Funding opportunity

Funding opportunity: University commercialisation ecosystems: invited full proposals

Apply for funding for universities to develop the emerging and maturing place-based commercialisation (which includes collaborative research and development (R&D) with business) ecosystems around them in England.

You must be an English higher education provider (HEP) and on the Office for Students (OfS) approved fee cap providers list.

Proposals must:

  • be collaborative and comprise a minimum of three English HEPs
  • include private commercial partners

An indicative £30 million is available. We anticipate individual projects will be awarded between £3 million to £5 million over three years.

We may consider higher awards by exception, of up to £10 million over five years.

This stage is invitation only for English HEPs who were successful at the expression of interest stage for either primary or primary and boost funding.

Who can apply

This stage is invitation only for English HEPs who were successful at the expression of interest stage for either primary or primary and boost funding.

If your proposal is looking to add additional partners to those named in the expression of interest, the following must be adhered to:

HEP partners must be located within a self-defined contiguous geography that can be evidenced. It must form the basis of the core of the university-centred commercialisation ecosystem, which is the focus of the bid.

The chosen geographic footprint should be evidenced as follows:

  • reflecting the locations of the major complementary assets to the ecosystem
  • how the locations come together in terms of civic and business or economic growth networks and shared purposes

Non-HEP partners based outside the geography are eligible to contribute to activity within the collaboration where their participation will directly benefit the ecosystem development.

In exceptional cases, a HEP partner with unique capabilities of key strategic importance to the key activities of the project outside the geography may be included. There should be strong evidence that its participation benefits the ecosystem development.

What we're looking for

Shortlisted HEPs should adhere to the information on this page, in addition to the original expression of interest guidance (see ‘Supporting documents’ in the ‘Additional info’ section).

The Connecting Capability Fund – Research England Development Fund (CCF-RED): developing ecosystems funding opportunity aims to:

  • support the strategic development of emerging and maturing place-based university-centred commercialisation ecosystems across England
  • develop HEP commercialisation best practice, focusing particularly on best practices collaboration between HEPs and with wider ecosystem partners

What to include in your full stage proposal

Your proposal should summarise:

  • the starting place: a description of your emerging or maturing ecosystem. In the expression of interest stage, proposals provided evidence to support either an emerging or maturing ecosystem. Research England will not expect the type of ecosystem to change at full stage proposals
  • the opportunity within your ecosystem, including any sector, technology or other focus, including evidence of private sector contribution and demand
  • the primary objectives you will set to address the opportunity
  • a description of the roles of HEP and private commercial partners in the collaboration and the engagement of local partners
  • a description of the activity that will be undertaken by HEP and all partners and the associated outcomes and expected commercial and economic impacts
  • evidence of alignment with relevant research, development and innovation and appropriate local priorities, targets and strategies
  • an insightful account of barriers and enablers to collaborative ecosystems in knowledge exchange and how you will address these
  • a description of the sustainability of the core collaboration and the collective ambition to develop it and the wider ecosystem further
  • a credible and detailed plan for ecosystem development
  • costed work packages, including contributions from delivery partners
  • detailed risk analysis and mitigation approaches
  • letters of support from partners and key ecosystem stakeholders. For example, private, HEP, local leadership partners, and strategic backing at the institution level (pro-vice chancellor or equivalent)
  • plans for sustainability and plausible ambition to grow or scale further
  • plans for evaluation and dissemination of the project for the benefit of the wider higher education sector
  • detailed equality, diversity and inclusion statement relevant to the aims and delivery of the project

Successful proposals will highlight the outputs, outcomes or impacts they aim to achieve throughout the duration of the project’s lifetime and beyond. We expect to see suggested outputs, outcomes and impacts within these three categories:

  • embedded changes in the HEPs: for example, an increase in entrepreneurial outputs from partner HEPs and increased volumes of collaborate R&D
  • embedded change in the performance of the universities or ecosystem: for example, increased in volumes of local R&D and investment into the area
  • cross cutting: for example, increased stickiness of university spin-outs

Key considerations for full stage proposals

Following the assessment of the expressions of interests proposals Research England has defined some key considerations for full stage proposals:

  • where the provision of training is an acceptable activity, it should not be a substantial proportion of the funding provided and must be tailored to the proposal’s activities
  • we do not expect to see Research England funds contributing towards business support, that is advice to businesses that is not linked with specifically university related expertise (staff or students)
  • sustainability, we expect to see consideration of how funded activity can continue and be built upon beyond the lifetime of the project without recourse to further Research England project funding
  • changes to funding requests from the expression of interest stage to the full bid stage must not exceed 5% or the maximum amount of funding allowed
  • new partners, where fit to funding opportunity and appropriate to the proposal’s aims and objectives, can be added at the full business stage
  • named partners at the expression of interest stage are expected to be on the full bid stage. If there is a change, we require an explanation as to why
  • full stage proposals must not deviate from the project described in the expression of interest stage. Where we understand activities may be added or amended, this should not remove from the core project described in the expression of interest stage

Funding available

Research England informed proposals which option to submit a full stage proposal for. If you are unclear, please email: redccf@re.ukri.org

Option one: primary funding

A total amount of funding between £3 million to £5 million over the course of up to three years.

