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There are two routes open for Enterprise Fellowships

1. Researcher only

  • You must be a researcher working at a UK or Irish university or Public Sector Research Establishment (PSRE). Any level of seniority is allowed, from PhD students to professor. PhD students must have their viva before the start the Fellowship or the offer will be withdrawn.

  • If you do not have PhD, the university must treat you as if you do (role,salary,seniority)

  • The university or PSRE must intend to form a spinout in which you will be the CEO, at least in the immediate future. This is not a programme to explore if you want to spin out or not – you should already know you want to.

Would you like to speak to us regarding your eligibility? Please contact:

2. Recent graduates only

  • You must have graduated from your very first university degree, of any type, in any subject, and from any university, no earlier than 1 January 2021.
  • If you are still a student, you must graduate before 31 November 2026 or the offer will be withdrawn.

General criteria 

For all applicants

  • You must be currently based in the UK or Ireland.
  • You must be the CEO for at least the duration of the programme.
  • The Fellowship must be your only work-based commitment.
  • You can work part-time on the programme if your personal circumstances require, e.g. caring responsibilities.
  • Academics cannot teach or conduct research during the programme, but may supervise PhD students and research projects directly related to the innovation.
  • You may have been through an accelerator programme before, but should not be on one during this programme.

For the technology / innovation

  • It must have a protectable, IP-rich engineering and/or technology innovation. Engineering is defined in its broadest sense.
  • You must have directly contributed to the development of the innovation, either as the inventor or part of the research and development team
  • You must have a clear route to access the necessary intellectual property rights.
  • Combining existing technologies and applying them in a new area does not count as sufficient innovation to apply – there must be an inventive step which is protectable.
  • The innovation must be at Technology Readiness Level 4 or above – i.e., proven to work in a lab/ideal environment.
  • It should not be currently available to the market other than as a prototype/minimum viable product with limited sales.
  • For AI-based technologies – you must have created the AI-agent yourself. Using a commercially available AI-agent is not sufficient for this programme.
  • For software in general – it must be sufficiently advanced, or require hard-to-obtain specialist knowledge and/or data so that a talented programmer could not independently replicate it.
  • You must expect to be able to produce a minimum viable product within the next three years.

For the business

  • The business may or may not be already incorporated, we don’t mind either way.
  • When it is incorporated, it must be incorporated in the UK (or Ireland for relevant applicants).
  • It must have raised less than £500,000 in private investment. The vast majority of applicants have not raised.
  • You may have received any amount of grant funding.