Applying for grant funding can facilitate collaborations with unique industry, research and academic partners to help deliver world-leading innovation projects. These collaborations open up access to new technologies, techniques and expertise – further enhancing outcomes for your business.
With the growing complexity of problems needing solutions, universities can provide a new or different perspective to your product, process or solution and potentially offer more time to consider the problem and published literature.
Not only can academics provide you with their expertise, but they can also offer the use of facilities that could transform your innovation into an industry-leading technology. Without their partnership, this opportunity may have otherwise been closed.
Partnering with universities can also provide a potential avenue for recruitment. Postgraduates could be involved in your project as research volunteers but could evolve into part of the team if you see fit. Recruitment is a costly and timely process so having the option to employ someone who already has some knowledge of what you are trying to achieve could be an added bonus of working with an academic partner.
1. Collaborative research- lowering costs and reducing overheads. However, you need the right to publish. Data and research generate profit for universities, so anything produced in this collaboration will be co-owned, meaning a contract would need to be drawn up between the company and the university.
2. Consultancy- the university can advise and offer guidance on the project, but the company owns all IP and results and does not need the right to publish. One thing to keep in mind is major deliverables in peak times of the academic year when lecturers will be dedicated to their teaching responsibilities and will not have the time or resources to focus on the project.
3. Sub-contractor- universities involved with your project will not be classed as a partner and delivering results can cause implications on the % cap.
Academic partners have a lot to offer and can help to strengthen and create a robust argument for your application, but effective project management is crucial in this collaboration.
There are many different factors that will improve your chance of grant funding success, utilising the experience and knowledge of a grant writing professional can help to make this process as smooth as possible.
If you have an ambitious project or innovation, why not contact us? A brief chat with one of our grant writing experts will help you determine whether grant funding could get your project off the ground.
