The Advanced Innovation Voucher award builds relationships between small and medium sized companies (SMEs) and universities or colleges in Scotland. This programme bridges the gap between business and academia, making it easier for collaboration on a project.

The value of an Advanced Innovation Voucher is up to £20,000 of grant funding. The company match is a mix of in-kind and cash contributions.

Interface welcomes applications from all industry sectors and the proposed collaborative project should lead to new products, services and processes that will benefit the company, the university or college and the Scottish economy.

Interface provides support with finding a suitable academic partner who has the right specialist expertise to progress your project.

Yes, if you:

• are a registered business operating in Scotland
• are a small to medium-sized enterprise (less than 250 employees, turnover less then €50 million or a balance sheet less than €43 million, as defined by the European Commission) or a social enterprise
• have a novel or pioneering idea which will lead to new products, services or processes or develop the workforce that will benefit the company, the academic institution and the Scottish economy
• have a project which cannot be delivered commercially and require the technical expertise of an academic partner

The company must provide a mix of in-kind (such as staff time, materials or equipment) and cash contributions.

Companies can only be awarded one Advanced Innovation voucher with a single Scottish university or college.

All organisations (SME, social enterprises and third sector) with fewer than 250 employees and turnover of less than £50 million may apply.

Your organisation must have a desire to collaborate with a Scottish university or college to work on a project and build a sustained relationship.

Applications must be submitted by the relevant academic institution and may take up to 3 weeks from submission to be approved by Scottish Funding Council.

Projects should generally start within 4 weeks of the grant being approved and should be complete with final report submission by 31 March (end of financial year).

If you are collaborating with a university or college for the first time you may wish to consider applying for the Standard Innovation Voucher as a first step. 

Sole traders and businesses not registered in Scotland will need to submit a pre-submission form to establish eligibility.

Please submit an enquiry and a member of the Interface team will respond shortly.