Option two: primary funding and boost

A total of up to £10 million funding over a maximum of five years. This means up to £5 million additional funding over an extended project lifetime of up to an additional two years.

Primary funding should be written as if a standalone document even where boost funding is applicable. This is to allow (where applicable) for clarity of the project’s division between primary and boost funding and to ensure a decision can be made separately for both options.

Costs

You should understand your costs, including indirect costs, but we do not determine a costing format.

Your proposal is premised around risk-benefit sharing with an expectation that HEPs and other partners should contribute to costs appropriately to the benefits to them. The CCF-RED contribution should be reflective of the sector or wider benefits. Proposals can be for all forms of knowledge exchange expenditure, which for CCF-RED includes capital costs.

Proposals cannot include research (or core teaching) expenditures such as support of research posts. Undergraduate students or graduates may form a component to proposals but should be a minority of activity.

How to apply

This stage is invitation only for English HEPs who were successful at the expression of interest stage for either primary or primary and boost funding.

Submit your proposal using the full stage bid template (DOCX, 53KB).

The completed document should not exceed 15 pages. Make sure you complete all sections of the document. While each section heading must be retained, our explanatory text may be deleted so as not to impact on the overall length of the document. The panel will expect text to be easily readable. Do not use text size that is too small and use a reasonable line spacing.

Projects who have been informed by Research England to apply for boost funding must do so through the same full stage template. Primary and boost components will be assessed individually on their own merits. Grants of boost funding will be made by exception for proposals that make a very strong case for the ambition and impact of the intervention. When writing the proposal, ensure it is clear when an activity relates to primary or boost funding.

Research England reserve the right to make no boost grants if that strength of case is not made. In addition, if a proposal does not put forward a strong argument, Research England reserves the right to reduce the funding request or length of project proposed.

Deadline

You should submit your proposal via email to redccf@re.ukri.org by 1 November 2024, midday UK time.

How we will assess your application

Assessment process

We will assess proposals, including the advice of our Commercialisation Expert group (see background document for membership) and Research England Development Fund panel.

We will apply the full stage proposal assessment to all proposals and will recommend a shortlist to the Research England Executive Chair to proceed to full stage development. Proposals that are above £5 million will go through additional governance to the Research England Council.

Feedback

Once the assessment period has been completed, feedback will be provided to both successful and unsuccessful projects.

Assessment criteria

Building capabilities (local fit)

This includes:

  • current strengths and approaches
  • evidence of the opportunity related to needs and at appropriate scale and nature for the ecosystem
  • convincing evidence on emerging or maturing

Also, proposals should demonstrate that the activity develops and enhances the platform of enabling factors within the ecosystem with local partner commitment.

Collaboration

This includes:

  • ambition and appropriateness (to the activity) of HEPs and key private commercial partners, with clear articulation of roles and strength of partnership to be built on
  • potential for sustainability, including commitment to the ecosystem growth trajectory, after the project
  • evidence that the collaboration is well placed to deliver the activity for the ecosystem (and technology or sector of focus as appropriate) and will work well together
  • clear plans to disseminate findings and learning for benefits of the ecosystem and wider higher education sector system development

Delivering high performance (performance relevant to the state of development of the ecosystem and related to level of stretch (with higher for mature))

This includes:

  • evidence of consideration and learning from successful practice within the collaboration and elsewhere in developing approaches to deliver ecosystem development

Delivery and funding

This includes:

  • project costs and activities justified by need and evidence
  • providing value for money including: additionality and leverage or match, appropriate project team, risks considered and appropriately addressed

There is no specific match funding requirement. However, we expect to see clear evidence that partners are contributing in a measurable and meaningful way to the project.

Partner contributions (both cash and in-kind) demonstrate buy-in to the project and that partners see the value of the work in achieving mutual economic goals, and there is appropriate value for money including for public funds. Contributions need to be proportionate to benefits within legal and regulatory frameworks.

Contact details

Get help with developing your proposal

For help and advice on costings and writing your proposal please contact your research office in the first instance, allowing sufficient time for your organisation’s submission process.

Ask about this funding opportunity

Louise Wall and Chris Gibson

Email: redccf@re.ukri.org

We aim to respond within three working days.

Additional info

This funding opportunity is part of the Connecting Capability Fund – Research England Development Fund (CCF-RED) programme which sits within the RED Fund.

Find guidance on adherence to relevant RED processes and requirements (PDF, 169KB), specifically:

  • eligibility
  • success criteria
  • project monitoring
  • project reviews and evaluations
  • impact assessment
  • Freedom of Information Act 2000
  • subsidy controls

Supporting documents

Full stage bidding template (DOCX, 54KB)

Expression of interest guidance (PDF, 192KB)

RED documentation and guidance (PDF, 169KB)

Research England supporting paper (PDF, 136KB)

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