Essex launches fund to boost growth and unlock innovation

The University of Essex will help to turbocharge economic growth through the launch of a new fund aimed at unlocking access to innovation opportunities.

The Innovation Fund will offer agile, flexible support to businesses, charities and other service providers wishing to link up with Essex academics and unlock new ways of working through knowledge exchange.

Funding will be available for UK and internationally registered organisations, including start-ups, large corporations, public sector organisations, charities or social enterprises.

The scheme will see Essex’s Enterprise team work with interested organisations to identify barriers to innovation, assess potential new ideas, and solve immediate challenges they may be facing.

It will also offer support for developing new products and business models, as well as inspire new thinking and smarter ways of working.

The key aim of Essex’s Innovation Fund is to allow businesses and organisations to develop long-term collaborative relationships and high-quality industry partnerships that can drive tangible outcomes at a much faster and more agile level.

Robert Walker, Deputy Director for Enterprise at the University, said: “Our focus is on seeding and de-risking high-quality partnerships with ambitious, knowledge-hungry businesses that want to innovate and grow.

“The Innovation Fund is designed to help organisations take that crucial first step to working alongside us — to explore new ideas with our researchers, test fresh approaches, or add scale and speed to existing programs.

“By lowering the barriers and complexity to engagement, we can accelerate innovation and create stronger, more impactful partnerships across the region and beyond."

Essex was ranked in the top 20 UK universities in this year’s Knowledge Exchange Framework, highlighting its success in driving innovation and supporting economic growth.

It has one of the largest Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) portfolios in the UK and surpassed more than 50 active KTPs in the summer.

To find out more about how the Innovation Fund can support your business, complete an expression of interest form.