The Knowledge Assets Grant Fund (KAGF) aims to unlock the potential for developing and exploiting public sector knowledge assets. The KAGF provides financial support to help unearth potentially valuable knowledge assets and to develop the exploitation pathway of assets outside of business as usual purposes.

The aim of this competition is to support the identification and development of public sector knowledge assets, including repurposing, commercialisation or expanded use.

These assets can include:

• inventions
• designs
• certain research and development (R&D) outcomes
• data and information
• creative outputs such as text, video, graphics, software and source code
• know-how and expertise
• business processes, services
• other intellectual resources

Potential value includes financial, economic and social benefits and can be achieved through commercialisation or expanded use of the asset across government and stakeholder organisations.

Assets do not have to be potentially revenue generating to attract funding but you must provide a clear plan and timeline to leverage value, for example, as a spinout, licence, open source or prototype.

The Knowledge Asset Grant Fund will support projects, or project stages, which are not suitable to secure investment from private sources. For example, this could be to develop an asset for use across different organisations within government which usually do not collaborate.

If you are unsure whether your project is in scope, you can contact the KAGF secretariat at GrantFund.GOTT@beis.gov.uk. You can also visit the GOTT Grant Fund webpages where we offer further guidance and support for our applicant community.

Specific themes

This competition will prioritise projects in either of the following two themes:

• a digital economy
• environment and sustainability

These two themes support the government’s ambition for a greener and more digitally advanced future as set out in the Science and Technology Framework.

We welcome applications from off-theme projects in this round. On-theme projects will be prioritised where funding is limited.

Further information for the scope and themes can be found at GOTT’s funding page and their recent blog.

Projects we will not fund

We are not funding:

• fundamental research and development aimed at creating new knowledge assets
• projects which have already advanced to the point where they could be eligible for investment by private funding sources
• projects that are directly or indirectly requesting funding for an existing commercial entity that is not a government body
• projects that aim to subsidise ‘business as usual’ activities, for example, activities directed by Ministers or set out in organisational strategies or remit, unless they address new markets or customers
• projects that only benefit the organisation applying or existing customers and users
• privately owned companies, including spin-out companies

Organisations not eligible to apply for the KAGF include, but are not limited to:

• universities and academic institutions
• local governments and their organisations
• local Enterprise Partnerships
• devolved administrations and organisations overseen by the Scottish Government, Welsh Government or Northern Ireland Executive - this includes NHS Scotland and Wales, and Health and Social Care in Northern Ireland
• publicly owned commercial organisations, such as The Crown Estate
• NHS secondary and tertiary care sector, including NHS trusts
• private sector organisations
• independent charities

Funding will not be conditional on:

• export performance, for example, awarding funding to a baker on the condition that it exports a certain quantity of bread to another country
• UK content, for example, awarding funding to a baker on the condition that it uses 50% UK flour in their product

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