding.
Innovate UK and open access
Innovate UK supports the principle of open access for a project which has specifically identified a requirement to publish outcomes as a route to dissemination. This requirement should be included within a project’s collaboration agreement. It should also follow the guidelines contained in the UKRI policy on open access.
Additional costs for publication charges will not be considered.
Last updated: 13 May 2026