Application guidance and eligibility requirements

Eligibility Requirements

Project Eligibility

Remit – All projects funded by PQA must:

• Fall within the technological remit of PQA, that is, photonic technologies and their applications. For the purposes of PQA this means the application of generation, detection, and manipulation of light and includes quantum technologies based on light.
• Have the potential to lead to economic and/or societal impact in Central Scotland. For the purposes of PQA, Central Scotland is defined to be the region encompassing the area from Helensburgh to Montrose (the Highland Boundary Fault) and from Girvan to Dunbar (the Southern Uplands Fault).
• Build upon underpinning research which falls within the EPSRC remit (but does not necessarily need to have been funded by EPSRC).

PQA will not fund new research projects, but rather the translation of research towards impact. Awards can add value to existing UKRI support and enable multidisciplinary working and collaboration with non-academic partners. Applicants must explain how their project fits within the defined scope of PQA and provide a short overview of the underpinning research upon which the project builds. The PI on a PQA project does not necessarily need to be (or have been) the PI or collaborator on the underpinning research. PhD projects are also eligible as underpinning research.

Project partners are not mandatory, but there must be the potential for the impact of the project to have social and/or economic benefit within Scotland’s Central Belt. Typically, eligible partners are research users: including companies, local or regional or national government bodies and other public-sector organisations including the NHS, charities, NGOs and other third-sector organisations. A formal collaboration agreement will be required with external partners before commencing your project. It is recommended that you discuss this with your partner at an early stage of the proposal development.

Proposals must be submitted on the PQA application form and:

• describe the area of knowledge, capability, or technology to be developed.
• have a single, named PI who is responsible for the project, who must be a member of staff at a UK University.
• provide a title by which the project will be known.
• state the proposed start date and duration of the proposed project.
• outline the research base on which it builds.
• describe the current stage of development and how it will be moved forward by the proposed PQA project.
• provide details on the opportunity that will be addressed by this project, backed up by evidence of demand from the market and / or stakeholders and any other impact drivers.
• outline the current barriers to exploitation / application.
• fully justify the nature and costs of all resources requested.
• provide details of anticipated project outcomes and impacts, including how they will be achieved, within what timescales, what mechanisms might be adopted to realise them, and how they will be measured.
• address projects risks and outline appropriate mitigation strategies.
• demonstrate that an appropriate IP strategy is being adopted.
• outline how principals of trusted research, responsible innovation, sustainability and ED&I will be incorporated into the project.

Proposals which do not address these criteria will be deemed ineligible and be rejected without going to the review panel. It is strongly recommended that you discuss your proposal with a member of the PQA Team prior to submitting a proposal.

Standard projects will be of six months duration or less, but there will be a small number of longer strategic projects that will be developed in collaboration with the PQA management team. All projects must be complete before 31 January 2028.

Individual Eligibility

All UK university staff are eligible to hold a PQA award. Award holders must comply with the standard EPSRC eligibility criteria.

Some PQA calls for proposals are open exclusively to staff from the PQA partner institutions (Universities of Glasgow, Heriot Watt, St. Andrews, and Strathclyde), whereas some calls are open to applicants from any UK University. We may also periodically issue directed calls designed to target specific technologies, applications, groups or type of activity. Please check the scope of the specific call before applying. Please note that in all cases the impact of the proposed project must fall within the stated technological and geographical remit of PQA as highlighted above.

All staff wishing to receive PQA funding must have completed all relevant mandatory institutional training required to hold funding, for example: in Equality, Diversity & Inclusion; Research Integrity; GDPR / Information Security; etc.

For mobility projects, all staff must comply with visa and immigration requirements. Please check with your local HR team.

2. Costing and Eligible Costs

Eligible Costs

The level of funding available will be defined for each Call – please see the specific Call for details. In general, PQA available funding is based on the size of the project and its duration. The value of the funding award sought should be proportionate to the scope, stage and scale of the project.

While PQA funding will not cover Full Economic Cost (FEC), it is designed to be flexible and can cover items such as:

• University staff to undertake the project (Researchers and other staff, but staff who’s time would be DA (Directly Allocated) cannot be funded)
• Consumables
• Travel, accommodation and subsistence costs (in line with your institutional policy on such costs)
• Costs associated with staff mobility between academia and industry
• Costs associated with external partner engagement, such as travel to meet with or visit an industry partner or attend an industry event
• Public engagement where interaction is key to informing the research impact such as user or patient engagement as a critical pathway to achieving societal and/or economic impact
• Small capital equipment items. Any single item purchased using a PQA award must be less than £10,000 in value (incl. VAT). PQA funds cannot be used to make a contribution to the cost of an individual item of equipment which costs £10,000 or more (incl. VAT).
• Cost for the use of and access to specialist facilities
• Sub-contracting costs
• Training costs (for training directly related to impact generation activities only)
• Commissioning expert consultants to undertake specialist tasks such as market research / analysis, product design, industry engagement or a commercial champion to support the development of impact, in line with your institutional procurement policy, in particular, taking account of purchasing thresholds.

