The government are giving companies up to £35,000 grant funding with a minimum 10% contribution (£3,500) to work with a partner, such as Cranfield University, to evaluate an innovative business idea. This is with a view to stimulating the demand for further innovation, collaboration and accelerating delivery by partnering with a knowledge bases such as Cranfield University.

Additional details include:
• New Accelerated Knowledge Transfer Scheme is open on Monday 5th September, 2022
• Up to £3M is available for this initiative with subsequent rounds in October and November anticipated (dependent on funding being available from the overall budget)
• The Business Partner must employ a minimum of 4 Full Time Equivalents and must contribute an additional 10% (minimum) of the total project costs in cash (i.e. Where project costs are £38.5k, Cranfield would receive £35k grant funding and the company would provide £3.5k)
• Projects run between 2 – 4 months
• Business Partners include: UK registered businesses, charitable companies or charities. Public sector organisations are not eligible to apply
• The grant funds an Academic Supervisor (minimum of 0.25 days/week) and an Accelerated Knowledge Transfer Associate (1 Full Time Equivalent; this can be delivered by a maximum of 2 people)
• The Accelerated Knowledge Transfer Associate will be named in the application and able to start the project delivery upon receipt of the Grant Offer Letter
• The project must end by 31 March 2023 and be delivered and exploited from within the UK
• Applications must demonstrate:
• Accelerate access to academic expertise to evaluate or develop an innovative idea for the Business Partner
• Stimulate demand within the Business Partner to deliver further innovation(s) [e.g. more significant Business-Cranfield University collaboration such as a Knowledge Transfer Partnership] and accelerate delivery through partnering with Cranfield University

Contact Leoni Padilla, Knowledge Exchange Relationship Facilitator, to find out more about an Accelerated Knowledge Transfer Partnership with Cranfield: leoni.padilla@cranfield.ac.uk

Round 2 applications open on 26^th September and closes 21^st October 2022.

Full information can be found online.