Apply for Enterprise Fellowships Program

Aims

• The core aims of the Enterprise Fellowships are:
  • to encourage excellence in engineering and bring engineering innovations to market for wider public benefit
  • to improve the skills of the awardee, through training and application
  • to develop role models of entrepreneurship
  • to develop a wider alumni network to further the aims of the Hub.

Support Offered

• Researchers:
  • Equity-free funding of up to £75,000.
• Recent graduates:
  • £50,000 cash prize + support package. The cash prize is in recognition of your excellence in engineering and it is anticipated it will be used towards your living costs while working on the programme, growth as an entrepreneur and developme
• A bespoke training programme and one-to-one mentoring from a Royal Academy of
• Engineering Fellow – one of the nation’s leading engineers.
• Access to their drop-in workspaces in London and Belfast.
• A cohort of entrepreneurs to learn from and share best practice with.
• Access to their network of investors, experts and advisors.

Hub Membership

• If you successfully complete the Enterprise Fellowship programme you will be invited to become a Hub Member, and you will continue to receive an exceptional package of lifetime support, including continued access to their facilities in London and Belfast, training opportunities, PR support, network of investors, experts, advisors and Academy Fellows.

Eligibility Criteria

• Researchers:
  • All levels of academic or researcher are eligible, from PhD student through to professor/director.
  • Must be working in research at a UK higher education institute (HEI) or Irish university.
  • Applicants must be employed directly by the HEI at the time of application and for the full duration of the award.
  • Applicants must have a PhD or equivalent experience. PhD students are eligible to apply, but must receive their PhD before 30 November 2025 or the offer will be withdrawn.
  • Must be an engineering or technology invention or innovation that the applicant has been involved in the development of.
  • Technology must be technology readiness level (TRL) four or above – for example it has been shown to work under test conditions.
  • The hosting institution must be committed to transferring and exploiting the technology via a spin-out, in which the Enterprise Fellow will be playing a leading role as CEO/COO.
  • The lead applicant should have the highest equity stake of all individuals receiving equity (note, an organisation may have a higher equity stake than the lead).
  • The business proposal must not have been the subject of an Enterprise Fellowships application submitted on two or more previous occasions.
  • They do not support applicants where the spinout has raised over £500,000 in equity funding, nor where the applicant is not currently based at the university, either as an employee or PhD student.
  • The hosting institution should not expect to have an equity stake in the company that is greater than 50% unless it can demonstrate some form of additional private investment into the spin-out, beyond what is normally expected of a host ( grant funding and performing the standard technology transfer office (TTO) support function do not count as additional investment).
• Recent graduates:
  • Must be an engineering or technology invention or innovation that the applicant helped to develop and it must be based in the UK.
  • The business proposal must not have been the subject of an application in the previous round of Enterprise Fellowships, nor should an application for this proposal have been submitted on two or more previous occasions.
  • Must be currently studying for, or have been awarded, their first undergraduate degree, no earlier than 1 January 2020. The degree must be in engineering, design, IT, business, or a related discipline, and current students must receive their degree before they start the fellowship or the offer will be withdrawn.
  • Technology must be TRL four or above – for example it has been shown to work under test conditions, and is not just a theory.
  • The fellowship is intended for applicants who lack the support structure provided by well-established employers. You may apply while employed by such an established organisation, but must leave prior to commencing the award. You may be employed by the startup business to which the application relates, although it must still be in the startup phase.
  • You may have previously been through an accelerator programme, but cannot be on one during the period of the award.
  • You must not have raised more than £500,000 in equity funding (note, you may not have raised any equity funding at all, and this is fine with them).

For more information, visit Royal Academy of Engineering.