Our Spin-Out support programme offers up to £20,000 towards HEI costs for spin-out projects focusing on innovative applications of biotechnology and addressing a real market need or commercial opportunity.

Spin-Out Support Programme

The Industrial Biotechnology Innovation Centre (IBioIC) invites applications for proof-of-concept projects from researchers with an ambition to spin-out a company within 1-2 years of the project ending.

Spin-out projects should focus on innovative applications of biotechnology and address a real market need or commercial opportunity. The projects must be led by at least one of Scotland’s talented Higher Education Institutes (HEI). Applicants can be at any career stage, but successful projects must demonstrate a route to company creation, follow on funding and/or commercial application.

Spin-out project funding criteria

Spin-out projects are expected to be short term (<1 year) with a plan to spin-out within 12 months of project completion.
Applications will be assessed by IBioIC Scientific and Commercial advisors according to defined criteria.
The project must have the potential to lead to larger scale funding from, for example, Scottish Enterprise High Growth Spin-out Support, Innovate UK, RSE Enterprise Fellowship and/or private investment.
The award from IBioIC must not exceed 33% of the total project cost with other funding covering the remainder.
The project must demonstrate a clear market need / commercial opportunity through the innovative use or application of biotechnology.
The project must include at least one of IBioIC’s HEI Partners.
The project must demonstrate an economic, societal and/or reputational benefit to Scotland.

To date, the IBioIC Industry led funding programme has supported >90 collaborative research projects with a total project value of over £12 million and an application success rate close to 50%.

This call invites applications from academic researchers addressing challenges that could be addressed with a biotechnology solution with the near-term ambition of forming a spin-out or start-up company.

How to enter:

Complete an Expression of Interest (EOI) form below
The IBioIC team will review your EOI and if it meets the criteria for our funding we will send out an Application form and Call document to be completed.
If you have any further queries, please contact the Projects team on projects@ibioic.com
Expression of Interests will be assessed on a rolling basis as they are submitted.

Spin-out Support – Expression of Interest form

Company working name (if available)

Duration in Months

IBioIC funding requested

£

Detail other funding secured

Higher Education Institute name

Principal Investigator

First Name

Last Name

Principal Investigator Email

Project Details overview (<300 words)

Project concept, what’s the challenge? What is your proposed solution? How will the collaboration explore/deliver this?

Please explain why this project fits within Industrial Biotechnology and Scotland’s National Plan for Industrial Biotechnology (200 words)

Please indicate whether you are happy for us to share your EOI with our partners.

If your project idea is not within our remit, please confirm if we can share your EOI with other innovation centres or funding bodies

Project Timelines

It is anticipated that successful applications will be announced within a month of submission with award letters issued shortly afterwards.

It is expected that all Project initiation paperwork will be returned within one (1) month of award notification, and Projects should start within three (3) months of award notification.

Spin Out Support Programme

Spin-out Support – Expression of Interest form

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