Research & Innovation Services

Eligibility

Eligible Activities

Eligible Costs

Eligibility 

Projects funded by the GKE Flexible Fund are expected to cost up to a maximum of £30,000 and to last for 6 months (all funds would be required to be spent by 31 July 2026, with no possibility of extension).

Funded projects will be expected to start within 2 months of the funding decision.

Applications to the Flexible Fund can be led by any UofG staff member and should meet the following requirements:

• A Lead applicant with school approval to hold General Funds (please check with your local school finance contact).
• A clear linkage to underpinning University of Glasgow research; in some cases, this will be via inclusion of UofG Co-I’s in the project.

Eligible Activities

The journey from research to impact is complex and varies across the broad range of disciplines represented at the University of Glasgow; the GKE panel welcome the creativity of our research and knowledge exchange community in proposing projects for funding. Whilst not an exhaustive list, some examples of eligible activities are provided below:

Secondments/Placements of research staff, between the University and a non-academic partner organisation, company or agency from any sector. Secondments/Placements can be part-time or full-time and range in duration from weeks to months. Secondments/Placements of permanent staff may also be considered.

Fellowships and internships with non academic organisations to concentrate on specific knowledge exchange projects. Staff buy-out may be considered in exceptional circumstances.

De-risking of research outputs/outcomes for commercial uptake, including market assessments, toolkit development, prototype and demonstrator development, proof-of-concept activity and application-focused feasibility projects.

Engagement with policy-makers and practitioners at any stage of the research-impact cycle, for example through events, knowledge exchange workshops, collaborative toolkit development, collaborative activity to co-produce evidence, and/or mechanisms to ensure the uptake of that evidence.

Engagement with partners in private, public or third sectors to foster innovation, new collaborative relationships, or to deepen/broaden existing relationships.

Engagement with particular communities to pursue new research agendas, to increase the uptake of relevant research outcomes, and other public engagement initiatives, provided they are structured in a way that supports the creation of strong, well-evidenced impact.

Initiatives designed to support engagement with underserved or marginalised communities or groups are particularly welcome.

Eligible Costs

The funding is designed to be flexible and can cover items such as:

1. Staffing costs, e.g. RA's - note that reimbursement for UofG permanent staff time is not permitted as knowledge exchange and engagement are assumed to fall within their existing remit. All requested funding for staff costs should be justified in the 'detail' text box
2. Consumables
3. Small equipment
4. Travel
5. Workshops and seminars
6. Specialist sub-contract work

The GKEF does not fund Estates and Indirect costs.

For collaborative projects with non-academic organisations, we are looking for evidence of partner commitment to the project. This may come in the form of a contribution to the project costs (cash and/or in-kind) - particularly with private sector partners. In-kind contributions could include partner organisation staff time, provision of access to equipment, materials, data or other items. Partner contributions should reflect the role of the partner in the project, their appreciation of its potential value, and their willingness and ability to contribute.

For collaborative projects, including secondments, a collaboration agreement will be required before funding is released to agree the arrangements for IP and the terms and conditions for staff. Applicants are encouraged to speak to their local knowledge exchange/impact team for support in discussing these issues with their partners at an early stage.

External collaborators are expected to have seen and approved the application, workplan and budget prior to submission. Applicants will be asked to confirm this arrangement.

Eligibility and suitability 

Mentor

Eligibility and suitability 

The fund is open to all UofG staff members who are at an early stage in their research independence.

Examples of research independence include evidence of holding external research funding; generation of research outputs; specific contributions to the wider research and innovation community, contributions to research users and society; supporting the development of others as part of significant leadership, management, supervision roles; as well as awards where the applicant was not the principal investigator, and more. 

For reference, some organisations/funders may refer to those eligible for this fund as Early Career Researchers. This resource here from UofG’s Research Culture and Researcher Development Teams may help applicants reflect and frame relevant evidence of their career stage and research independence.

If you are unsure whether you are eligible for the GKEF Enabling Fund, reach out to our team at RIandE@glasgow.ac.uk.

The lead applicant on the project should

• have approval to hold General Funds (please check with your local school finance contact).
• be able to evidence an independent role in leading or contributing to the generation of, and flow of, new ideas, hypotheses, tools, or knowledge, in the research outputs that underpin the proposed GKEF project.

The call will accept applications for projects with maximum costs of up to £15,000 and a maximum duration of 6 months. (Note that, as with Flexible Fund, all funds would be required to be spent by 31 July 2026, with no possibility of extension.) 

A broad range of knowledge exchange and engagement activities are eligible and fundable. These are the same as the GKE Flexible Fund. 

Mentor 

A suitable internal mentor must be identified, and their role briefly described in the application. This could include but is not limited to providing disciplinary or sectoral guidance to formulate the engagement activity(s) of the project, sharing/developing contacts and networks, or coaching the mentee for career-related next steps during/after the end of GKEF project. The mentor would be expected to commit to 3 meetings with the mentee.  

The GKEF Spring Call 2025 opens March 31 and closes May 15 at 11am.

For this round of GKEF, we will receive direct applications to the Flexible Fund and Enabling Fund projects that would normally be in scope for IAA funding.

