The Heptagon Fund

The Heptagon consortium, which comprises eight partner institutions, was created to encourage commercialisation of technology in the field of life sciences and healthcare. Heptagon provides proof of concept awards for projects up to £75,000 to support the translation of novel and inventive ideas from fundamental research to commercial demonstration.

Key project end-points are likely to include proof of principle data packages, animal studies or prototypes, which can add sufficient value to projects to attract licensing deals or investment for a spin-out company.

The Heptagon Fund allocates two types of award:

• Mini-award not exceeding £25,000
• Full award not exceeding £75,000

All Heptagon funding must be matched, either in cash or in kind.

Matched funding may come from external sources or from contribution of overhead costs.

Since Heptagon was launched in August 2004, over £2.6 million has been committed through HEIF2 and the London Development Agency (LDA) to proof of concept projects run by the partners. Heptagon is currently supported by a £1.75 million grant from the LDA: the Mayor’s agency for business and jobs.