Connecting Capability Fund

Connecting Capability Fund (CCF) The Connecting Capability Fund (CCF) complements Higher Education Innovation Fund (HEIF) by supporting HEP collaboration in commercialisation through competitive projects and formula funds. Aim The CCF aims to share good practice and capacity internally across the higher education sector, forge external technological, industrial and regional partnerships, and deliver the Government's Industrial Strategy priorities. Current CCF funded projects There are currently 18 projects funded by the CCF. Overall these projects involve 60 HEPs collaborating with each other and more than 128 individual businesses and investors, as well as wider business investor networks. More than 13 different local enterprise partnerships will benefit. Additional investment The projects are attracting over £375 million of additional investment from universities, business investors and other partners. With six Catapults (the Catapult centres are a network of world-leading centres designed to transform the UK’s capability for innovation in specific areas and help drive future economic growth) and other UKRI councils involved, the projects also build on partnership working across many of the organisations that make up UKRI. Interim Programme Evaluation In Summer 2019 consultants IP Pragmatics were commissioned to carry out an interim review of the CCF programme. The review aimed to provide evidence about the potential impact of the programme (recognising it is too early to get individual project results) to inform decisions about future need and improvements in delivery should the programme be continued. The evaluation report can be viewed here. Director of Knowledge Exchange Alice Frost discusses the findings of the review in a blog here. Connecting Capability Fund FAQs Will there be a second round of funding for the Connecting Capability Fund? There are no plans at present for a future round of funding. Which projects currently receive CCF funding? Lead institution Partner institutions Project name Amount of funding University of Bath University of Bristol; University of Exeter; University of Southampton; University of Surrey SETsquared scale-up programme £5,000,000 University of Birmingham Aston University, Cranfield University, Keele University, University of Leicester, Loughborough University, University of Nottingham and University of Warwick Midlands Innovation Commercialisation of Research Accelerator (MICRA) £4,990,000 University of Brighton University of Portsmouth; Liverpool John Moores University Clean Growth UK £3,500,000 University of Cambridge University of East Anglia; University of Hertfordshire; University of Lincoln; University of Reading The Ceres Agritech Knowledge Exchange Partnership £4,781,000 De Montfort University Brunel University London; Nottingham Trent University Impacting Business by Design £4,648,000 Durham University Newcastle University, Northumbria University, University of Sunderland The Northern Accelerator – Integrating Capabilities in the North East £4,933,767 University of Essex University of East Anglia; University of Kent Eastern ARC 'Enabling Innovation: Research to Application' (EIRA) £4,696,000 Imperial College London Buckinghamshire New University; Institute of Cancer Research; Queen Mary University of London; Royal College of Art; Royal College of Music; Royal Veterinary College MedTech SuperConnector £4,947,000 King’s College London University College London; Imperial College London London Advanced Therapies £4,922,055 University of Leeds University of Bradford; Leeds Beckett University; Sheffield Hallam University; University of Huddersfield; University of York Grow Med-Tech: Collaborating for a Competitive Future £4,995,000 University of Leicester Open University; University of Surrey; University of Edinburgh; University of Southampton SPRINT (Space Research & Innovation Network for Technology) £4,796,000 London School of Economics and Political Science University of Manchester; University of Sussex ASPECT (A Social sciences Platform for Entrepreneurship, Commercialisation and Transformation) £5,000,000 University of Manchester University of Leeds; University of Sheffield Transforming UK IP Commercialisation Through Collaboration in The North of England: The Northern Triangle Initiative – NTI £5,000,000 University of Oxford University of Birmingham; University of Dundee UK SPINE KE: free flow of knowledge to accelerate innovations in ageing £4,820,000 Royal Veterinary College London School of Economics and Political Science, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, School of Oriental and African Studies University of London. The Bloomsbury SET: Connecting Capability to Combat the Threat from Infectious Disease and Antimicrobial Resistance £4,960,000 University of Sheffield Universities of Oxford and Cambridge and Newcastle University Promoting the Internet of Things via Collaborations between HEIs & Industry (Pitch-In) £4,917,863 University of the West of England Bath Spa University; Falmouth University; University of Plymouth South West Creative Technology Network £4,585,416 University of York University of Hull; Teesside University THYME Project (Teesside, Hull and York - Mobilising Bioeconomy Knowledge Exchange) £5,000,000 What's the background to the Connecting Capability Fund? In its 2016 Autumn Statement, the Government allocated additional funding for science and research of £100 million over 2017-18 to 2020-21 to incentivise universities to collaborate in commercialisation. This funding was allocated to complement and build on established HEIF mechanisms. £15 million of the CCF was allocated by formula in 2017-18, through a 10 per cent addition to main HEIF institutional allocations. The CCF funding for 2018-19 to 2020-21 has been allocated through competitive project funding, with supported projects beginning from April 2018. Case study The Northern Accelerator - Integrating Capabilities in the North East Lead higher education institution (HEI): Durham University Higher education (HE) partners: Newcastle University, Northumbria University, University of Sunderland In a local innovation ecosystem which has yet to reach its potential and has a high dependence on HEP research, the four North East Universities aim to deliver a step change in commercialising research to deliver economic impact in support of the North East priority technology/industrial sectors. The Northern Accelerator will enhance the network of entrepreneurs embedded in early stage spin-out formation, enhance academic commercialisation aspirations through an ideas impact hub, deliver proof of concept support and establish a seed capital investment fund. This integrated approach aims to provide the commercial pipeline to feed into, and de-risk, the establishment of a legacy NE Universities Investment Fund. Visit the project website. Read about the MedTech SuperConnector.