Source · Select Committees · Science, Innovation and Technology Committee
Recommendation 23
23
Acknowledged
The Government should expand the Proof of Concept Fund and ensure it meets the needs...
Recommendation
The Government should expand the Proof of Concept Fund and ensure it meets the needs of existing or emerging clusters of innovation. It should also increase the size of available awards to £1 million. (Recommendation, Paragraph 78)
Government response summary AI-generated
The government partially agrees with the objective but does not commit to expanding the Proof of Concept Fund or increasing award sizes. Instead, it highlights the work of the Regulatory Innovation Office (RIO) in addressing regulatory barriers and refers to wider departmental and cross-government activities, including the Industrial Strategy and DSIT's work on regional innovation ecosystems, as partially addressing the recommendation.
Summary of the government's response below — read the verbatim text to verify.
Government Response
Acknowledged
HM Government · verbatim extract
Acknowledged
The government agrees with the need to provide sufficient proof-of- concept funding in supporting research commercialisation and the development of spin-outs. UKRI is already taking steps to strengthen the provision of this funding and expects overall proof-of-concept funding to grow across the spending review. The £40 million proof-of-concept programme sits within a wider UKRI landscape of translational funding, some of which exceeds £1 million per award where relevant to the technology. For example, the Medical Research Council’s Developmental Pathway Funding Scheme provides support and is not subject to a fixed upper award limit where costs are justified, and typically funds over £1 million. For businesses, Innovate UK competitions can also offer substantial awards, including funding of up to around £1 million in appropriate cases. UKRI will set out plans for building on its existing proof-of-concept funding offer this summer via its delivery plans. This will include specific plans for funding within individual sectors, as part of the new cross-UKRI programmes supporting Industrial Strategy sectors.
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