Partnership acceleration and commercial engagement (PACE) fund

We encourage you to discuss any general ideas for PACE funding or questions about additional staff resourcing with the relevant faculty representative.

Arts and Humanities:

• Rachel Cowgill (rachel.cowgill@york.ac.uk)
• Natalie Fullwood (natalie.fullwood@york.ac.uk)
• Zara Worth (zara.worth@york.ac.uk)

Sciences:

• Jane Hill (jane.hill@york.ac.uk)
• Jenny Spear (jenny.spear@york.ac.uk)

Social Sciences:

• Christina Brennan (christina.brennan@york.ac.uk)
• Nina Caspersen (nina.caspersen@york.ac.uk)

Staff from any academic, research, or Professional Services departments can apply. Applications are encouraged from all subject disciplines and interdisciplinary collaborations.

Eligible activities include:

• collaborative and contract research partnerships
• testing new ways of working (new roles, new approaches, practice-based staff)
• commissioning external consultants, advisors and service providers to accelerate commercial opportunities
• developing new commercial products and services, including consultancy, Continuing Professional Development (CPD), licensing
• large-scale market research for commercial opportunities
• testing, de-risking or proving novel ideas, concepts and propositions that are likely to generate significant income streams
• supporting licence transactions and spin-out companies
• paying for design, prototype development and manufacturing as appropriate to accelerate commercial opportunities
• sourcing temporary staff or interns to support knowledge exchange activities to accelerate commercial opportunities

Any directly incurred costs for eligible activities can be covered.

The following costs and activities are not eligible:

• studentships or fee waivers for students
• indirect and estate costs
• capital expenditure (buildings or equipment)
• projects not generating income for the University. 

Before submitting your application

We encourage you to undertake a detailed review of the assessment criteria before making your application and to discuss your initial ideas with your Head of Department or relevant manager.

Once you have an idea please first discuss your proposal with your relevant faculty advisor (see Faculty Advisors tab). Tarl Prow or Amanda Selvaratnam are also happy to provide additional guidance as to whether your proposal is suitable for PACE funding.

Once it has been agreed that your project idea is suitable for PACE funding, you'll be allocated a member of the relevant Professional Services team, who will work closely with you to support the drafting of your application and provide expert guidance. At this point, your departmental Research Facilitator will be able to support the development of the financial costings.

Professional Services and staff include:

• Business Development, James Hastie (james.hastie@york.ac.uk)
• Collaborative or contract research, David Diston (david.diston@york.ac.uk)
• Commercial facilities, Peter O'Toole (peter.otoole@york.ac.uk)
• Commercialisation, James Kitson (james.kitson@york.ac.uk)
• Continuing Professional Development (CPD) and Corporate and Consultancy training, Anna Hastie (anna.hastie@york.ac.uk)

After submitting your application

Proposals will be scored on a scale of zero-five on the following four criteria:

• Ambition - the project has the potential to drive change or income, and future benefits are clear (30 per cent)
• Approach - methodologies, resources, applicants and/or partners (30 per cent)
• Value for money and sustainability - cost effective and clear approach to becoming financially stable (20 per cent)
• Risk management - key risks and mitigations (20 per cent)

The panel will meet to agree a final decision, subject to approval by the Pro Vice-Chancellor (Research). The panel will include:

• Professor Tarl Prow, Associate PCV (Research)
• Amanda Selvaratnam, Associate Director (Business and Knowledge Exchange), Research, Innovation and Knowledge Exchange
• Two academic reviewers, one of whom may be from the BIEI steering group
• A Professional Services project support representative (eg relevant growth lead(s)
• An external representative (as appropriate)

Faculty Deans will also be consulted as part of the process.

Funding may be contingent on further work regarding any issues identified by the reviewers.

Milestone payments

• You'll need to provide a detailed expenditure forecast for the duration of your project.
• For multi-year projects, funding will be released on an annual basis as long as pre-agreed milestones have been met.
• If successful, you'll have a discussion with the panel to develop and agree appropriate milestones.
• You must adhere to the monitoring and reporting processes associated with funding:
  • Providing quarterly progress report, including financial and milestone updates (supported by your dedicated PS member).
  • Providing a Final Outcomes report to an agreed template after the project has ended.

Unspent funds

HEIF is the funding source of PACE projects, and awarded funds can only be spent in the year in which they are awarded. HEIF funding can only support activity that has been incurred in the period that it has been awarded, e.g. a PACE award for 2025/2026 must be spent between 01 August 2025 and 31 July 2026. Any underspends at the end of a year (31 July) cannot be rolled forward and will be reclaimed. Any overspends and any expenditure outside the remit of the funding will be the responsibility of the department.

Engagement with relevant Professional Services teams

• You should engage with the relevant Professional Services team before the start of and during your project. Professional Services staff will be able to support you when drafting your application and provide additional project management support if funding is granted.
• For intellectual property and contracting, applicants are requested to engage with the Commercialisation and Research and Knowledge Exchange Contract teams, to ensure that any intellectual property is protected and its value is maximised.
• Applicants who receive funding for short course and professional development projects, or consultancy projects, must follow a best practice development model and engage with the CPD team.
• Applicants who receive funding for collaborative research and contract research should contact the Research and Innovation Development team.

• Whether the panel awards funding is conditional on a kick-off meeting, involving all parties in the project.
  • This is to ensure all parties understand the full terms of the grant, how to manage the project and funding, and their responsibilities.
  • This may also include a discussion between the panel and successful applicants to develop and agree on appropriate milestones. These milestones will be developed in partnership with the academic principle investigator (Tarl Prow) and be specific to each project.
• Successful applicants will be asked to report on milestones and progress towards spending the grant on a quarterly basis throughout the project. These reports will detail the amount of money spent to date, and any unexpected obstacles or changes of plan. Depending on the outcome of the report, a meeting may then be held to discuss managing the remainder of the project.
• You'll be asked to complete and submit a report to an agreed template at the end of the funded period.
• In addition, all grant-holders should immediately raise any concerns, obstacles, problems or changes of plan that arise at any point during their project with their Professional Services contact.
• Documentation to audit your spend should be kept by you or your department, according to your normal procedures. These do not need to be routinely sent as attachments to any interim or final reports, but may be required in the event of an audit.

• Using the PACE Financial Table
• Worktribe support for your PACE application (search standalone budgets) 

PACE FAQ's (PDF , 116kb)