ImpactU Awards

NEW! ImpactU FdT Health Impact Loans

Loans of up to £60,000 to help social ventures improving health in low-resource settings scale their impact.

Funded by Financière de Tubize (FdT), the reference shareholder of global biopharmaceutical company UCB, and operated by ImpactU.

These provide a £60,000 recoverable loan to run a real-world pilot improving health in low-resource settings.

Open to projects with a validated proof-of-concept or newly incorporated spinouts, this programme is looking to fund social ventures using novel business models to implement proven technologies.

These technologies must add healthy life years to communities in low-resource settings, who may be underserved due to poverty, structural barriers to healthcare, or geographic remoteness.

Investment Criteria

An embedded social purpose

Focus on adding healthy life years to communities in low-resource settings or underserved populations

A strong founding team

A strong market understanding with experience working with local stakeholders

A sustainable business model implementing proven technology

Will funding help to demonstrate social impact and commercial viability?

Is your venture eligible?

Must be an incorporated company in the United Kingdom (CLS, CLG or CIC). or will incorporate within 3 months if successful
- Your company’s Articles of Association should reflect a clear social mission
- This is not appropriate funding for a research project

Have a team with relevant academic and/or industrial experience
- At least one co-founder must be associated with a UK member university (check the list here)
- At least two team members must have a minimum of an MSc-level education in a relevant field and/or relevant industry experience
- Committed to creating a team with experience working on the ground and with local stakeholders

Address improving health in a low-resource setting through an innovation with a credible evidence base
- Innovations can be products, services, platforms or business models
- Evidence can include research data or pilot results

Must be able to demonstrate that healthy life years are added, with an expected business model where the cost to the patient or donor is less than €100 per healthy life year added

Will use the loan to run a pilot of a scalable business
- - Have a sustainable and realistic business model through donations or out-of-pocket payments
  - Have an expected business model where the cost to the patient or donor is less than €100 per healthy life year added
Not be working in sanctioned jurisdictions or a conflict zone

We are accepting applications on a rolling basis.

The template loan agreement can be found through the application link.

If you are thinking about applying and want to ask any questions, please contact:

[email protected] or [email protected]

What are ImpactU Awards?

ImpactU is a collective of universities working collaboratively to support and raise awareness of mission-driven businesses emerging from our ecosystems.

ImpactU provides alternative finance on commercial terms to scale research-led businesses affiliated to UK Universities with a social or environmental mission.

Our NEW ImpactU FdT Health Impact Loans are now open for applications, see above.

With our Pathfinder Award we invested £1m into 25 social ventures. The Pathfinder Awards are now CLOSED.

Why Apply for ImpactU Awards?

Founders of social ventures often struggle to secure their first investment because of a misconception that these businesses will not be profitable or will not return capital to investors.
There are over 100,000 social enterprises in the UK, generating £60bn for the UK economy and creating 2 million jobs to date. And this is only a subset of the social venture ecosystem!
Social Enterprise UK’s latest report shows that 65% of social enterprises anticipate turnover growth this year and 70% made a profit or broke even in the last year.
ImpactU provides investment of up to £60k to pre-investment ventures to enable proof-of-concept and help them secure further funding.
ImpactU provides capital on commercial terms to demonstrate that these types of investments are commercially viable.

ImpactU Pathfinder Awards - NOW CLOSED

With our Pathfinder Awards we completed 25 investments.

Governance Panel

Colin Poma-Young, Commercialisation Manager at The University of York

Charlotte Rowan, Senior Research Innovation Manager, LSE Innovation

Richard Hazenberg, Professor of Social Innovation at University of Northampton

Emma Salgård Cunha, Associate Commercialisation Director at Cambridge Enterprise

Philippa Christoforou, Social Ventures Lead, Oxford University Innovation

Further Information on ImpactU Awards:

1. How can a university become a member of ImpactU? Universities can sign up via this Microsoft form. No formal contract is required, only a key contact point and a desire to support any applicants of the Pathfinder Awards.

2. Who is responsible for the governance of ImpactU? The University of Oxford is the lead on the Research England bid and responsible for overall administration of the programme. It has delegated authority for the day-to-day operations to Oxford University Innovation.

3. How are decisions made regarding Pathfinder Awards? The shortlist is decided by the governance team. Investment recommendations are made by the award panel, which consists of representatives from partner universities, angel investors, and impact investors. Oxford University Innovation (OUI) makes the final investment decision, based on award recommendations, on behalf of the University of Oxford.

4. Who will own the IP generated from ImpactU funding? ImpactU funding does not change the current or future IP position of the organisation.