Commercialising Knowledge Assets Fund (CKAF) Winter

Key facts

About this grant

Summary from the official listing on Find a Grant (GOV.UK):

The Commercialising Knowledge Assets Fund (CKAF) is run by the Government Office for Technology Transfer (GOTT) and funded by the Department for Business Innovation, Science and Trade (BIST), formally the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (fDSIT). Innovate UK is administering this competition on behalf of GOTT, which will provide funding ranging from £50,000 to £250,000 per project.

The aim of this competition is to support organisations to move viable public sector Knowledge Assets with identified potential markets towards commercialisation.

A Knowledge Asset is an intangible asset that your organisation holds. Examples of Knowledge Assets include know how, expertise, intellectual property, rights for designs, research and development outputs, source code and creative outputs.

In applying to this competition, you are entering into a competitive process. This competition has a funding limit, so we may not be able to fund all the proposed projects. It may be the case that your project scores highly, but we are still unable to fund it.

We consider a range of factors when determining whether to provide funding to applicants. This includes an assessment of prior conduct, such as any outstanding payments owed to Innovate UK or UKRI. Such factors may influence the funding decision, potentially resulting in a refusal of funding or an award subject to additional scrutiny.

We also reserve the right to adjust funding allocations for any of our competitions. This may be in response to changes in policy, portfolio funding considerations or broader government funding decisions.

This competition closes at 11am UK time on the deadline stated in this Innovate UK competition brief. We cannot guarantee other government or third party sites will always show the correct competition information.

Funding type

Grant

Project size

Your project’s total eligible grant funding request must be between £50,000 and £250,000.

Accessibility and Inclusion

We welcome and encourage applications from people of all backgrounds and are committed to making our application process accessible to everyone. This includes making reasonable adjustments for people who have a disability or a long-term condition and face barriers applying to us.

You can contact us at any time to ask for guidance.

We recommend you contact us at least 15 working days before this competition’s closing date to allow us to put the most suitable support in place. The support we can provide may be limited if you contact us close to the competition deadline.

You can contact Innovate UK by email or call 0300 321 4357. Our phone lines are open from 9am to 12pm and 2pm to 5pm UK time, Monday to Friday (excluding bank holidays).

Eligibility

This award has been designed to be provided on a no subsidy basis, as defined in the Subsidy Control Act 2022.

This means to be eligible, the award will not give an economic advantage to one or more organisations, and you must not be acting economically as an organisation within the meaning of the act.

In limited circumstances, EU State aid rules may apply under the Windsor Framework and a ‘No Aid’ award may be given in accordance with the R&D&I Framework.

Your project

Your project must:

• have a total grant funding request between £50,000 and £250,000
• last for either 6, 12, or 18 months
• be based on a pre-existing identified Knowledge Asset (KA); Question 10
• describe a plausible potential commercial market for the KA; Question 11
• have ownership of the KA; Question 12, this is for the eligible organisation applying for CKAF
• carry out its project work in the UK
• intend to exploit the results from or in the UK
• start between 1 March 2027 and 1 April 2027
• end by 30 September 2027 (6 month project), 31 March 2028 (12 month project) or 30 September 2028 (18 month project)

You must adhere to the spending profiles:

• 6 month projects must spend 100% of the funding by 30 September 2027
• 12 month projects must spend 100% of the funding by 31 March 2028
• 18 month projects must spend at least 65% of the funding by 31 March 2028, and the remaining amount (up to 35%) of the funding by 30 September 2028

You must not start your project until GOTT is in receipt of your signed Grant Offer Letter.

You must only include eligible project costs in your application. See our overview of eligible project costs.

Lead organisation

To lead a project across several organisations or just your own, your organisation must:

• be a Public Sector Research Establishment (PRSE), UKRI wholly owned institute or other public sector bodies that meet GOTT standard eligibility criteria, for example, arms length bodies (ALBs) that undertake research as a primary function
• be able to submit a signed letter of support from your organisation at a senior level demonstrating the appropriate level of support; Question 13
• have ownership of the identified KA and the rights to use and commercially exploit intellectual property that might be generated during the project; Complex ownership and evidence of initial IP checks must be explained as part of your application

A full list of eligible organisations can be found on GOTT’s about us page.

You must not act in any way to gain selective com

Details are copied from the official source and can change. Check the official listing before you apply. Grant Writing Company is not affiliated with this funder.