Doctoral focal award: UKRI venture doctorates: outline stage

This UKRI opportunity funds venture doctoral focal awards. These are large doctoral training programmes that combine rigorous research with hands-on learning in entrepreneurship and venture creation. The aim is for students to move beyond classroom commercialisation training, with spin-out creation as the intended commercial output from the start.

UKRI has £25 million available and expects to fund one to three awards. Each programme must support at least 50 students across up to five annual cohorts. UKRI will fund 100% of eligible costs listed in the opportunity, subject to subsidy control rules. Estates and indirect costs are not funded.

Applications can be led by organisations that meet standard UKRI eligibility, such as higher education institutions, research council institutes and public sector research establishments. Businesses, social enterprises and other organisations can also lead, but UKRI must complete its non-standard eligibility process before any award is made. An organisation can lead only one application, though it can collaborate on others. You are encouraged to build a partnership that includes businesses, investors, charities and public sector bodies.

This is the outline stage. The page gives a closing date of 22 October 2026 at 4:00pm UK time. One practical caveat: the page says an expression of interest had to be completed by 21 September 2026 at 4:00pm UK time, and that date has now passed. Applications must also support at least one of the eight high-growth sectors in the UK government's Industrial Strategy, and a full application would need an organisation with UK doctoral research degree awarding powers in the consortium.

Official source: https://www.ukri.org/opportunity/doctoral-focal-award-ukri-venture-doctorates-outline-stage/. Last checked by GrantMatch on 16 October 2026.