About Seed funding
Following the Frontiers symposium, Seed funding gives delegates the opportunity to turn new connections into meaningful collaborations. It supports symposium participants who have not worked together before, and who might not otherwise have had the opportunity to collaborate, to explore and test promising new ideas that address global challenges and contribute to the Sustainable Development Goals.
The Frontiers programme is funded by the UK Government’s International Science Partnerships Fund (ISPF).
Funding can support a wide range of activities, including:
- Developing and testing new ideas, technologies, tools, or prototypes.
- Running pilot projects or proof-of-concept activities.
- Gathering evidence to assess whether a solution is feasible, effective, or likely to have an impact.
- Designing solutions with communities, practitioners, policymakers, industry partners, and other stakeholders.
- Building the skills, networks, and relationships needed to support impact.
- Supporting researcher and student exchanges, workshops, networking, and other collaborative activities.
After the symposium, teams of two or more participants can apply for up to £20,000 over one year. Projects must be interdisciplinary, challenge-led and at the pilot stage. Eligibility requirements may vary between funding rounds, so please check the guidance for the relevant round before applying.
Seed funding awardees and case studies
Seed funding of up to £20,000 per award over one year is awarded to successful collaboration bids from each symposium, designed to strengthen collaborations developed at the symposium.
Find out more about our awardees and case studies
Awardee Excellence Community
The Awardee Excellence Community brings together awardees, alumni, and partners from across the Academy’s programmes, at all career stages and in all disciplines, to share their expertise, collaborate, and contribute new perspectives to the Academy’s work. You will have the opportunity to meet, learn from and support other Academy awardees, as well as a broader cross-section of Academy Fellows through a programme of events and opportunities to connect in person and online.
As an awardee of Frontiers seed funding, you will have access to the Academy’s network of awardees and alumni through the Awardee Excellence Community. You will gain access to exclusive events and have opportunities to get involved in the work of the Academy during and after your award ends.
Diversity policy and monitoring
The Royal Academy of Engineering is committed to diversity and inclusion and welcomes applications from all underrepresented groups across engineering. It is the Academy’s policy to ensure that no applicant is disadvantaged or receives less favourable treatment because of age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, sex, or sexual orientation.
Before you commence your application, you will be asked a few diversity monitoring questions to help the Academy monitor and assess our diversity and inclusion policy. It will only be used for statistical purposes, with access restricted to staff involved in processing and monitoring the data. No information will be published or used in any way that identifies individuals. The Academy will retain personal information as per our Data Retention Policy in line with the General Data Protection Regulations 2018.
The information will be treated as strictly confidential, non-attributable, and will not be seen by anyone involved in any selection processes. You will need to complete the diversity monitoring section before you can submit the grant application form, but you can choose “prefer not to say” as a response.
Subsidy control
The UK subsidy control regime began on 4 January 2023. As part of this regime, the Academy is required to report to the UK Government on how award funding is being used when applications collaborating with commercial enterprises are awarded. The regime determines the lawfulness of monetary awards made using public sector resources when given to businesses and other organisations that are engaged in economic activity.
Where a UK Commercial or Industry Partner is looking to collaborate on a Grant the Academy needs to know more about the nature of that collaboration and whether that collaborator will be looking to receive funds as part of this grant. If such a collaboration is proposed we will need to know how much and what the funds will be used for.
If the nature of the collaboration is akin to that of a service provider, for example funds are allocated to pay market price to a UK Industry or Commercial Partner for a service that they could receive elsewhere (e.g. consultancy, access to certain tools) etc… then this would not be considered as providing a specific benefit. However, if the funds would be for something else, i.e. if the UK Industry or Commercial Collaborator stands to receive a commercial benefit, and/or if they are going to receive beneficial rights to the IP that is generated on the project, i.e. getting ownership over the IP that is not balanced to what was contributed towards its generation, then subsidy control rules apply.
In such a case, the Academy could offer the grant under the Minimal Financial Assistance route – enterprises are allowed to receive £315,000 over three financial years under this route. In such cases the UK Industry/Commercial Organisation would need to keep track of the funds received under this route and ensure they declared them when applying for other funding of this nature. We are also required to confirm the value of funds they have already received via this route prior to issuing the grant. This will involve some additional checks and paperwork on both sides.