Research & Innovation Services

We are hosting two information sessions where you can ask any questions about the fund and your application.

Please also find the presentation slides from the sessions below for reference:

ICDF Information Session 2026-27

Up to £30,000 of funding is available per project.

This call is open to staff members or PhD researchers at the University of Glasgow and Glasgow Caledonian University who have salary support in place until 31^st July 2027, and a proposed project idea that demonstrates:

1. A clear ambition to commercialise an idea or product offering/create spin-out venture – with a potential pathway to realise this
2. A customer led focus
3. Some evidence the solution meets an unmet need or market gap (however early) potential for competitive advantage
4. Potential for intellectual property protection (could be unpublished data/know-how or patent filing)
5. Alignment with one of the 8 Industrial Strategy Sectors (IS8):

• Advanced Manufacturing
• Clean Energy Industries
• Creative Industries
• Defence
• Digital & Technologies
• Financial Services
• Life Sciences
• Professional and Business Services

Or alignment with one of the 5 eligible University of Glasgow clusters: 

• Health & Life Sciences
• Critical Tech (e.g. quantum, semiconductor, photonics and wider digital enabling)
• Energy & Net Zero (includes engineering)
• Creative Arts
• Social Sciences & Social Innovation (includes professional services)

The project delivery period should be between 3 months and a maximum of 6 months, and all projects must complete spend of budgets and activity by Monday July 5th, 2027. We will not be able to extend projects beyond this date and any expenditure incurred after that date will not be eligible for reimbursement.

Every funded project is expected to deliver, by its end date:

• An evidenced decision - proceed, pivot or stop, with the evidence that drove it.
• Direct market contact - documented engagement with prospective customers, users, industry partners or investors. Numbers and names.
• A defined IP position - invention disclosure lodged where relevant, freedom-to-operate scoped, and a decision made on protection.
• A named next step - the specific programme, partner, investor or licensing route you are looking to take after the fund end date.

Examples of eligible work packages include:  

• Wide ranging support e. g. market identification and validation studies/ customer discovery exercises; prototype design; data collation; platform design; diagnostics; IP development; proof of concept; regulatory/compliance preparation; etc.  

• Developing a regulatory plan to take an innovation forward.  

• Buy-out of staff time to generate evidence and validate the scale of the market for the innovation proposed via engagements with developers, investors, corporates, and other stakeholders. (This could include engaging a product designer via sub-contract to input to creating visuals/narratives to pitch innovations). 

Note: Up to six months of salary costs for new temporary staff at University of Glasgow (direct appointments only) are eligible for inclusion, where it can be demonstrated that appropriate staff can be recruited in the timescale and/or that contractual arrangements for current staff on temporary contracts can be reasonably altered.  

The fund will not support the following costs:  

• Shortfalls from research funded by other grants 
• PhD fees 
• Publisher costs associated with Open Access  
• Costs associated with academic conference attendance 
• For internal staffing costs: estates and indirect costs are not included (as per costing template) 

• Project should be immediately understandable
• Explain your product or service clearly and how it fixes the problem
• Make the commercial opportunity clear
• Be specific about what the funding will achieve
• Clearly identify the customer or end user
• Use evidence to support claims about demand, market need and potential

Completed applications must be submitted by 2nd November 2026 at 12 noon, as follows:

University of Glasgow applicants

Application forms (in Microsoft Word format), and if applicable Costing Template for University of Glasgow staff costings (in Microsoft Excel format) as well as relevant quotes must be submitted electronically to innovationandenterprise@glasgow.ac.uk.

Glasgow Caledonian University applicants

Application forms (in Microsoft Word format), Costing Documentation and Risk Register, as well as relevant quotes must be submitted electronically to InnovationExchange@gcu.ac.uk.

All applications will be checked for eligibility, and thereafter eligible applications will be assessed by a small expert panel comprising of members with 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 ICDF
• The stage of concept/prototype development
• Intellectual property status
• Evidence of any industry endorsement for the project / solution
• The market and impact opportunity
• The potential for scalable spin out venture / social enterprise creation / licensing opportunity

• Successful applicants will be invited to a 1-2-1 update meeting at the midway point of project delivery phase.
• Award recipients will be required to submit a succinct report detailing expenditure and project outcomes by July 30, 2027.
• We may get in touch with you once a year to hear how your project is progressing, the impact the funding has had and any key developments that are relevant to share.