Commercialising Knowledge Assets Fund (CKAF) Autumn
Government Office for Technology Transfer (GOTT) and funded by the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT). Innovate UK is administering this competition on behalf of GOTT.
Award
£50k – £250k
Total fund Up to £1.4m
Deadline
Closes in 9 days (1 September 2026)
Where
UK-wide
Summary
UK registered government research organisations can apply for grants from £50,000 up to £250,000 to move viable public sector knowledge assets towards commercial readiness. This funding is provided by the Government Office for Technology Transfer (GOTT).
Who can apply
Who can apply This award has been designed to be provided on a no subsidy basis, as defined in the Subsidy Control Act 2022 . This means to be eligible, the award will not give an economic advantage to one or more organisations, and you must not be acting economically as an organisation within the meaning of the act. In limited circumstances, EU State aid rules may apply under the Windsor Framework and a ‘No Aid’ award may be given in accordance with the R&D&I Framework. Your project have a total grant funding request between £50,000 and £250,000 last for either 6, 12, or 18 months be based on a pre-existing identified Knowledge Asset (KA); Question 10 describe a plausible potential commercial market for the KA; Question 11 have ownership of the KA; Question 12, this is for the eligible organisation applying for CKAF carry out its project work in the UK intend to exploit the results from or in the UK start between 1 December 2026 and 1 January 2027 end by 30 June 2027 (6 month project), 31 December 2027 (12 month project) or 30 June 2028 (18 month project) You must adhere to the spending profiles: 6 month projects must spend 50% of the funding by 31 March 2027 with the remaining up to 50% spent by 30 June 2027 12 month projects must spend at least 25% of the funding by 31 March 2027 with the remaining up to 75% spent by 31 December 2027 18 month projects must spend at least 15% of the funding by 31 March 2027, at least 80% of the funding by 31 March 2028, and the remaining up to 20% spent by June 2028 You must not start your project until GOTT is in receipt of your signed Grant Offer Letter. You must only include eligible project costs in your application. See our overview of eligible project costs . Lead organisation To lead a project across several organisations or just your own, your organisation must: be a Public Sector Research Establishment (PRSE), UKRI wholly owned institute or other public sector bodies that meet GOTT standard eligibility criteria, for example, arms length bodies (ALBs) that undertake research as a primary function be able to submit a signed letter of support from your organisation at a senior level demonstrating the appropriate level of support; Question 13 have ownership of the identified KA and the rights to use and commercially exploit intellectual property that might be generated during the project; Complex ownership and evidence of initial IP checks must be explained as part of your application A full list of eligible organisations can be found on GOTT’s about us page . You must not act in any way to gain selective commercial or economic advantage from the outputs of this project. More information on the different types of organisation can be found in our Funding rules . Subcontractors Subcontractors are allowed in this competition. Subcontractors can be from anywhere in the UK and you must select them through your usual procurement process. You can use subcontractors from overseas but must make the case in your application as to why you cannot use subcontractors from the UK. You must provide a detailed rationale, evidence of the potential UK contractors you approached and the reasons why they were unable to work with you. We will not accept a cheaper cost as a sufficient reason to use an overseas subcontractor. All subcontractor costs must be justified and appropriate to the total eligible project costs. Number of applications An eligible government research organisation can lead on any number of applications. There must not be multiple applications to develop the same Knowledge Asset in the same call. Any additional applications for the same Knowledge Asset in later calls are allowed (see previous applications section below). Sanctions This competition will not fund you, or provide any financial benefit to any individual or entities directly or indirectly involved with you, which would expose Innovate UK or any direct or indirect beneficiary of funding from Innovate UK to UK Sanctions . For example, through any procurement, commercial, business development or supply chain activity with any entity as lead, partner or subcontractor related to these countries, administrations and terrorist groups . Use of animals in research and innovation Innovate UK expects and supports the provision and safeguarding of welfare standards for animals used in research and innovation, according to best practice and up to date guidance. Applicants must ensure that all of the proposed work within projects, both in the UK and internationally, will comply with the UKRI guidance on the use of animals in research and innovation . Any projects selected for funding which involve animals will be asked to provide additional information on welfare and ethical considerations, as well as compliance with any relevant legislation as part of the project start-up process. This information will be reviewed before an award is made. Previous applications You can use a previously submitted application to apply for this competition. If the previous application was unsuccessful you can resubmit a new project for this Knowledge Asset if you can demonstrate how you have addressed the reviewers’ feedback from the previous application. Follow-on funding is permitted for a previously funded project from both CKAF and the previous Knowledge Asset Grant Fund (KAGF), subject to demonstrating successful delivery of the previous project’s outcomes and evidence