IRC Flex Fund Round 3 – The Winners!

Government financial supports for collaborative research and innovation (R&I) projects between Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) and Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) play a key role in the UK economy. Cultivating a pipeline of innovative SMEs at various growth stages is essential for a resilient R&I system. However, SMEs face significant knowledge and financial obstacles to start and sustain their innovation journey. Government-supported collaborations can provide an entry ticket for SMEs into the innovation game, providing access to cutting-edge knowledge and infrastructure embedded in HEIs.

Collaborative financial supports vary in size and, consequently, the type of R&I they can support. Small-scale collaborative R&I supports focus on small R&I projects. However, the expectation is that they can build up SMEs’ innovation capacity, and prepare them for future larger R&I projects, and R&I funding applications. We term this concept the ‘Collaborative R&I Support Ladder’, which SMEs climb as they grow through their innovation journey. Despite its importance, how SMEs deal with the key ‘second rung on the ladder’, from small-scale to mid-scale collaborative funding support, has been ignored in previous research.

This research uses comprehensive data that tracks SMEs’ R&I and business performance activity from 2006-2021. The data captures SMEs that received initial small-scale support through an Innovation Voucher, and then went on to receive additional mid-scale collaborative R&I funding for more advanced innovation projects. This unique data enables the research to provide actionable insights for policymakers on the most effective ways to build SMEs’ R&I capacity, thus supporting a resilient R&I system.

Project team: Dr Kevin Mulligan, Prof Helena Lenihan and Dr Mauricio Perez-Alaniz

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is increasingly being employed in social science research as a methodological tool, for example, in text mining, prediction, and simulation. This development presents significant opportunities to generate new insights, address complex societal challenges, and inform evidence-based policymaking. At the same time, the rapid adoption of AI highlights the need to embed principles of privacy, fairness, transparency, and accountability within a broader Responsible Innovation (RI) framework to ensure that research outcomes remain robust, inclusive, and trusted.

This project explores how Responsible AI practices can be systematically integrated into social science research and innovation. Drawing on the UKRI Gateway to Research (GtR) database, it will map trends in AI-related social science projects, examine how AI and RI considerations are currently incorporated, and identify key barriers and enablers to wider adoption. Complementary case studies and stakeholder workshops will provide deeper insights and support the co-creation of practical frameworks for implementing Responsible AI and RI practices.

The project will deliver actionable recommendations for the ESRC, offering guidance on how the responsible use of AI — embedded within a RI approach — can strengthen the resilience of the UK’s research and innovation system. By aligning ethical AI practices with the RI agenda in the social sciences, the project aims to build trust, foster inclusivity, and enhance adaptability, supporting the UK’s ambition to be a global leader in applying AI within social science research.

Project team: Prof Bowei Chen and Prof Nuran Acur

This project examines knowledge transfer (KT) within publicly funded research and development (R&D) consortia to understand what makes the United Kingdom (UK) research and innovation (R&I) system resilient. Consortia bringing together firms, universities, funders, and intermediaries, making them microcosms of the wider system. KT, understood as the movement and reuse of ideas, expertise, and know-how, is central to resilience because it allows knowledge to be mobilised, adapted, and sustained across organisational boundaries. Examining KT in consortia, the project reveals, at a micro-level, how the system functions in practice and what conditions enable it to endure.

Building on this focus, the project will trace knowledge flows within the consortium, including what moves, when and how it moves, how it is used, and the conditions that shape these flows. Findings will be translated into practical actions for two audiences.

For consortium participants, we will offer guidance on governance, role design, meeting and documentation routines, and ways to monitor and strengthen knowledge exchange, helping consortia cultivate stronger, more resilient partnerships and enabling more effective collaborations. For policymakers and funders (ESRC, Innovate UK, and UKRI), we will provide concise guidance on programme design, reporting, and monitoring, indicating how to track KT, what facilitates or hinders it, which designs support it, and what targeted support can overcome barriers.

Together, these insights will inform how resilience can be built at the system level, in line with UKRI’s priorities, by showing which actor roles, collaboration routines, and governance and incentive arrangements enable effective KT across organisational boundaries.

