We have been doing a lot of work on behalf of clients seeking to attract grant funding recently. Just last week Dirk Gewert begin_of_the_skype_highlighting end_of_the_skype_highlighting found out that he had successfully shepherded four Technology Strategy Board (TSB) applications through the application process. Two were awarded and two were invited to submit full applications. In the last 9 months Dirk has helped clients win 5 TSB awards that will fund a total of £2.7M of projects.
In the current investment climate that is real money, and it is helping companies demonstrate and develop their activity to a point where it can attract funding from venture capitalists. It is also helping companies stretch their runway.
Our advice to clients thinking about using grant funding to finance your business is make sure the grant will fund activity that is on the critical path. Grant funding may seem like “free money” but there is an opportunity costs associated with committing management time and company resources to noncore and nice to have activity. The administration overhead quickly becomes costly if you not driving the business forward.
There are a number of grant funding opportunities that UK SMEs can consider, i4i, Technology Strategy Board competitions, Grant for R&D and Eurostars. None of these funding sources are as competitive currently as the venture capital markets.
There are number of opportunities to find out more. Technology Strategy Board has an event next week in London (30th March 2010). You can meet award winners and find out about their experience of using TSN competition funding to advance their business. TSB is also running an event in April aimed at informing life science SMEs and Universities about funding opportunities from Europe, find our more here.
If you are struggling to find a partner, you can get in touch with the KTN or pick up the phone to BioLauncher. We have helped clients build collaborations and can use ShowcaseBio to identify potential partners in the UK or internationally.
