Industry led funding opportunities

Your organisation may be able to take advantage of a number of industry-led funding opportunities to support collaboration and access a wealth of knowledge and expertise at Swansea University.

Knowledge Transfer Partnerships and SMART Partnerships

These programmes are part-funded by the government and foster three-way partnerships between a business/third sector organisation, an academic, and an associate.

Knowledge Transfer Partnerships (KTP) & SMART Partnerships (SP) aim to embed academic knowledge and experience to help transform your organisation, solving problems, improving competitiveness, productivity & performance.

Management KTPs are a recent addition to this programme, targeted at growth-oriented SMEs from any sector, eager to build and execute their ambitious management strategy by introducing better management practices. MKTPs can cover all key business functions from marketing to IT, creativity to strategic management, HR to employment relations, and finance to logistics.

We offer support throughout the entire project lifecycle; this can include connecting you with academics, developing applications, and completing the administrative tasks associated with your project.

Deadline for Applications

KTPs: Innovate UK welcome applications during various competitions throughout the year; the upcoming deadline is 2 February 2022.

SPs: Welsh Government operates a rolling call can be submitted at ANY TIME.

Innovate UK SMART Grants

Part-funded by Innovate UK, this competition is looking for game-changing and commercially viable, innovative or disruptive ideas.

Applications must be led by a UK based company and can be single or collaborative dependant on project size (must include an SME).

SMART Cymru

This programme supports Welsh businesses to develop, implement and commercialise new products, processes and services.

This funding can help your business, whatever stage of the Innovation Journey you are on! It supports research and development activity from feasibility studies, industrial research to develop proof of concept, experimental development to show research results in operation, and, finally, the exploitation stage.

Use of SMART Cymru’s ‘Innovation Voucher’ can allow you to access external expertise; if you’d like to connect with one, or more, of our academics, please get in touch.

Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund

The Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund (ISCF) addresses the big societal challenges being faced by UK businesses today. It covers the four themes of the government’s industrial strategy: clean growth, ageing society, future of mobility, and artificial intelligence and data economy.

The fund is backed by £2.6 billion of public money, with £3 billion in matched funding from the private sector.

You can apply for this funding if you’re a business, charity, or based as a research organisation.

If you'd like to find out more please contact our Business Engagement team.