Funded by the Scottish Funding Council through the new Data-Driven Innovation (DDI) project, the Graduate Enterprise Grant is a discretionary sum of up to £5,000 which may be awarded to individuals who graduated from The University of Edinburgh within the last 2 years. The graduates must have a Data-Driven Innovative business idea in any market sector which can potentially solve a problem, create a new company and contribute to our economic recovery post Covid-19.
These grants are intended to support a range of research and commercial activities to enable early stage technology focussed individuals/companies to develop their business idea/concept to the next stage of product development,form a company and ultimately to become income-generating and/or in a position to secure further funding or investment from other public or private sources.
The £5,000 funding could support a range of activities including salaries, market research, technical feasibility and early-stage prototyping between 20th May 2022 and 29th July 2022.
£4,000 would be paid to the individual within 2 weeks of the grant being approved in May 2022 and the final £1,000 paid by 31st July 2022 which is conditional on receipt of a short report from the applicant on the £4,000 spend and the outcomes achieved to date.
Examples of eligible expenditure would include:
· Development of marketing materials
· Website design and development
· Access to labs or facilities for product testing, legal fees for agreements related to product testing and trialling
· Material costs associated with prototyping/product development
· Intellectual Property costs to protect the new idea.
Closing date for applications was 6th May 2022.
Eligible applicants would:
· Have graduated in the last 2 years from The University of Edinburgh and have been made redundant, not been able to find employment and are not currently employed full time. (part-time employed graduates will be considered).
· Have a Data-Driven Innovative business idea in any market sector which can potentially solve a problem which is either A) related to the Covid 19 pandemic and/or B) that can contribute to the region’s social and business economic recovery
· Plan to form a company within 3 months of receiving the grant and have a basic business plan in order to achieve this objective.
· Have the right to work in the UK
The Graduate Enterprise Grant offers a whole range of exciting benefits to support technology-focussed graduate entrepreneurs in taking their business idea to the next level! Successful applicants will have access to:
Graduate Enterprise Grant - Programme Lead
Applications are currently closed.
For further information or an informal discussion on the Graduate Enterprise Grant as a future opportunity please contact via email below:
