Funding support for your business

Let us guide you through funding that's available to help boost your business. From innovation vouchers to Knowledge Transfer Partnerships, incentives and discounts are available to help you get our fresh thinking into your business operations.

R&D funding

Start a Knowledge Transfer Partnership with us

This successful UK-wide scheme supports UK businesses that want to be more competitive and productive by accessing university expertise. Sponsored by Innovate UK, Research Councils and other bodies, Knowledge Transfer Partnerships help by addressing a specific issue, such as new product R&D or developing new operational processes.

University innovation vouchers

SMEs can get University of Essex innovation vouchers (.pdf) worth up to £5,000 to start working with us. This could go towards scoping and developing a new product, staff training, or stimulating growth. Contact us and we'll guide you through the application process. Your application will be reviewed by our business panel, and if accepted, you can reclaim costs of up to £5,000 once your project is complete. We assess applications based on the scope and value of the project, and on the potential of you working with us in the future.

Data analytics innovation vouchers

These vouchers can help if your business needs academic expertise to help you understand your data, and if you have fewer than 250 employees and a turnover of less than £25.9 million. You may have a specific data project you want to tackle, or you may want to up-skill your analysts. We'll guide you through the application process when you contact us. You can get up to two data analytics vouchers a year, for a maximum of three years. These vouchers are funded by the ESRC, through our ESRC Business and Local Government Data Research Centre. Our Institute for Data Analytics and Data Science also supports businesses by helping to understand and analyse data.

Other research and development funding

Innovate UK offers a huge range of schemes and resources to support businesses. Also, Horizon 2020 is an EU Framework Programme for Research and Innovation with nearly €80 billion of funding available, so if you're considering European funding for a project we can help you explore your options. The UK's Research Councils also support a range of collaborative research projects in the UK, across all industry sectors.

Recruitment funding

If you’re an SME looking to expand, we may be able to help you get funding to take on a talented Essex graduate as an internship through our partnership with Santander Universities. We also have specific funding available to enable internships where finance may be a barrier for your business or organisation; please contact us to find out more.