Research & Innovation Services

The fund welcomes projects of up to £10,000 but we request that applicants consider what they need to conduct eligible activities. The projects must be completed within 6 months of acceptance of the contract award letter.

This call is open to staff members at the University of Glasgow who have a project idea and meet the following entry-level criteria:  

1. Demonstrate interest and ambition to explore an innovation journey, and discover if there is market, commercial or industrial interest for a concept or technology.  
2. Require support to engage andvalidate market or customer interest and can undertake customer discovery activities by September 2026.  
3. There is potential for intellectual property protection (could be unpublished data/know-howor patent filing), and a discussion with the University Intellectual Property and Commercialisation Team has taken place (successful projects will be requested to engage with the IPC Team as part of project set up activities)  
4. The idea or project aligns with the following sectors: 

• Quantum
• Photonics
• Semiconductors
• Biomedical Engineering

Early career researchers and staff from the JWNC are encouraged to come forward for this call.    

Please note if you have applied for previous University of Glasgow innovation funding, you must demonstrate how your project is different from any previously funded projects and/or clearly demonstrate how the project has progressed since any previous funding has been received.  

This fund is open to all academic staff (including post-doctoral researchers and PhD students^[1]) and prospective University of Glasgow spin-outs. Please note, Honorary and Affiliate staff are not eligible for this funding opportunity. 

_{[1] Please see fund Guidance - In the case of PhD students, to be eligible for Fund monies, a Principal Investigator (UofG employee) Budget Holder must be identified for the Project; Foreground IP generated under this project will be wholly owned by the University. Where the applicant has at least partial ownership of background IP needed to exploit the foreground IP, this background IP must be assigned to the University as a precondition of receiving the funding.}

Pathway 1 funding supports market discovery activities. Eligible costs include:

• Attending relevant commercial conferences/trade shows
• Attending meetings with potential end-users/customers
• Travel costs
• Relevant subsistence costs
• Materials to support customer engagement activities
• Professional services costs e.g. consultancy, market reports etc
• Staff costs- support for a project team member to undertake work on the project where the team member is not a full-time member of staff.

Ineligible Costs

• R&D activities
• Shortfalls from research funded by other grants 
• PhD fees 
• Publisher costs associated with Open Access 
• Costs associated with academic conference attendance 
• Any other costs that do not relate tomarket discovery and customer validation.  

• The deadline for applications for all calls is12pm (noon) Wednesday 18^th March  
• Late applications will not be considered.Applicants are encouraged to submit an application as soon as it is ready, rather than wait for the deadline. 
• All applications must include a completedand signed Application Form and Staff Costing Spreadsheet, if relevant. 
• Application forms (inMicrosoft Word format) and Staff Costing Spreadsheets (in Excel format) must be submitted electronically to innovationandenterprise@gla.systa-s.com 

All applications will be checked for eligibility, and thereafter eligible applications will be assessed by a small expert panel comprising commercialisation and economic development expertise from the University of Glasgow and its partners.  The panel will assess and prioritise applications with respect to: 

• Overall alignment with the purpose of the fund 
• The stage ofconcept/protype development and intellectual property   
• The marketand impact opportunity

The project should have a duration of up to 6 months. All project budgets must be delivered in full by 6 months of the return of the signed contract award letter. 

• Award recipients willbe required to submit a short final report detailing project outcomes and feedback from discovery activities.  A reporting template will be sent out to successful applicants on confirmation of award funding. 
• Projects will be invited to meet with the CTICommittee, to talk through the project and next steps. The committee may recommend the applicant returns for further funding support or offers guidance on next steps.  

It is estimated that a 6-month project accessing JWNC equipment and staff costs will cost approximately £50k. Projects are requested to submit an application detailing total costs required to advance to a next meaningful commercial milestone. 

Applicants to Pathway 2 are encouraged to contact Kelvin Nanotechnology (KNT) prior to application for guidance on designing projects and/or commercial tests and costings. KNT enquiries can be sent to enquiries@KNTnano.com. All academic projects must complete the complimentary costing spreadsheet. All commercial entities must get in touch with KNT for commercial costing templates. 

This call is open to staff members at the University of Glasgow who have a project idea, that has received a level of market or customer validation, and a proposed projects meets the following essential criteria:  

 Demonstrate aclear ambition to pursue an entrepreneurial journey and commercialise an idea or product where there is potential to create a spin-out venture, or where there is potential for commercial license.  