The following items are not eligible for PQA funding:

• New, fundamental research
• Impact activities that should already have been anticipated and supported through standard routes, e.g. impact activities costed as part of basic research proposals or CDTs
• DA staff salary costs
• Indirect and estates costs
• Undergraduate activities, Master’s training
• Academic research or the development of tools exclusively for use in further research
• Academic publication costs
• Academic conference attendance
• Costs for the delivery of research conferences targeted solely at an academic audience
• Costs which solely for the benefit an external partner, including university spin out companies
• IP and patent costs – any costs relating to Intellectual Property protection including but not limited to registering, maintaining or supporting patents or property rights
• Projects designed to bridge a funding gap between research projects
• Projects with the sole aim of retaining a member of University staff such as a research associate
• PhDs and costs directly associated with studentships
• Standard desktop, laptop and tablet computers and associated IT equipment
• Single items of equipment with a value of £10,000 or more (incl. VAT)
• Contributions to the cost of purchasing equipment with a value of £10,000 or more (incl. VAT)
• Contributions to KTPs

Other Points to Note on Project Costs

In line with the sustainability goals of the universities involved and EPSRC, all travel undertaken using PQA funds must be fully justified and done using the most appropriate mode available, taking into account cost, circumstances and sustainability.

All resources purchased for PQA projects must done in line with your institutional procurement policy, in particular, taking account of purchasing thresholds.

Please contact the PQA team for advice on preparing your project costing.

3. PQA Proposals Led by Research Associates

One of the primary aims of the PQA is to stimulate culture change by involving early career researchers in impact activity and to support them in the creation of industrial partnerships and development of non-academic networks. By leading an independent project, RAs will strengthen their track record, enhancing their chances when pursuing opportunities such as fellowships or positions outside academia.

Most Calls are open to proposals led by Research Associates. For Early Impact Calls we will fund RA-led projects up to a maximum value of £50,000 each. These applications will be reviewed alongside all others in that Call.

We will hold RA-only Calls too during the lifetime of the PQA. These calls will be exclusively open to research associates with the allocated funds entirely set aside for RA-led projects.

Eligible costs are the same as for all other PQA projects e.g. travel, consumables, access to facilities, and sub-contracting (see Section 2). However, RAs leading projects are able to claim their directly incurred salary costs.

If you are unsure of your eligibility or any other aspect of your idea please get in touch with the PQA Team to discuss it further.

Projects must be driven by the individual research associate leading the proposal and approval from your supervisor/research project PI is required. You will also be asked to outline to the PQA review panel how you expect that the award of this funding will support your career development. Where appropriate a suitable industry champion or KE mentor should be identified and incorporated into the proposal. If you are not able to identify someone, we will work with you to identify a suitable person.

In addition to a completed PQA Application Form, please provide in your submission a short statement outlining how you expect that the award of this funding will support your career development and confirmation that your line manager, supervisor, or main project PI are supportive of your application.

4. Funding Arrangements

It is preferable that collaboration partners contribute cash to a project, although “tangible” material contributions are also welcome. Acceptable equivalent value partner in-kind contributions could be in the form of specific staff time undertaking part of the project, access to equipment, provision of materials, consumables, or other items. These commitments should be backed up by a letter of support which should be submitted along with your proposal.

PQA projects must specify a proposed start date and project duration. No-cost project extensions are possible, with the approval of the PQA Project Manager. All projects must be completed by 31 January 2028. Extensions beyond this date are not possible.

PQA funding is only awarded to UK Universities. Non-academic organisations cannot be a recipient of PQA funding, although they can be paid for services provided and goods supplied, in line with your institutional procurement policy, in particular, taking account of purchasing thresholds.

5. Intellectual Property Rights, Contracts and Agreements

Ownership and use of any new intellectual property developed during a PQA project will be negotiated by your university in consultation with the award holders. If an external partner organisation is involved a signed Collaboration Agreement will need to be in place prior to the project starting – please contact your university contracts team for advice and assistance with this.

Where projects involve partnership-building or collaborative working that lies outside the scope of a formal collaboration agreement, the external collaborator should have sight of the application, workplan and budget in advance of submission.

All commercialisation projects should be developed in consultation with your institutional IP and Commercialisation team.

