Deadline: May 6, 2025
Applications are open for the Royal Academy of Engineering Regional Talent Engines 2025. The Regional Talent Engines is a six-month pre-accelerator programme for early-stage founders in Northern England, Northern Ireland and Wales to transform great ideas into new engineering startups. The programme includes training held in central locations in Belfast, Swansea, Leeds, Liverpool and Newcastle.
The programme is designed to provide you with the practical support you need to help refine your innovation and bring your vision to life. By the end of the programme, you will be ready to seek further support for your new startup or pitch for your first investment to bring your innovation to market.
Benefits
A place on the programme includes:
- an equity-free grant of £20,000 towards living costs
- training workshops, roundtables and speaker events in a location close to you: Belfast, Swansea, Leeds, Liverpool and Newcastle
- one-to-one business coaching and mentoring
- free, lifetime access to their co-working spaces across the UK
Eligibility
Applicant
- You must be resident in the region that you are applying to take part in the programme, or based in a nearby area, and able to attend training sessions in one of the stated locations within a reasonable travel distance. The organisers cannot accept applicants from the Midlands, the South of England or Scotland for this programme.
- You must have technical understanding in the area of your innovation.
- You must have the right to live and work in the UK and be based in the UK full-time.
- You should normally be an experienced engineer or tech professional (experienced engineer is defined as mid-late career or someone with at least 5 years’ experience working in an engineering or technology environment).
- You must be able to commit time to taking part in the programme full-time from October 2025.
- You must be at least 18 to apply.
- You cannot be in full-time study or employment if accepted onto the programme.
- Previous experience of commercialisation or enterprise is not required.
Innovation
- You must have an innovative engineering or technology-based solution to an identified problem, or market need, that you have been involved in the development of
- Your innovation should be beyond invention stage (Technology Readiness Level 2 or above) with a practical application identified, the concept formulated and the desire to develop a business proposition. If you already have a Minimum Viable Product then you are likely too advanced for this programme
- Your startup should have the potential to be self-sustaining and scalable
- If you have already registered a new business, the innovation should not currently be available to the market other than as a prototype with limited sales
- You must be committed to establishing your new startup in the region where you are applying to take part in the programme or your nearby area
- You should not normally have raised substantial amounts of funding for your innovation, as you will be too advanced for this programme
- They cannot accept applications from individuals wishing to start a consultancy business
- They cannot accept ideas for mobile apps, websites or pure software-based creations unless they are underpinned by an innovative technology, such as AI or machine learning, which you are directly contributing to developing.
Application
- One person per application
- Only one application can be submitted by each individual
- Only individuals can apply to the programme
- Applicants can only re-apply once with the same innovation
For more information, visit Regional Talent Engines.