1. Your project requires support to de-risk towards unlocking a commercial opportunity,funding or  This may include access to JWNC infrastructure and equipment to test or demonstrate to an industrial standard or requirement.  
2. Some evidence the solution meets an unmetneed or market gap (however early) and demonstrates potential for competitive advantage.  
3. Intellectual property protectionand/or guidance (could be unpublished data/know-how or patent filing) is in place with the University.  
4. Alignment withthe following sectors:

• Quantum
• Photonics
• Semiconductors
• Biomedical Engineering

Please note that projects that have match funding or the potential to receive funding or financial contribution towards the project is a desired criterion.  

If your project does not meet the minimum requirement of having evidence to support a market or customer interest, applicants may be guided to Pathway 1 to receive support for these activities.  

Please note if you have applied for previous University of Glasgow innovation funding, you must demonstrate how your project is different from any previously funded projects and/or clearly demonstrate how the project has progressed since any previous funding has been received.  

This fund is open to all academic staff (including post-doctoral researchers and PhD students [1]) and University of Glasgow spin-outs (both pre- and post-incorporation). 

Please note, Honorary and Affiliate staff are not eligible for this funding opportunity.  

_{^[1] Please see Fund Guidance - In the case of PhD students, to be eligible for Fund monies, a Principal Investigator (UofG employee) Budget Holder must be identified for the Project; Foreground IP generated under this project will be wholly owned by the University. Where the applicant has at least partial ownership of background IP needed to exploit the foreground IP, this background IP must be assigned to the University as a precondition of receiving the funding.}

Pathway 2 funding supports access to the JWNC to support prototype or component development and demonstration and associated staff time. Eligible costs include:

• Buy-out of staff time of existing staff to generate evidence and validate the scale of the market for the innovation proposed via research & development activities undertaken through the JWNC.
• Access to JWNC equipment and expertise to undertake activities such as Device Fabrication, Equipment Access, Metrology Access, Access to Consumables. Please refer to the Equipment Costs Tab in the Costing Template for more information on eligible equipment and services. For more information on the capabilities of the JWNC, please access the website via the following link - https://www.gla.systa-s.com/research/az/jwnc/.

Some examples of work packages can be found below:

• Customer / market / venture opportunity validation 
• Assessing competitive advantages and unique selling points 
• Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) credentials (i.e. measurable environmental / social impacts) - See definition here
• Develop prototype / preliminary testing 
• Intellectual property protection 
• Identifying an entrepreneurial lead 
• Business / financial plan; investor deck 

Please note all applicants must fill out the relevant Excel costing template (there are separate templates for academic and commercial projects, for commercial costing templates applicants must get in contact with KNT directly - enquiries@KNTnano.com) and submit together with the application form. 

Ineligible Costs

The Pathway 2 fund will not support the following costs for any applicant:  

• New staff appointments 
• Market discovery costs
• Shortfalls from research funded by other grants 
• PhD fees 
• Publisher costs associated with Open Access 
• Costs associated with academic conference attendance 
• Any other costs that do not relate to prototype orcomponent development and demonstration. 

• The deadline for applications for all calls is12pm, Wednesday 18^th March 2026. 
• Late applications will not be considered.
• All applications must include a completedand signed Application Form and Costing Template. 
• The Application Form and Costing Template can be downloadedhere and must be returned in Microsoft Excel format.  
• Application forms (inMicrosoft Word format) must be submitted electronically to innovationandenterprise@gla.systa-s.com 

All applications will be checked for eligibility, and thereafter eligible applications will be assessed by a small expert panel comprising commercialisation and economic development expertise from the University of Glasgow and its partners.  The panel will assess and prioritise applications with respect to: 

• Overall alignment with the purpose of the fund
• The stage ofconcept/protype development and intellectual property   
• Evidence of anyindustry endorsement for the project /  
• The marketand impact opportunity. 
• The potential for scalable spin out venture creation.

The project should have a duration of up to 6 months. All project budgets must be delivered in full within 6 months of acceptance of the award letter. 

• Award recipients willbe required to submit a short final report detailing project outcomes and feedback from discovery activities.  A reporting template will be sent out to successful applicants on confirmation of award funding. 
• Projects will be invited to meet with the CTICommittee, to talk through the project and next steps. The committee may recommend the applicant returns for further funding support or offers guidance on next steps.