School Seed Fund

The School of Technology Seed Fund aims to support academics in the School to add value to existing research; to increase activity in cross-School strategic research themes and priorities, particularly in addressing major challenges; to bring in further research income; or to explore research ideas of potential significance.

New research themes: the School has refreshed its strategic research themes for 2025. The new themes will be announced fully during 2025, but they are listed briefly here. Applicants are encouraged to demonstrate how their work aligns with one or more of these themes.

1. Sustainable future
2. Health and wellbeing
3. Security & resilience
4. Increased competitiveness

Applications for typically up to £15,000 to cover Direct Costs are invited from academics in the School of Technology Departments. An award could fund post-doctoral researcher time, support a workshop, or support activities in the development of a major collaborative proposal.

Completed projects: what we have funded so far

Take a look at completed seed funded projects by Department:

• Department of Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology
• Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership
• Department of Computer Science and Technology
• Department of Engineering

How to apply

Download application form

Email applications to researchstrat@tech.cam.ac.uk. Applications can be submitted at any time; applicants will be informed of the outcome following the next School Research Committee meeting – dates below.

Funds must be spent within 12 months. Recipients should arrange a mid-term Teams call with the School Research Relations Team, to discuss progress and follow-on funding applications. A final 1000-word report of activities and outcomes, plus a 200-word summary suitable for publication on the School website, must be submitted within 14 months of the award date.

Applications will be assessed according to:

1. The merit and potential impact of the activities
2. The potential to provide a basis for further external funding or further major research initiatives

Preference will be given to the following:

1. Applications involving more than one Department (any School), or with potential to improve cross-School and cross-University activity
2. Research that fits clearly into the School’s strategic research themes: (i) Sustainable future, (ii) Health and wellbeing, (iii) Security and resilience, (iv) Increased competitiveness
3. Grand Challenges with potential for (i) further collaborations; (ii) influencing policy and decision-makers
4. New Strategic Research Initiatives (SRIs), should the University be running a call for these
5. Applications that leverage other internal funding sources, e.g. Isaac Newton Trust Grants

Eligibility criteria

1. The lead academic must:
   
   1. Be based in one of the Departments of the School of Technology
   2. Be a PI who is eligible to hold their own grants within their Department
   3. Have a contract running beyond the proposed end date of the funding
2. The proposal must:
   
   1. Indicate how the work will directly enable further research income or seed significant further research
   2. Include direct costs only
3. The following are not supported by the seed fund:
   
   1. Buy-out of academic investigator time
   2. Stand-alone research
   3. Non-research activities (e.g. teaching, outreach, commercialisation)
   4. Proposals for the sole purpose of bridging a postdoc
   5. Proposals whose primary purpose is administrative support for bid preparation (apply instead to the RSO Bid Preparation fund: rolling deadline; a response is normally given within 2 weeks of submission)

Further support for large grants

The Research Strategy Office has support available for applications:

• Large Grant Contributions Fund: aims to provide financial contributions to large collaborative grant proposals
• Bid Preparation Fund: provides small grants to enable preparation of large collaborative bids