Enterprise Fellowship Scheme returns

The Royal Society of Edinburgh has announced the relaunch of its successful Enterprise Fellowship programme, which will support the next generation of entrepreneurial academics to turn their ideas into practical applications that improve the lives of ordinary Scots.

The renewed Fellowship is aimed at postdoctoral researchers based at a UK higher education institution looking to translate their research into a commercial venture.

Led by RSE Fellows Professor Simon Best, world-renowned cyclist Mark Beaumont, and other Fellows of the RSE, the scheme has returned following extensive work with previous Enterprise Fellows and the RSE’s networks in the research and business communities.

Mark Beaumont FRSE said: “The RSE Enterprise Fellowship Scheme has a brilliant track record of transforming research into real world application and turning ambition into business success.

“We are excited to relaunch it in 2026, backing the next generation of entrepreneurs and bringing to life the RSE’s motto of ‘knowledge made useful’ through funding, peer group learning and business-world experience.”

The scheme originally ran between 1997 and 2021, supporting 272 Fellows from 36 UK universities, and created 166 new businesses. It was paused during the COVID-19 pandemic to be reviewed to ensure it properly met the changing needs of the business sector.

Enterprise Fellows receive financial support for their idea, one year’s salary, as well as training, networking and mentorship from a wide range of Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, and previous Enterprise Fellowship awardees.

Enterprise Fellowships are designed to enable individuals to commercialise the output of their academic research for the public good, while receiving business training and mentoring to bolster their chances of success.

The Fellowships, administered by the Royal Society of Edinburgh, include a development fund of up to £10,000 to develop their businesses. The business start-ups could be in a wide range of areas, including aerospace and defence, life sciences, manufacturing, chemical sciences, creative industries and tourism.

The renewed version of the Fellowships includes a potential extra £10, of funding specifically geared towards international expansion. This is intended to help Fellows broaden their commercial perspective, build lasting international relationships, learn from international best practice and strengthen links between Scotland’s research and innovation community and key innovation centres across the world. This is a new addition to the scheme that was not part of the previous iteration.

Professor Simon Best FRSE, Chair of the Enterprise Fellowship , added: “I am very excited by the relaunch of the RSE’s Enterprise Fellowships.

“We are ready to empower a new generation of serial entrepreneurs with realistic ambitions for global, social, and commercial impact. What sets this scheme apart is the depth of knowledge and the mentoring power, experience and networks of our Fellows – in Scotland, the UK and around the world.”

Professor Caroline Barelle was part of the 2015 Enterprise Fellowship cohort. She had spent time in academia, gaining her PhD in biochemistry at the University of Aberdeen and then holding a post-doctoral position there, before working with major pharmaceutical company Wyeth, and latterly with Pfizer.

A bridge from research to business

Around that time she, along with her, team was made redundant by Pfizer, when they had been developing a library of antibody-like molecules that she believed could be put to use in combatting cancer and auto-immune conditions in humans.

Professor Barelle said: “The timing of my Enterprise Fellowship was absolutely perfect. I was just on the cusp of thinking I could start a biotech company, I knew the science because I had been a scientist for a long time – I knew hee-haw about business.

“I worked in science, I was a team leader at Wyeth and at Pfizer, these big pharmaceutical corporations, and also had experience in a small biotech company as well, but I was in the belly of the science.

“Never ever had I ever considered starting my own company and never ever would I have considered starting a biotech company – but I knew what the science could do and I was excited about it and myself and the team knew that the technology had legs and that it could do something for patients.

Perfect timing – and the gift of time

“The timing of the Enterprise Fellowship was absolutely critical for me. It was a year’s worth of support, and the form it took was regular training with the rest of the Enterprise Fellows, business fundamentals, landscape scoping, market analysis, how to pitch.

“The other thing it gave me is it gave me time. Time is the most precious thing that anyone can give you. It gave me time to formulate the plan, to think through what we were going to do with the business.”

The time was invaluable to Caroline and what would become Elasmogen, as the drug platform could theoretically be turned to many different uses in cancer treatment or auto-immune conditions. Eventually Caroline and her team have settled on a drug-conjugate system for anti-inflammatory uses in patients with hidradenitis suppurativa (HS). HS is a chronic auto-immune condition chronic inflammatory skin condition characterised by painful lesions, abscesses and scarring, affecting various parts of the body. Beyond physical discomfort, HS has profound mental impact on people affected by it.

On the benefits of the Fellowship, Caroline added: “One: becoming business savvy; Two: time; and three is something that I maintain today is the power of the network which is great.”

The importance of building relationships

Caroline was an RSE Enterprise Fellow in 2015, and maintains relationships with the other 2015 Fellows, as well as the previous Fellows who had already been through the process as the RSE keeps those networks alive through events and other means.

“Really what the Enterprise Fellowship gave me what that sense of: you can do it, Caroline, what’s the worst that can happen?

“And you’re mixing with people who are all giving it a go as well, which is really lovely, and then you maintain those relationships. Sometimes that might just be a digital coffee and put the world to rights, because it can be quite a lonely experience being a CEO of a small company.

Elasmogen is seeking new investors for their next stage of getting their drug through to the clinic.

After studying Business and Entrepreneurship at the University of Stirling, Callum Murray launched his first business, a painting and decorating contractor with a £1,000 startup support grant from the Prince’s Trust.

From fast growth to court cases 

Building a reputation for reliability and service, his company grew quickly from a standing start to a team of ten via client referral and ease of doing business with same day online quotes and mobile card payments.

Having progressed into larger scale clients across hotels, restaurants and construction contracts when the 2008 financial crash hit, the business collapsed whilst pursuing unpaid debts from large scale contractors. Callum navigated the civil court process whilst gaining judgment in his favour, the financial impact effectively ended the business entirely.

“It’s a complex, time consuming and paper-based process to access legal help, it should be fast and easy regardless of who you are and what resources you have to make better decisions and navigate regulated services online”

Based on his experience, Callum set out with a group of co-founders to solve the problem and enable trusted routes to access help online.

Uncovering the upstream opportunity

In 2016, Callum secured an RSE Enterprise Fellowship, providing him the initial funding, network and support structure to develop further prototypes and engage with early prospective clients.

With a second-hand laptop and some introductions, the early feedback revealed a deeper issue: the real friction wasn’t triaging legal cases or engaging with experts online, but navigating the paper driven compliance challenges to first engage with regulated professions, products and services.

“The feedback we got was that the cost, risk and complexity of doing business online meant that the real opportunity was to solve the onboarding compliance bottleneck”.

Based on previous experience, he took the client feedback directly on board and shifted focus to build what the market actually wanted and needed to unlock the longer-term objective for Amiqus.

That pivot created the foundation of Amiqus.

Building for Scale

Callum credits the validation, credibility and initial network as an RSE Enterprise Fellow as a foundational advantage prior to engaging with external investors at the crucial early stages of Amiqus whilst pre product and pre revenue.

“The cohort learning based approach of the fellowship and the timing of support on our journey has played a huge part in our long-term success. It was a great early step whilst also proving that the intent and belief we had in Amiqus was also backed by the RSE.”

Today, the business is delivering against a 10x growth plan and counts government, tier one banks and global scale organisations as clients with a team of 55 across the UK and annual revenues approaching £10 million.

From early validation and support as an RSE Fellow, Callum Murray has long term ambition and impact in mind for Amiqus whilst sharing time and support to other entrepreneurs as an alumni of the RSE fellowship programme.

Applications for the Enterprise Fellowship scheme open at 12pm on 17^th August. The call closes on 12^th October. Applications are made via the RSE’s website.