SUPA PIPSS Fellowship Extension - original grant ST/F003633/1

This application seeks an extension from STFC to the 4-year fellowship awarded to develop KT across and beyond SUPA, the Scottish Universities Physics Alliance. The sum of £22,215 is requested as a 20% contribution to the Fellowship. Additional contributions of £62,101 and £30,000 will be brought to the project by the host parties, SUPA and The University of Glasgow. The total project value of £114,336 covers the deployment of an experienced full time Fellow focused on Business Development across the SUPA Institutions for an additional two years.

Additional target outputs from the project will be:-

1. £4.0 million funding for Collaborative Research Projects secured through the extension period. This builds on the already generated funding of XXXM secured during the initial phase of the Fellowship. These projects will lead toward new products, processes and market opportunities for the partners involved.

2. 4 Spin-out Companies or Projects focused or working toward new venture creation. This target has been more difficult to achieve in the challenging economic climate of recent years. It is still important to push for this level of new venture formation and so the targets for the extension are intentionally set at a high level.

The balance between collaborative working and new venture creation recognises that multiple KT routes must be pursued - in some instances this will be through new start up or spin-out companies, while in other circumstances it will be through working with existing businesses. The SUPA PIPSS Fellow plays a leading role in developing multi-institutional activities focusing on Knowledge Transfer (KT) for university research that benefit STFC, the participating organisations and the UK economy as a whole. The Fellow also takes advantage of the synergies in research across SUPA, the breadth of commercial connections and the existing support networks to markedly increase KT outcomes. To date this has been very successful with the initial targets being largely met and exceeded in some areas.