Funding to accelerate your Knowledge Assets towards the market

Commercialising Knowledge Assets Fund

The Commercialising Knowledge Assets Fund (CKAF) provides financial grants to government research organisations to commercialise public sector Knowledge Assets. 

The CKAF supports an organisation to move viable public sector Knowledge Assets with identified potential markets towards commercialisation. It provides funding ranging from £50,000 to £250,000 per project.

Who can apply: 

Research Organisations which we define as: Public Sector Research Establishments (PSREs), UKRI wholly owned institutes and other public sector bodies (e.g. Arm’s Length Bodies) that undertake research as a primary function. The full list of eligible organisations can be found on our about us page.

How to apply

Innovate UK are the delivery partner for CKAF and are running the competition. Apply to CKAF via the Innovation Funding Service website.

Key dates

Organisation Funding Thresholds

At GOTT, we are committed to supporting a diverse and technology-agnostic mix of Knowledge Assets and organisations. To ensure that CKAF funding supports a range or organisations, we have introduced an annual funding distribution threshold of £800,000 per organisation. This threshold acts as a trigger point in our assessment process to help balance support across the ecosystem.

How it works:

• Annual basis: the threshold applies to the total funding allocated to an organisation within a single financial year (FY) e.g. the total of the Spring, Autumn and Winter calls (note it is not based on the timing of spend). It resets at the start of each FY and is not cumulative i.e. previous funding from CKAF and Knowledge Assets Grant Fund (KAGF) is not considered.
• Applications from organisations that have already received £800,000 or more in the current FY will still be considered and could be funded, but are ranked below applications that are deemed fundable from organisations that are below the threshold.

This policy reflects our ongoing commitment to equitable and strategic investment in the government’s Knowledge Asset ecosystem.

Briefing Webinar

You can access the recording of our briefing webinar and session slides for the Spring call.

For a full list of the projects CKAF has supported, read our CKAF archive page

Any questions about funding should be directed to grantfund.gott@dsit.gov.uk.

The Knowledge Assets Grant Fund is now closed

The Knowledge Assets Grant Fund, which ran between 2021-2024 has now closed. For a full list of the projects KAGF has supported, read our KAGF archive page.

UK Innovation and Science Seed Fund (UKI2S)

The UKI2S Fund is an early-stage investment fund with an appetite for with high-growth early-stage UK technology opportunities, setting groundbreaking technologies and ideas on a route to market. The Fund stands out in the investment world by targeting high-risk early-stage opportunities that typically fall outside the comfort zone of established venture capital investors. It is one of the largest pre-seed funds in the UK, with £110M under management. 

The UKI2S Fund is a venture capital limited partnership, with UK public sector bodies including UKRI, DSIT, UKAEA, MOD, UKHSA, APHA, UKSA, NPL and JHI as the Limited Partners. The fund is managed by Future Planet Capital (FPC). Future Planet Capital (Ventures) Limited is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. 

The fund manager works closely with GOTT to help develop spinout propositions with the aim of securing investment capital. If you have a spinout opportunity you’d like to discuss, please contact out team at enquiries.ttsp@dsit.gov.uk. 

To find out more visit UKI2S – Investing in innovations that transform our future