Research & Innovation Services

The fund welcomes projects from £25,000 to £50,000. 

This call is open to staff members1 at the University of Glasgow who have a project idea aligning with the eligible clusters, salary support in place until July 31 2027, and a proposed projects meeting one or more of the following entry-level criteria:  

1. Demonstrate a clear ambition to commercialise an idea or product offering/create spin-out venture, social enterprise or have licensing potential – 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 Potential for intellectual property protection (could be unpublished data/know-how or patent filing). 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 5 eligible University of Glasgow clusters: 

• Health & Life Sciences  
• Advanced Manufacturing & Digital-enabled Technologies (includes critical technologies)  
• Energy & Net Zero (includes engineering)  
• Creative Arts  
• Social Sciences & Social Innovation (includes professional services)   

[1] 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; and PhD students must assign any and all intellectual property rights arising from the Project to the University of Glasgow.  Further, should students’ fees or stipend be paid for by a third party, students may wish to obtain approval from that third party to participate. 

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) 

• The deadline for applications for all calls is 12:00 (noon) on 16 January 2026.   

• Late applications will not be considered.  

• All applications must include a completed and signed  ICDF Application Form 25-26. 

• If applicable, please fill out the  ICDF Costing Template to assist with costings for UofG staff buy-out/appointments and attach this to your application (returned in Microsoft Excel format). The application briefing document can be found here - ICDF - Applicant Briefing Document 25-26. 

• The application form (in Microsoft Word format) must be submitted electronically to innovationandenterprise@glasgow.ac.uk 

All applications will be checked for eligibility and eligible applications will be assessed by a small expert panel comprising commercialisation 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 prototype/ concept development and intellectual property status. 

• Evidence of any industry endorsement for the project/solution.  

• The market/impact opportunity. 

• The potential for scalable spin out venture or social enterprise creation or licensing opportunity.  

Projects duration can be from 3 – 6 months.  Projects can commence from 1 February 2026. All project budgets must be delivered in full by 31 July 2026. 

• Award recipients will be required to submit a short interims report detailing expenditure and outcomes by 31 March 2026. A final report will be required at the end of the project. Reporting templates will be sent out to successful applicants on confirmation of award funding.