Deadline: 04-Dec-2025
The Commercialising Knowledge Assets Fund (CKAF) Winter competition provides UK registered government research organisations with grants ranging from £50,000 to £250,000 to move viable public sector knowledge assets with identified potential markets towards commercial readiness.
The aim of this competition is to support organisations to move viable public sector Knowledge Assets with identified potential markets towards commercialisation. A Knowledge Asset is an intangible asset held by the organisation. Examples include: know how, expertise and intellectual property rights for designs, research and development outputs, source code and creative outputs. The fund is technology agnostic and encourages applications from across all sectors. Your proposal must be based on a pre-existing identified Knowledge Asset (KA) as defined in the Rose Book and describe a plausible potential commercial market for the KA.
The CKAF is administered by Innovate UK on behalf of the Government Office for Technology Transfer (GOTT) and funded by the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT). It is a competitive process with a funding limit, which means not all eligible projects may receive support, even if they score highly.
Projects applying for this competition must request grant funding between £50,000 and £250,000 and last for 6, 12, or 18 months. They must start between 1 March 2026 and 1 April 2026 and finish by 30 September 2026 (6 months), 31 March 2027 (12 months), or 30 September 2027 (18 months), depending on duration. Spending deadlines are strictly defined, and organisations must adhere to them to remain eligible.
Lead organisations must be public sector research establishments, UKRI-owned institutes, or other public bodies that meet GOTT’s eligibility criteria, with ownership of the Knowledge Asset and the rights to use and commercially exploit any resulting intellectual property. Universities, local governments, private sector companies, charities, and certain public corporations are not eligible to apply.
Applications that propose fundamental R&D to create new assets, projects already engaged in economic activity, or initiatives that only benefit the applying organisation or its existing users will not be funded. Instead, CKAF focuses strictly on advancing pre-existing knowledge assets with commercial potential.
Accessibility and inclusion are key principles of the fund, with Innovate UK encouraging applications from people of all backgrounds and offering reasonable adjustments for applicants with disabilities or long-term conditions. Subcontractors may be included, provided their costs are justified, and overseas subcontractors are only acceptable with a strong rationale.
For more information, visit GOV.UK.
