University of Plymouth ResearchImpact & Innovation Fund

“Our research embraces real world challenges to advance and translate knowledge and to drive innovation and enterprise. We prioritise collaboration and interdisciplinary excellence”

Overview

The University of Plymouth’s Research Impact and Innovation Fund will provide funding for initiatives that will deliver or realise new or enhanced impact from research. Such impact can be economic, environmental, cultural or social, but should increase either the reach of research impact, or deepen its significance.

Funded through the University’s Higher Education innovation Fund (HEIF) allocation – the aim of which is to….

“support and develop a broad range of knowledge-based interactions between universities…and the wider world, which result in economic and social benefit to the UK”….

..the fund is aligned to the University’s Knowledge Exchange Strategy and will focus on the following:

  • Developing and deepening key strategic relationships in specific sectors / thematic areas linked to the University’s research;
  • Supporting student enterprise and entrepreneurship including social enterprise;
  • Developing new opportunities for consultancy or the exploitation of University facilities;
  • Public, community and cultural engagement; and
  • Engagement with regional stakeholders to inform and influence policy making.

The fund will provide pump-priming support for the development of new impact activities and initiatives which are creative and innovative and clearly of a strategic nature. Projects should ideally be of an inter- or multi-disciplinary nature and must show a significant pathway to Impact and/or have the potential to lead directly to future bids for external funding. Note that the fund cannot support research activity itself.

The total annual value of the fund is £300,000. There is no upper limit to the funding that can be sought for an individual project, but it should be borne in mind that it will be expected that a number of initiatives will be funded in any one year. Initiatives should be delivered within a single academic year, but in some exceptional circumstances two years funding may be considered where there is proven to be significantly increased return in terms of impact.

Funding Criteria

The following criteria will be used to assess applications for funding.

Return on investment – What “outputs” will be delivered, or will result from the project, and how will these be measured? Note that while it may be easier to quantify economic impacts, it is expected that projects that are focused on public engagement, for instance, will also be able to demonstrate and measure impact, beyond the engagement itself. Outputs in “grey literature” will be welcomed.

Contribution to University metrics–Will the project deliver, or result in, a contribution to University income metrics around contract research, consultancy or facilities and equipment?

Sustainability - How will the investment be used to increase capacity in the longer term? How will the activity be sustained?

Leverage - What other resources (external or internal) will be committed to the activity? For instance staff time, other funding, external partnerships. Priority will be given to initiatives that can leverage other sources of income, so maximising the value of the Impact Fund.

Quality of underpinning research – Evidence will be required of an underpinning body of research that is of at least 3*quality

Timescales

The key dates related to the fund are as follows:

18thApril 2018 / Fund launched
31st May 2018 / Deadline for applications
29th June 2018 / Successful applications notified*
1st August 2018 / Project start date commence
30th June 2019 / Project finish date
30th September 2019 / Final project reports submitted

*This will allow any award to be reflected in faculty budget planning.

Management of the Impact and Innovation Fund

The fund will be managed by the Research and Innovation Directorate, with oversight provided by a Fund Steering Group chaired by the Deputy Vice Chancellor (Research and Enterprise).

Note that the Impact & Innovation Fund is separate to the existing Proof of Concept (PoC) funding which supports the exploitation and commercialisation of Intellectual Property, including licensing and spin outs. For colleagues looking to explore opportunities around Intellectual Property, PoC funding will continue to provide support in this area. Assistance with this should be sought from the Intellectual Property Specialist Advisor team within Research and Innovation – .