By Rob Ireson, Head of Innovation
For manufacturers, grant funding often sits in the uncomfortable middle ground between opportunity and distraction. Viewed as a valuable source of financial support to innovate and try new things, development teams are busy focussing on meeting production targets and delivering commercial outcomes. The thought of completing long winded applications, attending project meetings and then managing strict reporting obligations can be a burden too far. But in an increasingly competitive and sustainability-driven landscape the question is moving towards whether organisations can afford not to engage with collaborative research and innovation programmes.
For the glass industry where decarbonisation, efficiency, digitalisation, alternative fuels, and circular economy solutions are becoming strategic priorities, grant funding provides a unique opportunity to accelerate innovation while reducing technical and financial risk. When managed effectively and supported by experienced partners, grant-funded projects can unlock capabilities and technologies. They also allow access to partners and relationships that would otherwise be difficult to access.
What is grant funding?
Grant funding is provided by governments, research councils, innovation agencies, and other funding bodies to encourage research, development, and deployment of new technologies. Typical examples include programmes delivered through Innovate UK, Horizon Europe, the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ), and similar national and international innovation schemes.
Unlike commercial investment, grant funding is generally non-dilutive, meaning organisations don’t normally give away ownership of their business in return for support. Instead, funding bodies provide financial assistance to help organisations explore solutions that deliver broader economic, environmental, societal, or industrial benefits.
Many funding programmes are specifically designed to encourage collaboration between industry, academia, research organisations, and technology providers. This allows participants to tackle complex challenges that are too large, expensive, or technically uncertain for a single organisation to address independently.
Why fund research through collaborative projects?
Many industrial challenges require fundamental, long-term research and cross disciplinary expertise that can be hard to justify in normal operational budgets. Grant funding enables organisations to work in partnership with Research Technology Centres (RTCs) like Glass Futures (GF) that possess great technical knowledge of their products and processes. It also allows cross-sector partnership, tapping into universities, technology providers and research technology organisations (RTOs) directly or through organisations like GF.
For example, investigating hydrogen combustion, advanced electrification technologies, novel raw materials, carbon capture systems, AI-driven process control, or circular economy innovations may require years of research before a clear commercial business case emerges.
Collaborative projects create an environment where fundamental scientific research can be connected directly to industrial challenges. The partnership works both ways. Academic partners gain access to real-world problems and operational data, while industrial partners gain access to world-leading expertise, advanced modelling techniques, and emerging technologies.
The result is faster innovation with robust evidence increasing the development of solutions that can ultimately be deployed at industrial scale.
What are the advantages of taking part in collaborative funding bids?
One of the greatest benefits is most grant-funded projects run through a consortium combining complementary skills, experience, facilities and knowledge. Collaborative projects bring many other benefits:
- Access to expertise at no additional cost. Funded programmes bringing together leading academics, RTCs, industry and innovators provide access to skills and knowledge that would otherwise need to be procured commercially. A successful funding application is often determined by the quality of the consortium as much as the quality of the idea. At GF we use our extensive ecosystem to bring the most suitable experts on board. These networks provide access to the expertise required to build strong, credible, and delivery-focused project teams. Whether its process engineering, combustion systems, electrification or digital technologies we have the breadth of capabilities in-house or within out network that enables projects to address complex challenges using integrated, systems-level approaches rather then isolated technical solutions. Partners also gain free exposure to specialists in areas such as materials science, lifecycle assessment and industrial decarbonisation without needing to build those capabilities internally.
- Subsidised access to research facilities and infrastructure. Many collaborative projects provide access to specialist testing facilities, pilot equipment, laboratories, and demonstration assets at heavily subsidised rates, often at no cost to the industrial partners. At GF, as a not-for-profit, we can claim back 100% of all project costs which effectively gives partners access to world-leading pilot equipment at no additional cost. Being able to conduct trials separately to commercial equipment, and evaluating concepts under controlled conditions, significantly reduces the risks and costs associated with scaling up new technologies.
- Access to new knowledge and insights. Collaborative projects encourage the exchange of ideas. Teams chat about operational experience as well as project findings. Many of our most successful innovations came not from a predefined project objective but from conversations and relationships developed on research programmes.
- Opportunities to develop intellectual property (IP). Well-structured projects can generate valuable IP including new processes, products, algorithms, software, equipment designs, and operational methodologies. They often provide the time and resources required to mature ideas to sufficiently identify commercially valuable innovations. Partners can then further pursue commercialisation opportunities based on project outcomes. Costs associated with developing and filing patent applications (which can cost in excess of £10k) can often be subsidised via the grant.