6. Project Monitoring and Post-Project Reporting

The success of a PQA project will be determined by the quality, scale, and scope of the outcomes and impacts emerging from the activities funded. The PQA Team will work closely with all projects to ensure objectives are achieved, helping to maximise opportunities as they emerge and monitoring progress against pre-defined milestones. Upon finishing your project a completed Project Final Report Form, agreed and signed by all partners, will be required. In addition, you may also be asked to help develop a case study on your project in consultation with the PQA Team which will focus on the outcomes and benefits of the work undertaken. Failure to submit a final project report means you will not be eligible for subsequent PQA funding.

All publications relating to PQA funded projects must cite the PQA EPSRC grant reference number: EP/Y024109/1.

7. Privacy Notice

Your Personal Data

The University of Glasgow, the University of Strathclyde, Heriot-Watt University, and the University of St Andrews will be what’s known as the ‘Joint Data Controllers’ of your personal data processed in relation to applications for Photonic and Quantum Accelerator PBIAA funding. This privacy notice will explain how The University of Glasgow, the University of Strathclyde, Heriot-Watt University, and the University of St Andrews will process your personal data.

Why we need it

We are collecting your basic personal data including your name, email address, job title, host university name, School, and/or department and administrative contact information, and information about any external partners, to process and manage your application for PQA funding.  The survey platform we use will also collect your IP address.

We will also collect limited special categories data where relevant and only if you chose to provide it, about your disability, ethnicity, religious belief, and sexual orientation, along with basic personal data about your age, gender, and caring responsibilities, as part of a demographics survey to monitor the level of under-represented groups receiving PQA funding.

Legal basis for processing your data

We must have a legal basis for processing all personal data. In this instance, the legal bases are:

• For personal data collected via the funding application, the legal basis is Contract. As the application is part of the review process leading to us potentially funding a project with associated legal documentation.
• For the personal and special category data collected via the follow-on demographic survey, the legal basis is Consent and Explicit Consent.

What we do with it and who we share it with

All the personal data you submit as part of the funding application process is processed by staff at the University of Glasgow, the University of Strathclyde, Heriot-Watt University, and the University of St Andrews in the United Kingdom.  If you chose to complete the demographics survey, your data will be processed by staff at the University of Glasgow only and will not be shared with the project partners in an identifiable form.  Your data will also be shared with Qualtrics, the University’s approved third-party survey platform provider.

In addition:

• Your data will be stored securely.
• The raw Application data will be downloaded to a locked channel in the project’s Teams system, accessible only by the Project Delivery Team. Applications and Reviews will also be stored here. Some data will be replicated as part of the project tracking process into a file in the main project’s Teams area, accessible by the Steering Committee.
• For the Demographic data, at time of submission each record is given a random Response ID code, unique to that record. The pseudonymous Demographic data, will be downloaded to the Project Manager’s University OneDrive account, accessible only by them. The only data recorded that could identify an individual is the IP address in the record. This is removed during data processing. Anonymised aggregate data will be kept in a spreadsheet in the main project Teams area, accessible by the Steering Committee. After completion the data will be deleted, as detailed above.
• The Application data will be shared with Project Delivery team, application reviewers, the University Partners, the projects boards (Steering Committee, Executive Group, Advisory Board), and the funders EPSRC.
• The Demographic data will be shared only as anonymous statistical data, with the University Partners, the projects boards (Steering Committee, Executive Group, Advisory Board), the funders EPSRC, and possibly the public. No raw Demographic data will be shared with any third parties. All special category data collected via the demographic survey will only be available to UofG and not the project partners.

How long do we keep it for

Your application data will be retained by the University for seven years after the PQA project ends. After this time, data will be securely deleted. Special categories data will be deleted at the end of the project, but the anonymous statistical data may be used by the University partners and EPSRC in an ongoing basis.

What are your rights?*

You can request access to the information we process about you at any time.  If at any point you believe that the information we process relating to you is incorrect, you can request to see this information and may in some instances request to have it restricted, corrected or erased.  You may also have the right to object to the processing of data and the right to data portability.  Where we have relied upon your consent to process your data, you also have the right to withdraw your consent at any time.

If you wish to exercise any of these rights, please submit your request via the webform or contact dp@gla.ac.uk.

*Please note that the ability to exercise these rights will vary and depend on the legal basis on which the processing is being carried out. 

Complaints

If you wish to raise a complaint on how we have handled your personal data, you can contact the University Data Protection Officer who will investigate the matter.
Our Data Protection Officer can be contacted at: dataprotectionofficer@glasgow.ac.uk

If you are not satisfied with our response or believe we are not processing your personal data in accordance with the law, you can complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) https://ico.org.uk/