Project team: Dr Siqiao Luan, Prof Nola Hewitt-Dundas, Prof Stephen Roper and Dr Jason Wiggins

This project will investigate if and how Focused Research Organisations (FROs) – a novel organisational model for mission-driven R&D – can contribute to a more resilient UK research and innovation ecosystem. FROs are non-profit organisations designed to address the organisational-design gap for managing scientific projects that are bigger than an academic lab can undertake, more coordinated than a loose consortium or themed department, and not directly profitable enough to be a venture-backed start-up or industrial R&D project. They pursue prespecified, quantifiable technical milestones within a finite time (~5 years), actively deploying public goods (e.g. open-sourcing data, spinning out nonprofits/startups, partnering with existing institutions). While FROs have gained momentum in the US, their development in the UK remains nascent. Recent funding from ARIA (e.g., Asterisk Labs), DSIT (Bind Research), and Convergent UK’s FRO incubation and launch programme marks the UK’s early steps in establishing FROs.

In partnership with Convergent UK, this research examines the launch of its first UK FRO cohort to explore the potential of FROs in the UK and the dynamics of their early-development. A key focus will be on UKRI and Innovate UK’s organisational eligibility policies and their potential role in supporting FROs as a growing route for entrepreneurial scientists pursuing ambitious missions.

Outputs are designed to raise awareness of this emerging organisational form to inform UKRI and Innovate UK strategies. The research will offer evidence, recommendations and insights regarding ‘alternative’ organisational designs and their potential to enhance the UK’s capacity for bold, mission-driven science and a resilient innovation ecosystem.

Project team: Gemma Milne, Mary Wang and Dr Jillian Gordon

Widening inequalities and regional disparities have drawn growing attention across policy, academic, and public discourse. While regional innovation systems (RIS) have long interested policymakers, recent concerns about spatial inequality raise critical questions about their relevance and effectiveness in less advantaged parts of the UK’s periphery and semi-periphery, including the northern “powerhouse” with regions associated with high potential and deep disparities. Much existing RIS research focuses on high-performing clusters, leaving a significant gap, and corresponding policy opportunity, in understanding how RIS (can) emerge and thrive in less privileged regions where the potential of innovation-led transformation is most profound.

This research revisits RIS through the lens of inclusivity, and focusing on their social and economic impacts. By synthesising existing evidence and engaging directly with local actors in the North East and North West of England, the project will (1) identify the opportunities and barriers to the emergence of RIS in (semi)peripheral areas including second cities, declining towns, and rural areas; (2) assess the inclusivity of existing RIS in these places in terms of their impact on income, skill development, and the absorptive capacity of local economies; and (3) explore how local actors perceive and interpret the inclusivity of innovations, particularly those developed within their region, and the knowledge networks or systems that support them.

By re-examining innovation systems from these distinct angles, the research will generate evidence-based insights to inform and support place-based and regional innovation policies. It will offer practical recommendations for tailoring innovation strategies to local contexts, strengthening the capacity of under-invested regions to participate in and benefit from innovation-led growth.

Project team: Dr Ozge Dilaver, Prof Gary Bosworth and Prof David Charles

The UK is home to over 131,000 social enterprises which contribute £78bn to the economy, employing about 2.3 million people while tackling some of the most complex social challenges like homelessness, mental health, disability support, substance dependency, employability etc (Social Enterprise UK, 2025). Thus, such enterprises are strong avenues of delivering the UK government’s policy objectives (Choi et al. 2020). While generating social impact, social enterprises are creating innovative ideas, products, services and ways of working with 68% of enterprises generating product or service innovation, often outperforming traditional businesses (Social Enterprise UK, 2023). Nonetheless, these organisations often struggle to get the right kind of funding to facilitate the generation and scaling of innovation. This can often be due to hybrid orientation of objectives and value creation including both social and economic impact, the long-term nature of experimentation and outcome generation. As a result, disparity exists between the innovation potential of social enterprises and available funding mechanisms.

This study, thus, aims to rethink what funding for innovation by social enterprises can look like by bringing together social enterprises and innovation funders into the same room to explore these challenges and solutions together using co-design mechanisms and serious game-based workshops. Participants will explore and navigate realistic funding scenarios, make decisions, swap roles and reimagine the logics and processes of funding. A playful but structured format helps reveal hidden assumptions, value differences and systemic barriers that people may not normally voice, while creating space for collaboration.

By the end of the project, funders and social enterprises will have jointly developed new ideas for what innovation funding could look like to be more flexible, fair and enable scalability. This can ultimately strengthen the UK’s capacity to tackle deep-rooted social challenges through facilitating creative and sustainable solutions.

