SEK 10 million granted for verifying innovative ideas at Uppsala University

Since 2012, funding from Vinnova’s programme Verification for Growth (VFT) has given researchers and staff at Uppsala University a real opportunity to evaluate the potential of their ideas at an early stage. The funds are administered by UU Innovation, which has now received a further SEK 10 million from the programme for the coming two years.

“VFT funding is used to reduce risk and strengthen the potential of innovation projects that are in an early, often research-adjacent phase. It enables crucial activities that cannot be financed through research grants,” says Ingrid Ajaxon, Business Advisor and Manager of the VFT programme at UU Innovation.

Such activities include market analyses to understand customer and user needs, protection of intellectual assets, prototype development, and mapping the regulatory frameworks that may influence future progress.

Funding that makes an impact

“The purpose of VFT is to bring projects closer to commercialisation –making them ready for investment or for collaboration with external partners – and we can clearly see the positive impact the funding has on the development of ideas,” notes Ingrid Ajaxon.

She highlights that 40 percent of the nearly 300 innovation projects funded through VFT between 2012 and 2024 have led to company formation and collectively raised almost SEK 1.9 billion in private investment and public funding.

For Marika Nestor, Professor of Biomedical Radiation Sciences, VFT funding proved decisive. Her company, Akiram Therapeutics, is now developing promising cancer treatments.

“VFT funding is used to reduce risk and strengthen the potential of innovation projects that are in an early, often research-adjacent phase. It enables crucial activities that cannot be financed through research grants,” says Ingrid Ajaxon, Business Advisor and Manager of the VFT programme at UU Innovation.

Such activities include market analyses to understand customer and user needs, protection of intellectual assets, prototype development, and mapping the regulatory frameworks that may influence future progress.

Funding that makes an impact

“The purpose of VFT is to bring projects closer to commercialisation –making them ready for investment or for collaboration with external partners – and we can clearly see the positive impact the funding has on the development of ideas,” notes Ingrid Ajaxon.

She highlights that 40 percent of the nearly 300 innovation projects funded through VFT between 2012 and 2024 have led to company formation and collectively raised almost SEK 1.9 billion in private investment and public funding.

For Marika Nestor, Professor of Biomedical Radiation Sciences, VFT funding proved decisive. Her company, Akiram Therapeutics, is now developing promising cancer treatments.

“VFT funding was absolutely vital for taking our project from an idea to a newly established company with an initial multi-million-krona investment –from patenting the product and developing a business plan and clinical strategy to establishing a solid foundation for company formation and negotiations with venture capital firms,” says Marika Nestor.

A focus on knowledge-intensive ideas

A new feature of this funding round is that almost the entire allocation is directed towards knowledge-intensive ideas – defined by Vinnova as “difficult-to-acquire knowledge that provides unique qualities and long-term competitive advantage”.

“These projects are based on unique knowledge assets and hold strong potential to address major societal challenges. At the same time, they are far from the market and associated with significant development risk. This is why Vinnova is directing most of the funding to this category,” explains Ingrid Ajaxon.

Supporting knowledge-intensive innovation is already a core part of UU Innovation’s work. Over the past five years, 60 percent of the total inflow of ideas have been classified as knowledge-intensive, and nearly 80 percent of VFT-funded projects during the same period fall into this category.

A broad mix of ideas still welcome

At the same time, Ingrid Ajaxon stresses that UU Innovation remains open to all types of ideas.

“The new VFT allocation does not change the fundamentals of our support. We are here for anyone who wants help identifying, evaluating and developing their ideas for use beyond the purely academic context,” she says, adding:

“If I can offer one piece of advice, it is to take the opportunity to test your ideas with our support. As a researcher at the university, you own your results and decide what happens to them – so why not begin by exploring what’s possible?”

Sara Gredemark