- Early access to emerging technologies. Consortium partners frequently gain early visibility of technologies before they reach commercial maturity. This can provide a significant strategic advantage by allowing participants to shape development pathways, influence technical specifications, and assess deployment opportunities ahead of competitors. For glass manufacturers, pursuing decarbonisation and sustainability objectives, early access to innovative technologies can support long-term competitiveness and regulatory readiness. Through operating a pilot-scale multi-fuel furnace our team has evaluated alternative fuels, electrification technologies, digital control systems, advanced sensors, and next-generation manufacturing approaches. At GF we’re constantly scanning the technology horizon for the latest developments in sustainability and process efficiency and can help sign post our members and partners to new technology opportunities that might be eligible for grant funding.
- Opportunities for future projects. Successful grant funded projects often act as the starting point rather than the end of an innovation journey. Developing a much deeper understanding not only helps shape future sustainability decision making but frequently leads to follow-on projects, commercial deployment activities, supply-chain partnerships, and long-term research programmes. Participants become part of a wider innovation ecosystem that continues to generate opportunities well beyond the initial project.
Understanding the risks
Despite the many advantages, grant funding is not without its challenges. Organisations should also consider the potential risks before engaging:
- The administrative burden. There’s no denying that funding applications can require significant effort. Consortium development, technical planning, budgeting, governance arrangements, and application writing all require time and commitment. Once projects are underway, reporting requirements, financial tracking, and project management activities can create additional pressures. However, these burdens can be substantially reduced through collaboration with organisations that routinely manage funded programmes. We regularly support consortium development, proposal preparation, project coordination, reporting, stakeholder engagement, and technical delivery, allowing industrial partners to focus on their core contribution rather than administration.
- IP concerns. Concerns about IP and confidential information are understandable, particularly when multiple partners operate in similar markets. Yet, well managed projects include well-defined agreements governing IP ownership, exploitation rights, confidentiality, publication controls, and data sharing. We have extensive experience managing collaborative R&D projects involving competing manufacturers, technology developers, universities, and government stakeholders. Established governance processes, confidentiality arrangements, and project agreements help ensure that proprietary information remains protected while enabling effective collaboration.
- Success rates. Grant funding applications can take a lot of time and energy. They can be notoriously competitive, with low success rates for organisations not experienced at writing bids. Using experienced teams can not only take a lot of the administrative burden but also increase the chance of success. At GF we have secured over £100 million in grants over the last seven years.
Why work with Glass Futures?
GF was established by industry to accelerate innovation and sustainability across the glass sector and wider foundation industries. Aside from the many benefits a RTC like us is able to bring, perhaps the most important benefit is being able to offer organisations end-to-end funding support. Reducing the burden on industrial partners and improving the likelihood of project success. Our support includes:
- Identifying relevant funding opportunities
- Developing project concepts
- Building consortium partnerships
- Writing competitive funding applications
- Managing project delivery
- Coordinating reporting and governance
- Delivering trials, demonstrations, and technical activities
- Supporting dissemination and exploitation activities
Could you be a future partner?
At GF we’re actively seeking organisations interested in exploring grant-funded innovation opportunities focused on improving the sustainability, efficiency, productivity, and decarbonisation of glass and foundation industry manufacturing.
Whether the focus is alternative fuels, electrification, waste heat recovery, AI and digitalisation, resource efficiency, circular economy solutions, carbon capture, advanced materials, or other emerging technologies we’re keen to collaborate. We’re also interested in joining existing funding consortia that require access to pilot-scale facilities and industrial demonstration environments.
James Rynn, CEO and Co-Founder of Anomalyse, said:“Working with Glass Futures has been instrumental in accelerating the development of our technology. Their industry-relevant pilot furnace and live manufacturing environment provided an invaluable test bed for validating and refining our solutions under real-world operating conditions. The team’s deep technical expertise and engineering support helped us overcome challenges quickly and ensure our approach remained aligned with industry needs. In addition, Glass Futures played a key role in shaping a strong UKRI funding application, providing guidance throughout the bid development process and helping us build a compelling case for innovation and impact. Their collaborative approach has significantly strengthened both the project and its commercial potential.”
Grant funding as a powerful mechanism for accelerating innovation
Grant funding shouldn’t be seen as a distraction from business objectives. When approached strategically, it is a powerful mechanism for accelerating innovation, reducing risk, building partnerships, and developing the technologies needed to meet future sustainability challenges. Organisations that engage early, build strong partnerships, and access the right expertise will be best positioned to shape the future of the sector and achieve the transition towards lower-carbon manufacturing.
Glass Futures exists to help make that happen. By combining technical expertise, pilot-scale infrastructure, industrial networks, and extensive experience delivering collaborative R&D programmes, we offer organisations a practical, low-risk route to developing and demonstrating the next generation of sustainable glass manufacturing technologies.