Project team: Dr Nadeen Purna and Dr Naman Merchant

This project transforms research on manufacturing SMEs in the West Midlands into actionable, policy-ready guidance for government and innovation agencies. Our previous IRC-funded study (FFTwo0012) revealed that while most SMEs are open to adopting digital technologies including AI-driven systems, Large Language Models (LLMs), and low-carbon practices they face significant barriers such as limited time, skills, and capacity, particularly under high energy costs. Current support schemes often favour larger firms, leaving smaller, owner-managed businesses behind. SME owners often struggle to understand the complex terminologies and jargon used in funding schemes, and due to time, cost, skill, and capacity constraints, they are unable to relate government support to their actual business needs and its potential impact. This project addresses these gaps by providing practical recommendations to ensure inclusive, effective digital and green transitions for SMEs.

Using existing data from the Longitudinal Small Business Survey, interviews, and stakeholders’ focus groups, this Action-to-Impact project will turn those findings into short case studies and a concise policy framework showing what works, where, and why. It will outline simple, evidence-based actions such as “one-front-door” regional support models, micro-grants tied to measured savings and tailored local delivery.

Outputs will include a short, illustrated framework, case studies and infographic summarising actionable insights for Innovate UK, DSIT, and regional policymakers. An online briefing session will share the results. By translating research into clear, usable guidance, the project will help policymakers design smarter support for SMEs and advance digital and net-zero goals while strengthening regional productivity and resilience.

Project team: Dr Samia Mahmood, Dr Nadia Asghar and Dr Kayvan Kousha

This project identifies strategic priorities for investment in the enabling infrastructure for agricultural research in the UK.

Innovation in UK agriculture is essential to food security, public health and climate resilience.i Agri-tech is identified as ‘frontier industry’ in the UK industrial strategy.ii This is reflected in Government spending an average £380M/y on agricultural research and innovation. iii The impact and cost-effectiveness of such funding depends on the quality and suitability of the UK’s research and innovation infrastructure.

Agricultural universities have identified investment in research infrastructure as the sector’s top priority.iv It is also a focus for Government research funders.v This is driven by two main factors: Concern that research farms – seen as a key infrastructures – are undervalued and at risk.

Questions over the most effective focus for future investment, given that agricultural research methods are evolving fast, increasingly relying on digital infrastructure to combine and coordinate large-scale data from multiple sources.

This project: collates information from previous studies of research infrastructure to build an interactive directory of resources specifically relevant to agriculture; surveys hundreds of researchers, on their past and anticipated use of these, to identify key current and future infrastructures; interviews diverse stakeholders their future infrastructure needs and investment priorities; combines researcher and stakeholder insights to develop and critically evaluate strategic investment options and prioritise a recommended investment proposition.

This work will be supported by and will contribute to an independently funded State of Agricultural Research & Innovation (SARI) review for UK research funders and providers.

Project team: Dr Pattanapong Tiwasing, Prof Tom MacMillan, Dr Kayleigh Crouch and Yang Bong

The innovation ecosystem is currently hampered by the fragmented use of separate readiness scales (TRL, CRL, MRL, SRL, among others). This ambiguity hinders effective decision-making, complicates investment and collaboration, and slows the crucial journey from research to market impact.

This Targeted Research project directly addresses this gap by creating the Integrated Readiness Matrix: a unified, single-table standard designed to provide a clear, holistic assessment of innovation maturity. It builds on the Innovation Growth Lab’s prior research into science commercialisation and related work with innovation agencies, including Innovate UK, which proved the value of readiness scales while identifying the critical fragmentation problem.

This six-month project is driven by core research questions focused on understanding current scale use, identifying best practices and defining the optimal structure for scale integration. The methodology employs a mixed-methods approach, combining desk research with semi-structured interviews and validation workshops with leading Technology Transfer Officers, VCs, and innovation agencies.

The core innovation is the standardised alignment and matching of the levels of all scales with corresponding metrics. The final output — a publicly available Integrated Readiness Matrix (IRM) — will replace fragmented approaches with a single tool that defines integrated, empirically derived metrics for every stage of development. This standard will create a common language for all stakeholders, facilitate strategic funding and commercialisation decisions, and support the development of services and collaborations to target the specific needs of enterprises moving from lab to market.

Project team: Albert Bravo-Biosca, Apoorva Srikkanth, George Richardson, and Sara Garcia Arteagoitia