of positive additional impact from the new project. Any previous submissions to this fund regarding the same Knowledge Asset, and related assessments, may be shared with assessors to inform scoring of the latest submission. We do not accept duplicate applications in the same funding round. If you have multiple projects which are similar, for example, with similar outputs or products, you should combine the projects. We will not award funding if you or your organisation has failed to: complete and return the monitoring and reporting for any previously GOTT funded projects comply with grant terms and conditions for a project previously GOTT funded projects If other projects led by your organisation fall into one of these scenarios, then the funding secretariat reserves the right to not award funding until the issue is addressed. No subsidy (and non-aid where applicable) No subsidy This competition has been designed to provide funding that is not classed by Innovate UK as a subsidy. Your eligibility to be given an award on a ‘No Subsidy’ basis will be determined by Innovate UK after you have submitted your application. You should still seek independent legal advice on what this means for you, before applying. Further information about the Subsidy Control Act 2022 requirements can be found within the Subsidy Control Act 2022 (legislation.gov.uk) . It is the responsibility of the lead organisation to make sure all collaborators in the project remain compliant with the ‘No Subsidy’ status they are awarded. It is important to note that it is the activity that an organisation is engaged in as part of the project and not its intentions, that define whether any support provided could be considered a subsidy. EU State aid rules now only apply in limited circumstances. See the Windsor Framework to check if these rules apply to your organisation. In the ‘Project details’ section of your application you will be asked questions to indicate if State Aid or Subsidy applies to your organisation. Further Information If you are unsure about your obligations under the Subsidy Control Act 2022 regime you should take independent legal advice. We cannot advise on individual eligibility or legal obligations. Funding A minimum of £1.4 million has been allocated to fund innovation projects in this competition. This is subject to us receiving a sufficient number of high quality applications. Funding will be in the form of a grant. We reserve the right to adjust funding allocations for any of our competitions under exceptional circumstances, for example, in response to changes in policy, portfolio funding considerations, or broader government funding decisions. Your total eligible project costs will be 100% funded. Total eligible project costs detailed within your application must not exceed the maximum project size. If your total eligible project costs do exceed the maximum then your application will be made ineligible. You can make reference to any additional voluntary contribution in your application answers. It must not be detailed in the finance section. For more information on company sizes, refer to the company accounts guidance . If you are applying for an award funded under State aid Regulations, the definitions are set out in the European Commission Recommendation of 6 May 2003 . Innovate UK may revoke our decision to provide funding without notice if government commitment for this initiative is withdrawn.
Full details
Description The Commercialising Knowledge Assets Fund (CKAF) is run by the Government Office for Technology Transfer (GOTT) and funded by the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT). Innovate UK is administering this competition on behalf of GOTT, which will provide funding ranging from £50,000 to £250,000 per project. 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 that your organisation holds. Examples of Knowledge Assets include know how, expertise, intellectual property, rights for designs, research and development outputs, source code and creative outputs. In applying to this competition, you are entering into a competitive process. This competition has a funding limit, so we may not be able to fund all the proposed projects. It may be the case that your project scores highly but we are still unable to fund it. Our experience from similar competitions suggests that you could have a 50% chance of success. We consider a range of factors when determining whether to provide funding to applicants. This includes an assessment of prior conduct, such as any outstanding payments owed to Innovate UK or UKRI. Such factors may influence the funding decision, potentially resulting in a refusal of funding or an award subject to additional scrutiny. We also reserve the right to adjust funding allocations for any of our competitions. This may be in response to changes in policy, portfolio funding considerations or broader government funding decisions. This competition closes at 11am UK time on the deadline stated in this Innovate UK competition brief. We cannot guarantee other government or third party sites will always show the correct competition information. Funding type Grant Project size Your project’s total eligible grant funding request must be between £50,000 and £250,000. Accessibility and Inclusion We welcome and encourage applications from people of all backgrounds and are committed to making our application process accessible to everyone. This includes making reasonable adjustments for people who have a disability or a long term condition and face barriers applying to us. You can contact us at any time to ask for guidance. We recommend you contact us at least 15 working days before this competition’s closing date to allow us to put the most suitable support in place. The support we can provide may be limited if you contact us close to the competition deadline. You can contact Innovate UK by email or call 0300 321 4357. Our phone lines are open from 9am to 12pm and 2pm to 5pm UK time, Monday to Friday (excluding bank holidays).