WIREDGOV

UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) is streamlining its research translation and commercialisation funding opportunities to make them clearer and more consistent.

This update affects only the naming of UKRI funding opportunities and not existing remits, funding modes and processes.

UKRI translation and commercialisation funding opportunities have begun to adopt one of four harmonised titles.

New nomenclature

UKRI Translation: Prosperity Partnership

Funding opportunities that support or enable collaborative research and development between researchers and external partners to develop, deliver, adopt and commercialise transformative technologies, products, processes and services.

UKRI Translation: Impact Acceleration

Funding opportunities to unlock impact and value from research through engagement, knowledge exchange, exploratory translation and early commercialisation activities.

UKRI Translation: Proof of Concept

Funding opportunities that advance the development of new or improved products, processes, services and technologies by increasing technical or commercial readiness, including through other knowledge exchange and translation activities.

UKRI Translation: Entrepreneurship

Funding opportunities to support and build the expertise and confidence researchers need to translate and commercialise their research into market-ready solutions.

Transparent, user-friendly and future-proof

This new nomenclature forms part of UKRI’s work to create a more transparent, user-friendly and future-proof funding ecosystem.

We are supporting delivery of government and societal priorities and helping innovative companies start, scale and stay in the UK.

Proof of Concept funding opportunity

As part of this harmonised funding landscape, UKRI has pre-announced the next round of its discipline-agnostic Proof of Concept (PoC) funding opportunity.

This is a pre-announcement only.

The full funding opportunity will be available on the UKRI funding finder from 4 March 2026.

This PoC funding provides targeted support for academic researchers to accelerate the translation of existing research into new products, services, processes or spinout companies including social ventures.

Critical early-stage support

Working across all disciplines, this proof of concept funding from UKRI will provide critical early-stage support to academic commercialisation projects.

Designed to enhance the readiness of new products and services developed through research, the initiative will help set the stage for successful commercial launches.

It will help researchers bridge the gap between the development of a new concept for new products, processes and services and up to the next stage of the commercialisation journey.

This might include licencing or setting up a new venture, before attracting private investment.

In turn, this will help incubate the most promising opportunities for commercialisation within the academic environment.

The importance of Proof of Concept

Proof of Concept funding is critical to reducing the risks associated with premature venture creation or attempts to commercialise through other routes without sufficient evidence of efficacy and market need.

It will help foster innovations that have the potential to significantly improve societal wellbeing and economic outcomes, supporting the translation of ground-breaking research into solutions that enhance lives and communities.

Tony Hickson’s report on strengthening university-investor links, published earlier this month recommends an increase in proof of concept and pre-seed funding. This discipline-agnostic PoC programme, the recently opened Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) PoC programme and support including the Higher Education Innovation Fund, in part addresses this recommendation.

UKRI Translation: AHRC Proof of Concept

Find out more about commercialising your research.