Proof of concept fund
Source: https://www.york.ac.uk/students/work-volunteering-careers/skills/enterprise/proof-concept/ Parent: https://www.york.ac.uk/students/work-volunteering-careers/skills/enterprise/
The Proof of concept fund gives you the chance to receive up to £500 to put towards working on your business idea.
The fund provides financial assistance in the early-stage development of projects that show commercial potential. Awards are made from £250 up to £500. You will also get detailed feedback on your business idea and suggestions for how to improve it.
Successful applications will have a clear idea for a commercial or social enterprise, as well as having a plan for how the funding will help test the concept.
Applications will be judged by an external board of assessors. To maximise your chances, we advise you to book an Enterprise appointment to review your application before submitting it.
You can apply any time during the semester. The deadlines for submissions are the end of Week 11.
What sort of ideas get funded?
We have funded a range of applications ranging from vending machine businesses to digital products. Your idea needn't be fully developed; the fund can help towards collecting customer feedback, researching further into the identified problem or engaging a first client to demonstrate your business.
Here are some examples of the recent uses of our fund:
- Lab equipment to develop mushroom cultivation
- Creation of healthy food boxes for isolating students
- Vegan chocolate bar branding
- Sports data aggregator to help teams compare individual player statistics
- Recycled clothing web store
- One-off hand drawn maps for gamers
- Demonstrating marketing ability to first client
- Two drinking games!
Previous success of the fund
Lakechia, founder of Girls in Science, explains how the Proof of Concept Fund helped her business get off the ground.