We expect this round to be very competitive due to the currently limited availability of IAA funding. We have had informal notification that there will be a one-year extension of IAA funds, but this has not yet been confirmed in writing. For this reason, we will allow direct applications to the GKEF Flexible and Enabling funding streams for projects that would normally be in scope for IAA support. Given the anticipation of increased competition for support, we would encourage GKEF applicants to:

1. Clearly foreground and connect the timeliness of their project and their application to the GKEF this Spring, especially in light of the recent BBSRC, MRC, and ESRC IAA 2025 calls: what is their rationale in applying now, and to the GKEF? Similarly, we advise applicants to state whether they applied to the IAA calls listed above. (Note too that we believe that, pending confirmation of that extension, CoSE is anticipating issuing a May EPSRC IAA funding call.)
2. Consider whether their project may be eligible for the Spring 2025 ESRC IAA calls. If within scope, applicants should discuss their proposal with the ESRC IAA/CoSS Impact teams. We expect the ESRC IAA to hold another call in Autumn 2025.
3. Book a meeting with the GKEF support team in Research Services to discuss their project and application.

An online information session and an application workshop have been arranged. Please refer to the all staff email for more information including dates and registration links, as well as a link to book a meeting to discuss prospective projects and applications with the Research Impact & Engagement team in Research Services. This conversation should help strengthen applications and provide advice on scope, eligibility, costing, letters of support and the submission process. We may call on the appropriate College or Professional Services contacts (depending on the focus of the project, e.g. commercialisation, public engagement, etc.) to be part of these conversations, if the applicant has not contacted them already.

Applicants may also contact Gordon or Mariana at RIandE@glasgow.ac.uk if they have any further questions. 

Full applications will be scored on the below criteria: 

• Clarity of link between underpinning research to the engagement activities.  
• Visibility of any external partners in the project, including evidence of their commitment to the project via in-kind or cash support, role in work packages (if applicable) and in the potential for sustainability and further development of the collaborative relationships. (Note that any external organisation collaborating on the project will need to have seen/reviewed the application.) 
• Immediate- and longer-term vision for potential impact generation, and how the proposed project outcomes might enable next steps towards that goal.  
• Construction of the workplan, including any risks and mitigation steps, and probability that the project will deliver on its objectives and Fund aims. 
• Quality of evaluation plan and next steps -- a sustainability plan that should capture outcomes and provide a step forward or step-up to generating long-term envisaged impact.  

For the GKE Flexible Fund and Enabling Fund, assessment will consider but not score on the criteria below: 

• Contribution the project would make to your career development and the development of any UofG project team members (only applicable to the Enabling Fund scheme). 
• Consideration of good practice in creating equitable/ethical partnerships, awareness of working ethically and sustainably; working towards Responsible Research & Innovation (UKRI guidance) and environmental sustainability (UofG policies). 
• Potential to secure or leverage additional funding or generation of impact. 
• Value for money and effective mitigation of risk. 
• Alignment with the University’s Research Strategy priorities.  
• Alignment with the University’s Equality Diversity and Inclusion Policy (see the UofG policy and the EDI UofG Equality unit site). The IAA EDI Guidance may be a useful tool when building this component of the project.

The continuity of funding like the Glasgow Knowledge Exchange Fund within our institution relies on our ability to capture and demonstrate the benefit and impact generation that GKEF-awarded projects have made. For this reason, award recipients are required to submit a final report detailing expenditure, activities, outputs and outcomes after the conclusion of the project.

• An in-project, mid-way monitoring meeting will be arranged to discuss project set up, challenges or issues faced, and ensure projects are progressing at the pace laid out in the workplan.
• An additional audit may be conducted at further intervals after the conclusion of projects to track impact over time.
• All reporting requirements will be confirmed on award of funding.
• In order to appropriately promote the outcomes of the funding, we will from time to time, use information from project applications and reports within the wider fund reporting.
• The names and descriptions of GKEF-funded projects, as well as the names of successful PI/Lead Applicants may be submitted to the University’s Senior Management Group and posted on the University of Glasgow webpages.

The final GKEF report consists of 3 qualitative questions and a series of quantitative questions. Award holders will be invited to submit their report via an online portal approximately 6 months after project completion.

The quantitative questions are:

1. Tell us about the type and number of organisations your project has as collaborators.
2. During your GKEF project, did you collaborate with a (non-academic) partner organisation that you have not collaborated with previously? If "Yes", how many new (non academic) organisations did you collaborate with during the GKEF project
3. Tell us about the number and types of activities carried out in your project and funded by GKEF
4. If recorded, tell us the number of people that attended or were trained by events funded by your project/GKEF
5. Tell us about the outputs from your project (number/amount)- including the value of new licensing agreements, investments from Private Equity or Venture Capital, and income from consultancy or contract research
6. Which of the following SDG targets does your project activities and outcomes align to? (Select all that are relevant)
7. In terms of potential impacts, in what area do you think these may occur?
8. What do you think will be the main pathways to impact for this project?
9. Tell us about the geographic reach of your GKEF project activities and their outcomes

The qualitative questions are:

1. Tell us about the outcomes of your project and any impacts achieved - what changes has the project delivered? If applicable, briefly outline next steps identified during the course of the project or any additional activities undertaken as result of this project. (Maximum 700 words)
2. Detail any qualitative or quantitative information/documentation you may have gathered that evidences the successful outcomes of your project. (Maximum 200 words)
3. Optional question: Would you like to provide any other details regarding your project that you would like to highlight? These may include example measures used to address/ensure equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) in your project that worked particularly well; key factors which contributed to achieving the success in your planned objectives; unforeseen challenges to deliver your project, etc. (Maximum 500 words)