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Funding your innovation

Entrepreneurs often struggle with starting a new business as they lack the start-up capital or the know-how. The Innovation Fund assists in all aspects of the entrepreneurial process, from providing start-up capital to innovation consulting. The variety of funds available from the Innovation Fund depends on the sector in which you fall and should be carefully considered before you apply.

Investment Instruments

  • Patent Support Funds are instruments targeted at SMEs, techno-entrepreneurs and research institutions to assist them by absorbing some of the costs of protecting their Intellectual Property through patent protection and patent maintenance.

  • Technology Advancement Programme (TAP) invests in late stage research and development (where proof-of-science already exists) and is open to higher education institutions, science councils, SMEs and consortia consisting of these entities.

  • Seed Fund invests in early commercialisation or start-up activities so as to take a technology that is at the prototype stage through to the market. It operates on the basis of encouraging investment from capital markets and where possible co-investing to share risk. Furthermore, the Seed Fund considers opportunities which in terms of financial returns potential will not meet venture capital criteria, but whose social and economic impacts may be critical with regards to driving national priorities where financial sustainability can be secured, making this programme ideal for those looking to start a business.

Contact us at the Innovation Fund to find out more about each of these programmes.